People living at a homeless encampment on 8th and Harrison Streets in Berkeley are wondering what’s next after city officials called off a planned sweep.
The city posted notices last week saying they would be cleaning up the encampment on Tuesday. Monday, it was delayed. Still, Thomas Parnett was trying to figure out what’s next.
“I have no idea,” Parnett said.
Everything he owns is at the encampment. He was trying to clean and pack it up, just in case the sweeps do happen. He fears losing everything.
“Some of us have some items we’d like to keep,” Parnett explained. “We can’t transport them.”
A sign posted on the pole right near his belongings says, “lodging prohibited, violators subject to arrest,” but attorney for the Berkeley Homeless Union Anthony Prince says there’s no ordinance against living in this specific area.
“There is no city-wide camping ban,” Prince explained. “But nevertheless, the city has found numerous excuses, one after another, to break up encampments.”
Prince said the 8th and Harrison encampment is one of the longest-standing camps in Berkeley, and there used to be a dumpster, but the city removed it last June.
In January, city and county health officials confirmed positive tests for leptospirosis in dogs and rats within the encampment. The city says they posted signage about the potentially deadly disease, removed debris, and handed out hygiene kits to residents.
Prince said if they sweep the camp, more must be done first.
“The fact of the matter is that the court ordered the city to identify at least three locations where people can go safely to camp, and they refused to identify those locations,” Prince stated. “So, we’re fighting in the street.”
He said they’ll go back to court to protect the homeless union members if they have to.
Amber Whitson is a homeless advocate and lives on the streets herself. She used to live at 8th and Harrison, but moved to a more stable location.
“This is the kind of trauma people end up with after being on the streets long enough,” said Whitson. “This whole, ‘We’re going to sweep you tomorrow’, ‘Oh, we’re not going to sweep you this week’. ‘Who knows when we’re going to sweep you again?’”
Parnett is dealing with those feelings right now.
“There’s less and less hope as this goes on,” Parnett explained. “You get pushed here and then pushed there and the hope part kind of goes.”
DENVER — Around 130 people were staying at the Comfort Inn hotel that was turned into a homeless shelter when Denver Mayor Mike Johnston announced last September that the facility would close.
“Our plan is to transition all those folks out of those shelters into permanent housing. None of those folks will return to the street. They’ll all go into permanent housing,” Johnston said at the time, while unveiling his proposed 2026 budget.
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With one month to go until that shelter closes, Denver7 followed up to see how the rehousing efforts are going.
“We have 134 units here,” said St. Francis Center CEO Nancy Burke. “We’ve been full most of that time.”
The St. Francis Center operates the shelter for the City of Denver. They note that over the last two years, they have helped 117 people find permanent housing after they stayed at the shelter.
The shelter is set to close at the end of March and has been winding down in preparation.
The Follow Up: Inside Denver’s shelter shutdown and the transition plan
“We did have to stop accepting residents, except for when it’s cold,” Burke said.
Currently, she said there are 72 residents at the shelter.
“There’s about 70 of those people who are able to go out into community housing. So, it’s sort of a combined effort of looking for new placements for people if they’re not quite ready for that next step,” Burke said.
Raenell Ficenec lived at the shelter for two years before finding an apartment back in May. She still visits her friends at the Comfort Inn and has even been chosen to lead art classes there.
“It feels good,” Ficenec said. “Just keep on going.”
It’s because of cases like hers that the city said they no longer need a big hotel to be used as a shelter.
“Are you concerned at all that once the shelter’s closed, that people will just end up back on the streets and those encampments will pop back up?” Denver7’s Danielle Kreutter asked Jon Ewing, press secretary for the Denver Mayor’s Office.
“No, we’ll have other areas for people to go if we absolutely need them,” Ewing said. “We don’t see that huge need for thousands of beds. What we do see is a need for a different approach.”
That approach includes investing in more affordable housing instead of shelters.
Another part of the potential solution is performance based contracts.
“The focus for this year is to move people into shelters and out of shelters and into permanent housing on a quicker timeline,” said Ewing, “We’ve added performance based contracts, where all of our providers now get paid more for delivering that outcome. They are actually incentivized to ensure that they’re meeting with their caseworker every week, that they’re getting folks into housing, and that they’re staying in that housing. This is a real permanent solution.”
