Adams County prepares to open its first shelter for unhoused youth

THORNTON, Colo. — After an 18-month search and unanimous approval from the Thornton City Council, Adams County will have its first shelter serving unhoused youth.

The 10-bed shelter will open later this year in what was previously a community mental health center about 10 miles north of Downtown Denver. 

Brian Mason is the district attorney for the 17th Judicial District, which includes Adams County. He said the shelter is necessary because of a growing mental health crisis resulting in more youth living on the streets. The shelter will serve kids ages 12 to 18.

“We desperately needed a place where young people who needed a place or are homeless can go,” Mason said. “If a young person is homeless and they're out on the streets, they’re more likely to hurt someone else or be hurt themselves.”

Mason said young people who are kicked out of their homes often end up in the criminal justice system, sometimes as suspects and often as victims. For many youth in the system, Mason said early intervention when a child first ends up on the streets is effective prevention. 

“When somebody is on the street because they have nowhere else to go, that’s when danger happens, either for the youth or for someone around them,” Mason said.  “When displacement happens, that often happens before that young person commits a crime or has been victimized, and that’s when we have to act.”

Because Colorado law only permits youth to stay up to 21 days in a shelter, adult caseworkers will work to reunite kids with stable homes as soon as possible. While kids are in the shelter, they will have access to in-person and online education, mental health resources and life skills courses.

“It will be whatever the kids need at the time and we’ll have to determine that kid by kid,” said Rick Ducet, CEO of the Community Reach Center, a mental health nonprofit that will oversee the shelter. “Sometimes the reunification with parents happens quickly and sometimes it happens overtime.”

Ducet said the district attorney, police department and nonprofit are still determining how to move forward when a kid at the shelter reaches the 21-day time limit. Finding resources for at-risk youth is difficult, Ducet added.

“When kids come to us and they’re runaways or their victims of trafficking, it is very, very difficult to find somewhere to take these kids,” said Terrence Gordon, Thornton Police Department’s chief. “We put the safety net for kids at the jail door instead of places like this, and we’re missing a lot of opportunities along the way.”

Gordon said police officers are often the first contact with struggling kids. Most resources only operate during standard business hours, so 911 is frequently called for those who aren’t committing crimes but are in crisis.

Thornton Police Chief Terrence Gordon explains the need for a youth homeless shelter in Adams County. (Peter Vo/Rocky Mountain PBS) 

“It’s extremely important, because although our job as law enforcement is to police, the vast majority of people we come into contact with, we don’t engage in law enforcement to help those people,” Gordon said. “Kids who would come to this shelter aren’t necessarily doing anything wrong, they just came to the notice of a responsible adult who says ‘I can’t walk away from these kids.’”

Though the first iteration of the shelter will only host 10 kids at once, Gordon anticipates needing more space and more resources for unhoused children.

“I really think a year from now, we will be talking about expanding,” Gordon said. “I wish we didn't have that need, but the trajectory is not going down.”

Alison Berg is a reporter at Rocky Mountain PBS and can be reached at alisonberg@rmpbs.org.

Peter Vo is a multimedia journalist at Rocky Mountain PBS. You can reach him at petervo@rmpbs.org.