Right now in Denver, a single mother and her four children are in need of emergency shelter after having done the difficult work of finally escaping domestic violence despite being financially reliant on the father. This should be the start of a story of resilience and community support that eventually leads to them finding safety, stability, and self-sufficiency. Instead, it’s been over three weeks, and they are still living day-to-day in fear, relying on a single family shelter waitlist that’s 400 families and three months long…
Isabella’s Story
On August 12th, Isabella (name changed for anonymity) found herself on the streets with four beautiful children following a brutal domestic violence attack. On Thursday, August 21st, she connected with HAND and sent pictures of her bleeding head, desperate to prove the severity of her predicament, asking for help after having been wandering the streets. HAND filled out a Street Referral form at 10am for the City of Denver to have an outreach worker contact her and provide emergency support. Someone did same-day only to say that they would meet with her in-person on Monday – four nights later. In the meantime a friend offered to take all five of them in temporarily, risking violating their own lease.
She had known that the only current pathway to entering a family shelter is through the Salvation Army Connection Center phoneline, and had been calling even before connecting with HAND. When the outreach worker met with her on Monday, they paid for a hotel room (without any services or case management support) for only one week, saying that in the meantime Isabella needed to be calling the Connection Center every day for a chance to be received by a family shelter.
“Over the three weeks I’ve spent in the streets, I’ve called the Connection Center many times, more than 20 times, and many times it went to voicemail,” Isabella told HAND. “On Friday they finally answered and told me that the waitlist has more than 400 families and they have nothing available for 3 months. That is too long.” She continued, “My fear is that this week will pass, and what will happen with myself and the children?”
Tuesday, the outreach worker told her that they would pay for 3 more nights in a hotel, but Isabella must keep calling every day in the hopes that somehow her family will head to the top of the 400-strong waitlist… She called again this morning, only to leave another voicemail after no one answered the phone. She is still in fear of what will happen to herself and her kids after tomorrow.
Greater Context
Isabella’s story is not the only one of its kind. Just this morning, another mother with two children reached out to HAND regarding the need for emergency shelter after not being able to afford rent, along with numerous families nearly weekly, and the only way to support at this time through the City is to provide them with the Salvation Army Connection Center line (303-295-3366) and fill out a Street Referral Form for an outreach worker to be in touch… Only for that outreach worker to tell the family to keep calling the phone line and leaving messages…
This is not a solution. Colorado has one of the lowest rates of affordable homes per low income renter, at 27 homes per 100 low-income renter households as of last year. The number of families with children experiencing houselessness has more than doubled over the last year – an increase of over 150%.
392 families got emergency cold weather rooms during the largest night of access on January 30th 2025. There were an average of 197 families in emergency cold weather rooms this winter. This means more than 392 families were in need of shelter in Denver.
When the Salvation Army Connection Center had a wait list of 205 as of April 2nd, 2024, that was an increase of 73% over the last 12 months. With the Salvation Army saying their waitlist is now at 400 families in need, doubling in just half a year… Clearly, we need significantly more emergency shelter rooms for families in Denver – somewhere between 200 and 400, to start.
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