The Follow Up
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After the sun set on the last Monday in January, Lakewood housing manager Chris Conner and Westwoods Community Church Pastor Rick Schmitz met at the dilapidated White Swan Motel, a family homeless shelter off West Colfax Avenue.
They were on a mission: Count the people sleeping outside in Lakewood.
It was part of a sweeping federal effort known as the Point in Time Count. Each year, nationwide, counties attempt to quantify how many people are living outside and in shelters.
With questionnaires loaded on their phones and a map of parks and public strips where people often slept, the duo climbed into Conner’s gargantuan black truck, stuffed with winter supplies, soft drinks and snacks.
The White Swan motel on West Colfax Avenue in Lakewood. Feb. 3, 2026.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
Conner warned Schmitz their shift, from 6 to 9 p.m., precedes when many people set up their camps. In the extreme cold, some would be sleeping in emergency shelters instead. They knew they would miss some people.
Still, stomping through the snow, they found men pushing shopping carts toward camping spots, others already hunkered down and some fighting the wind to put up their tents.
They counted the people and camps and convinced some to take a survey that would get at big questions: Why are you homeless? Why are you staying outside? How long have you been on the streets?
The count provides the most comprehensive one-night snapshot of homelessness in the U.S., employing thousands of people in counties across the country to count homelessness.
Yet it is imperfect at best. Denverite joined city workers in Lakewood and Denver to better understand how each community counts the people living outside and tries to interpret its findings.
The difficult work of surveying homelessness
Most everybody Schmitz and Conner would talk with were men who had been on the streets for years – in one case since the Occupy movement in 2011. All had last lived indoors in Lakewood or another suburb. Most were living outside because they did not feel comfortable or safe in the shelters.
But as they made their way through the snow, they encountered common challenges. At their first stop at Aviation Park, they approached a tent with a shopping cart out front.
“If it’s all right, I can leave you some supplies and Mountain Dew,” Conner said.
“Yeah,” a small voice answered from inside the tent.
A blanket sits on the corner of West Colfax Avenue and Harlan Street in Lakewood. Feb. 3, 2026.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
“Can we ask you a few questions too?” Conner said. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to, but it helps us kind of learn more about how to be helpful.”
No answer.
“You might have heard me yesterday. I came and was asking folks if they wanted to get inside at a shelter,” he said. “Were you able to hold down OK last night? “
“Yeah,” the man mumbled in a tone that was hard to believe.
The weather had dipped into the single digits. Tents blew over. But the man had weathered it all, and was in no mood for questions — “not tonight.”
Conner left the supplies and Mountain Dew outside the tent. Schmitz did his best guesswork to answer the questions he could.
A flawed but essential source of data
It’s inherently hard to find people who have no fixed address. Some live in hiding, camped where they won’t be found.
That’s one reason Jason Johnson used to dismiss the value of the point-in-time data, knowing that it “was a gross undercount, probably by half.”
But today he is the head of the Metro Denver Homelessness Initiative, the nonprofit that conducts the survey in Denver and manages federal housing dollars.
The quality of the count varies county by county and volunteer by volunteer, he acknowledged. Some cities like Denver deploy paid city workers, while many others rely on volunteers. Nationally, different communities count at different times of day.
Denver Park Ranger Corey Beaton drives into Sunken Gardens Park before dawn, looking for people sleeping outside as he participates in the city’s annual Point in Time Count of homelessness. Jan. 27, 2026.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
“It used to be that hordes of volunteers would go out and if they saw someone under a blanket or on a park bench, maybe steamed up windows in a car, they would count that individual and move along,” Johnson said.
But the strategy has improved nationally more recently, he said.
Now, volunteers ask questions of the people they encounter and learn about how homelessness works in various communities. The information is more useful than ever, as he sees it, adding up to a portrait of the many forms of homelessness.
The PIT also uses information collected by shelters, transitional housing, day centers and outreach workers.
“We pull a lot of information to get a richer head count and a more accurate head count than any community could ever do just by that visual count,” Johnson said.
MDHI plans to present the local numbers in April and the federal tally will likely come later.
Denver Park Ranger Corey Beaton’s phone is mounted in his cruiser to show a map where he’ll been look for people sleeping outside, part of the city’s annual Point in Time Count of homelessness. Jan. 27, 2026.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
The PIT can be politically charged.
In 2023, there were 1,423 people counted as unsheltered in Denver. In 2025, there were 785 people counted outside — a 45 percent reduction. Mayor Mike Johnston described it as a national record and proof that his All In Mile High homelessness strategy was working.
At his State of the City address, Johnston claimed “record reductions in homelessness,” based on the PIT’s count of unsheltered people, even as sheltered homelessness grew.
The PIT’s variability also raises questions about how much of the reduction in unsheltered homelessness can be attributed to the mayor or any other factor.
MDHI itself cautions not to extrapolate trends over time from PIT data.
“The PIT is only a snapshot of homelessness on a single night in January with numerous variables that could result in an undercount,” Jenn Myers, a spokesperson for MDHI, wrote Denverite.
Mayor Mike Johnston listens as housing advocate V Reeves speaks about the need for more family shelters, during a public meeting at the Central Park Recreation Center on Johnston’s evolving solutions to homelessness. Sept. 25, 2025.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
Rae Cranmer speaks during a press conference urging Denver to fund family shelters, convened by Housekeys Action Network of Denver, before Denver City Council’s public comment session on Oct. 27, 2025.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
Housekeys Action Network Denver, a homelessness advocacy group, argues that Johnston’s claim of a reduction is overblown, arguing that cold weather in 2025 artificially reduced unsheltered homelessness by pushing people inside.
“The Mayor’s office has been touting a ‘45 percent reduction in unsheltered homelessness,’ but it is clear this is false,” Housekeys Action Network Denver wrote in a statement.
The mayor’s office says they made a fair comparison, correctly pointing out that temperatures were actually lower in 2023 than in 2025, likely driving a similar or larger percentage ofpeople into cold-weather shelters. The city did not track how many people stayed in the emergency cold-weather shelters during the 2023 PIT.
The mayor’s office stands by the quality of the data, saying it followed HUD standards that dictate how people in emergency shelters are counted. Critics say the PIT numbers should include a footnote explaining that the numbers could be affected by cold temperatures.
In Denver, some signs of a change this year:
Despite doubts about the data, some of the people conducting the survey in the city of Denver said they saw fewer people outside.
Denver Park Ranger Corey Beaton set out well before sunrise for his sixth point-in-time count. In years past, he’d expect to find a lot of tents and people sleeping rough during this exercise. This morning, though, he had different expectations.
“Gone are the days of encampments that would circle an entire city block. I think those were a temporary situation while the city built the framework that is now being shown to have success, be it transitional housing or permanent housing or more shelters. So yeah, things have gotten a lot better,” he said.
Denver Park Ranger Corey Beaton cruises by Benedict Fountain Park, uptown, as he looks for people sleeping outside, part of the city’s annual Point in Time Count of homelessness. Jan. 27, 2026.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
Beaton cruised by the Eddie Maestas Community Garden, across Park Avenue from the Denver Rescue Mission, where one person was lying under a blanket. Uptown’s Benedict Fountain Park was empty, as was Skyline Park.
He counted one person each at the Quality Hill pocket park in Capitol Hill, Governor’s Park and the westside’s Sunken Gardens. There was no one to count at Sonny Lawson or La Alma/Lincoln Parks, which Denver officials temporarily closed in recent years to address concerns about safety and visible poverty.
All in all, there were far fewer people outside than Beaton had encountered in the past, and he attributed that to Denver’s efforts to bring people inside and connect them with services and housing.
“It’s pretty quiet today,” he said as he drove. But the final data won’t be available for months — and it will leave plenty of questions unanswered.
Denver Park Ranger Corey Beaton drives through a greenway near Mile High Stadium, taking note of a tent on the trail as he counts people sleeping outside for city’s annual Point in Time Count of homelessness. Jan. 27, 2026.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
Editor’s note: This article was updated to add additional comment from MDHI and context and comment from the mayor’s office on advocates’ claims that cold weather led to a lower count of unsheltered homelessness in 2025. The count in 2023 was also conducted in cold weather. Emergency shelters were open during both years’ counts.
Shirley Raines, a social media creator and nonprofit founder who dedicated her life to caring for people experiencing homelessness, has died, her organization Beauty 2 The Streetz said Wednesday. She was 58.
Raines was known as “Ms. Shirley,” to her more than 5 million TikTok followers and to the people who regularly lined up for the food, beauty treatments and hygiene supplies she brought to Los Angeles’ Skid Row and other homeless communities in California and Nevada.
Raines’ life made an “immeasurable impact,” Beauty 2 The Streetz wrote on social media.
“Through her tireless advocacy, deep compassion, and unwavering commitment, she used her powerful media platform to amplify the voices of those in need and to bring dignity, resources, and hope to some of the most underserved populations,” the organization said.
Raines’ cause of death was not released, but the organization said it would share additional information when it is available.
Raines had six children. One son died as a toddler — an experience that left her a “very broken woman,” Raines said in 2021 when she was named CNN’s Hero of the Year.
“It’s important you know that broken people are still very much useful,” she said during the CNN award ceremony.
That deep grief led her to begin helping homeless people.
“I would rather have him back than anything in the world, but I am a mother without a son, and there are a lot of people in the street that are without a mother,” she said. “And I feel like it’s a fair exchange — I’m here for them.”
Raines began working with homeless communities in 2017. On Monday, Raines posted a video shot from inside her car as she handed out lunches to a line of people standing outside her passenger window. She greeted her clients with warm enthusiasm and respect, calling them “King,” or “Queen.”
One man told her he was able to get into an apartment.
“God is good! Look at you!” Raines replied, her usual cheerfulness stepping up a notch. In a video posted two weeks earlier, she handed her shoes to a barefoot child who was waiting for a meal, protecting the girl’s feet from the chilly asphalt.
California’s homelessness crisis is especially visible in downtown Los Angeles, where hundreds of people live in makeshift shanties that line entire blocks in the notorious neighborhood known as Skid Row. Tents regularly pop up on the pavement outside City Hall. Encampments are increasingly found in suburban areas under freeway overpasses. A 2025 survey found that about 72,000 people were homeless on any given night across Los Angeles County.
Crushow Herring, the art director of the Sidewalk Project, said Raines was both sentimental and protective of the homeless community. The Sidewalk Project uses art and peer empowerment programs to help people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles.
“I’ve been getting calls all morning from people, not just who live in Skid Row but Angelenos who are shocked” by Raines’ death, Herring said. “To see the work she did, and how people couldn’t wait to see her come out? It was a great mission. What most people need is just feeling dignity about themselves, because if they look better, they feel better.”
Raines would often give people on the street a position working with her as she provided haircuts or handed out goods, Herring said.
“By the time a year or two goes by, they’re part of the organization — they have responsibility, they have something to look forward to,” he said. “She always had people around her that were motivational, and generous and polite to community members.”
Melissa Acedera, founder of Polo’s Pantry, recalled joining Raines every Saturday to distribute food when Beauty 2 The Streetz was first getting started. Raines remembered people’s birthdays and took special care to reach out to transgender and queer people who were often on the outskirts of Skid Row, she added.
“It’s hard not to think of Shirley when I’m there,” Acedera said.
In 2025, Raines was named the NAACP Image Award Winner for Outstanding Social Media Personality. Other social media creators lauded her work and shared their own grief online Wednesday.
“Ms. Shirley was truly the best of us, love incarnate,” wrote Alexis Nikole Nelson, a foraging educator and social media creator known as “blackforager.”
On a bitter cold Tuesday, Northwell Health‘s Street Medicine team and members of the Long Island Coalition for the Homeless (LICH), headquartered in Amityville, participated in a count of the homeless in the region for the “Point-In-Time Count.”
This effort is part of a nationwide tally that is administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. It is led locally by LICH, which partners with nonprofits to help stamp out homelessness through access to housing and other assistance.
On any given night, there are about 400 people who are homeless and living on the streets of Long Island, experts say.
But this year, they warn, the region may see a crisis in the face of single-digit temperatures ahead of pending federal budget cuts. The number of homeless people on Long Island could jump by as much as 50 percent or even more, said Mike Giuffrida, LICH’s associate director.
Programs, he said in a news release about homelessness on Long Island, “are starting to close in the dead of winter – that’s a death sentence for people forced onto the streets.”
Since 2018, LICH has placed 240 Long Islanders from the streets to supportive housing. Now, Giuffirda said, these Long Islanders could soon face eviction because of pending federal cuts. “This is more than a policy shift,” he said in a news release. “Politics aside, there’s a level of cruelty here.”
As many as 10,000 people a year experience homelessness, according to the news release. Rising costs and a shortage of housing all play a role. And those experiencing homelessness also face disparities such as chronic illness, mental health issues and substance abuse disorders. Suffolk County is facing a particular crisis: About 30 percent of its homeless single adults are unsheltered, compared with 5 percent in New York City, according to LICH.
The Northwell team began going into the field about two years ago, offering wellness visits for homeless Long Islanders, and when needed, writing prescriptions and referring them to specialists. The team helps patients access health insurance, which many already qualify for, including Medicaid and Medicare, according to the news release. The team also has helped 16 clients obtain housing.
“Housing is health,” Dr. Debbie Salas-Lopez, executive vice president of the Institute for Community Health and Wellness at Northwell, said in the news release.
“Our Street Medicine program is a direct manifestation of Northwell’s mission to extend care beyond hospital walls and meet our most vulnerable neighbors where they are, understanding that physical well-being is inextricably linked to stable living conditions,” she added.
“This Point-In-Time Count highlights the urgent need to address homelessness as a critical public health crisis, especially with impending federal cuts threatening to compound an already dire situation for thousands of Long Islanders.”
For more than a decade, the California State Auditor has issued warnings to lawmakers about government waste, fraud, cost overruns, and broken oversight systems across state government. Again and again, audits called for changes in state law meant to fix those problems.
In many cases, those fixes did not happen.
CBS News California Investigates recently exposed how lawmakers ignored years of warnings from the California State Auditor about hidden traffic violation fees.
That raised a broader question: What other audit warnings have lawmakers been ignoring, and at what cost?
An exclusive CBS News California analysis of state audit recommendations dating back to 2015 found lawmakers failed to enact three out of every four recommendations that required legislative action.
These are audits the Legislature asked for. Audits Californians paid for. Audits with recommendations that remain unresolved, while California continues to lose money to potential waste and fraud.
California’s Unfinished Business
CBS News California analyzed state audit recommendations dating back to 2015 and found the following.
California lawmakers failed to act on three out of every four state audit recommendations
There are more than 300 outstanding recommendations to the legislature
The outstanding recommendations impacted more than 100 different issues and agencies
Two out of three state auditsincluderecommendations on which the auditor notes that lawmakers have taken “no action” at all.
CBS News California Investigates is now building a publicly searchable “Audit Accountability Tracker” to help viewers and voters track what lawmakers have not done and what that inaction costs Californians.
The database is not yet public, but the early findings reveal a series of patterns the Auditor has documented for years: the same problems, the same risks, the same inaction.
Billions lost to fraud and broken oversight
The analysis reveals that some of California’s most costly cases of fraud or untracked spending were the subjects of numerous prior audits. According to the auditor, state losses may have been mitigated if lawmakers had acted on earlier recommendations.
“There would still be issues, but not as serious as we are now,” former California State Auditor Elaine Howle told CBS News California in 2021 while discussing two audits related to pandemic unemployment fraud.
Prior audits warned lawmakers that the state’s Employment Development Department (EDD) left Californians vulnerable to fraud, but by the time lawmakers acted, it was too late.
It’s estimated that California lost more than $20 billion to pandemic unemployment fraud when EDD issued billions in fraudulent payments to criminals while out-of-work Californians struggled to get an EDD rep on the phone, let alone get paid.
Homelessness spending offers another example of state audit warnings that lawmakers ignored. The Auditor repeatedly warned lawmakers that California lacks a statewide plan, outcome tracking and accountability for homelessness program spending.
Outstanding audit recommendations also involve risks to public safety and public health that may have been mitigated if lawmakers acted sooner.
For instance, the auditor found that water districts were failing to tell people that their drinking water was unsafe. It’s an issue CBS News California has been covering for years.
Lawmakers even failed to act on polices that, according to the auditor, put child abuse victims at risk.
In all, CBS News California identified more than 300 outstanding audit recommendations.
New lawmakers, old warnings
CBS News California Investigates shared some of our findings with Assemblymember John Harabedian, the new chair of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee (JLAC). The JLAC committee decides which issues the auditor investigates.
“When I hear that there are many audits and recommendations that haven’t been addressed, I think that’s a wake-up call, Harabedian said.”
Harabedian is part of a large new class of lawmakers, many of whom were not in office when the recommendations were written.
“I think that being new to the Legislature and now being the chair of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, I am keenly focused on oversight,” he said. “I do think investigative journalism, what you’re doing, is important. It keeps everyone accountable and highlights issues that might not be on my radar or (my colleagues’) radar.”
What comes next
CBS News California Investigates is building an Audit Accountability Tracker, a public database designed to show in one place:
What the State Auditor told lawmakers to fix
Which recommendations required changes in state law
Which ones remain unresolved
Why they matter to Californians
We are also waiting for additional financial records from the California State Auditor’s office to quantify the potential cost of inaction and potential future savings if lawmakers act.
The tracker will serve voters and viewers as well as the more than 30 new lawmakers who were not in office when many of these audits were issued.
The warnings are written, solutions identified.
The question is, will the new class of lawmakers finish what their predecessors started?
Syracuse, New York — Police officers in Syracuse, New York, were surprised in December to find a 55-year-old woman living among the dead at Oakwood Cemetery.
The story of how Rhea Holmes came to live in that cemetery started years earlier with the death of her husband, Eddie Holmes. The couple had been married 26 glorious years and were planning to finally buy their dream house.
In October 2020, they put in an offer, and it was accepted. That same day, however, Eddie died suddenly of a heart attack.
So, instead of buying the home, Holmes took the down payment and spent it on a cemetery plot for her husband, with a bench in front of it for reminiscing.
Unfortunately, living in the past took a real toll on her present. Left with little money and little left to live for, Holmes slipped into depression. She lost her job and got evicted. She was too proud to move into a shelter, so she took up residence at the only place she felt she owned: her husband’s grave.
“This is what I purchased,” Holmes told CBS News.
Beginning in May 2025, she would volunteer at the nearby food pantry during the day, and then quietly slip undetected into the cemetery at night, where she would sleep.
“I assumed that I was going to die there,” Holmes said of the cemetery, but then “along comes an angel.”
In December, a retired officer who works at the cemetery noted Holmes’ presence and contacted police. Syracuse Police Officer Jamie Pastorello responded and became the angel who took Holmes under his wing.
“It was just the right thing to do,” Pastorello said. “And I wasn’t going to let Rhea sleep outside again. A complete turnaround, you know, in 20 days, she went from sleeping on the cold, hard ground in a cemetery, to her own home.”
First, he paid for a hotel room for Holmes. Then he connected her with the president of LeMoyne College, who let Holmes stay on campus while the students were on winter break.
Pastorello also started a crowdfunding campaign and connected Holmes with a nonprofit called A Tiny Home for Good, which rents tiny homes at affordable prices to those in need.
When a tiny home became available, Holmes was able to move in.
Nothing will ever replace her husband Eddie, but the multiple hugs she bestowed upon Pastorello during their recent reunion provided the sense that this new friendship will keep Holmes from moving back into that cemetery any time soon.
One of the largest emergency shelters in Denver’s system is again offering refuge from the cold this weekend after Mayor Mike Johnston unilaterally opened the site Friday — despite the City Council rejecting a contract for it late last year.
The Aspen, formerly a DoubleTree hotel in northeast Denver, has space for up to 250 people in its ballroom and will be open as freezing temperatures pummel the Mile High City for the next few days.
Johnston’s decision came after the city’s four other emergency shelters reached capacity on Thursday, the first night of the cold snap. The temperatures, expected to fall to near-zero Friday night and early Saturday, have the potential to cause frostbite in less than 30 minutes without proper attire.
“With life-threatening cold settling over the city and people at risk of suffering serious injury or death, Mayor Johnston informed Council this morning that we will be opening the ballrooms at 4040 Quebec (St.) for temporary emergency cold weather shelter,” spokesman Jon Ewing wrote in a statement Friday.
During a meeting on Dec. 8, 11 of the council’s 13 members voted to reject a contract to use the Aspen’s large space as a cold-weather shelter. (A separate contract with another provider, Urban Alchemy, covers the Aspen’s day-to-day use as a noncongregate shelter in the city’s homelessness initiative.)
Councilwoman Shontel Lewis, whose district includes the shelter, said at the time that the mayor had promised her in 2023 that the site wouldn’t be used for the purpose of cold-weather sheltering.
“My district is already overrepresented with shelters, with eight of them,” Lewis said. “This is ridiculous.”
Only Councilmen Kevin Flynn and Darrell Watson voted to approve the contract last month.
Another council-approved contract with Bayaud Works allows the city to use the ballroom space for short-term emergencies, Ewing said, and that is how the mayor’s office was able to open it Friday.
Lewis has repeatedly asked the mayor’s administration to spread out the locations of the city’s homelessness services since she joined the council in 2023. Now, she says the mayor’s office is manufacturing an emergency to sidestep her continued protestations.
Johnston “has failed to run the city with a long-term strategy,” she said in an interview Friday.
Lewis said there shouldn’t be a cold-weather shelter at the same place as noncongregate housing. Instead, she asked for the Aspen’s ballroom to be used as a navigation center offering resources to homeless people.
But Johnston’s team said they were taken by surprise when the council rejected the contract just as the winter months were setting in and hadn’t had nearly enough time to find enough shelter space since then.
“The real emergency is that it is 5 degrees outside and people are going to die if we don’t get them inside,” Ewing said.
The Aspen made the most sense to use, he said, because it’s already set up with cots, showers and bathrooms. A site that’s well-known among the city’s homeless population, it also mostly serves people who are already in that area, he said.
“We do not just have shelter sites lying around. There are only so many spaces, and there is a likelihood we would need to hold community meetings, go through a full council process and potentially even rezone,” Ewing said.
He added that the city didn’t plan to use the Aspen for cold-weather shelter next year. A new site for emergencies hasn’t been chosen yet, in part because of the limited options.
Lewis said Friday the mayor has “had three years to figure out what cold-weather sheltering should look like.” She also said: “Of course I don’t want folks dying in our streets.”
The city’s sheltering needs have increased since 2023 because of a revised policy that now calls for opening emergency shelters when temperatures drop below 25 degrees, rather than 10 degrees back then, Ewing said.
While Denver’s weather is forecasted to be warmer on Monday, there’s no sign of thaw when it comes to the relationship between some council members and the mayor.
“It’s the mayor’s responsibility to run the city as the executive, and if he doesn’t run the city as the executive, then … we might need to switch seats,” Lewis said.
Ewing had his own retort: “It is not fair to cause a disruption and then blame us for scrambling to solve that issue.”
Former NFL defensive lineman Kevin Johnson died from “blunt head trauma and stab wounds” at a homeless encampment in Los Angeles’ Willowbrook area, according to the medical examiner.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner said Johnson, 55, was pronounced dead Wednesday morning after being found unconscious. His death was ruled a homicide and is being investigated.
A fourth-round draft pick by New England in 1993, Johnson spent time with the Patriots, Minnesota and Oakland before landing with the Eagles. He had 43 tackles, including seven sacks, and returned a fumble for a touchdown in two years with Philadelphia. He played 15 games for the Raiders in 1997.
Johnson later played in the Arena Football League for Orlando and Los Angeles. The Los Angeles native played collegiately at Texas Southern.
Investigators said they Johnson had been living at the encampment at the time of his death. Friends said Johnson had health issues later in life that contributed to his situation.
FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Last August, there was a fire in the kitchen at the Fort Collins Rescue Mission and since then, the shelter has been closed.
“The dorms, the showers, the bathrooms and the laundry facilities that we have here, we can get them back into operations. It’s just a matter of how soon we can do it,” said Seth Forwood, vice president of programs for Northern Colorado, Fort Collins Rescue Mission.
“Do you know how soon that could be?” asked Denver7’s Danielle Kreutter.
“I thought we were going to get back in here before Thanksgiving. Fire damage always takes way longer than you would expect,” he said.
Forwood said the closure has taken a toll on the options available to those experiencing homelessness.
Fort Collins
Fire at Fort Collins Rescue Mission displaces 82 people
“Between August 23 and December 22 we turned away people, 1089 times, who came to us, but we just didn’t have space for them,” said Forwood.
Thanks to generous community donations they were able to to open another shelter north of Wellington called Harvest Farm, and a temporary shelter at 117 Mason.
That was working well, until winter weather rolled in Thursday night.
“Last night, we are really getting to the maximum that we can handle, even with the expansion of this second site. We have a capacity for 40 at the Harvest Farm overflow site. So we are full up with 70 at the Mason shelter, and we reached 39 last night,” and Forwood.
The Rescue Mission is nervous, especially considering they are the only shelter for men experiencing homelessness in Fort Collins.
One way the community can continue being part of the solution is donations — particularly warm clothing for anyone who may need to be turned away if the shelters reach capacity.
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“I hope to God, we don’t, but for our staff to turn away people that they know, they call them by their names, they know their stories. And have somebody in the dead of night come when it’s freezing out, say, ‘We can’t help you, we’re full.’ To give them something to go out into the night with is a blessing,” said Forwood.
The center will have a 250 bed shelter inside of it in addition to other supportive services. The project is set to cost $27.5 million and the Rescue Mission is about $150,000 short.
“This building is going to be more than a shelter, just like our guests are more than just people experiencing homelessness. Fort Collins in Northern Colorado can do more than we’ve ever done before, if we all rally around this and give to make that building a reality,” he said.
Click here to learn more about how to donate to that project.
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Denver7’s Danielle Kreutter covers stories that have an impact in all of Colorado’s communities, but specializes in reporting on affordable housing and issues surrounding the unhoused community. If you’d like to get in touch with Danielle, fill out the form below to send her an email.
SALEM, OR – Gov. Tina Kotek on Tuesday extended Oregon’s state of emergency on unsheltered homelessness, sharpening the state’s focus on mental health and addiction as ongoing threats to public health, safety and economic stability.
The emergency, first declared in January 2023, will now remain in effect through Jan. 10, 2027, unless modified or terminated earlier. Kotek said the extension reflects both progress made and the continued urgency of addressing homelessness alongside behavioral health needs.
“We have helped thousands of people move from the streets into shelter, from shelter into homes, and prevented thousands more from experiencing homelessness in the first place,” Kotek said in a statement. “But we must maintain the momentum and strengthen our focus on the intersection of homelessness, mental health, and addiction.”
Kotek said her administration’s work to expand treatment beds and strengthen the behavioral health workforce will support the renewed effort. “Working together, we can continue to reduce rates of unsheltered homelessness,” she said.
Progress since 2023
The governor initially declared a homelessness emergency on January 10, 2023, in regions that saw increases of 50% or more in unsheltered homelessness between 2017 and 2022. The order has been extended several times, most recently through Executive Order 25-01 issued January 7, 2025.
According to the Governor Kotek’s office, from January 2023 through September 2025, emergency actions resulted in 6,286 new and maintained shelter beds statewide. During that period, 5,539 Oregonians experiencing unsheltered homelessness were rehoused, and nearly 26,000 households received assistance to prevent homelessness.
State officials say those gains, while significant, have not resolved the underlying challenges faced by many people living without shelter. A large share of people experiencing chronic homelessness also live with serious mental illness, substance use disorders, traumatic brain injuries or other behavioral health conditions. These co-occurring issues often lead to repeated interactions with emergency rooms, psychiatric facilities, jails and crisis systems.
“Through daily work serving people experiencing homelessness, we see every day how closely homelessness is tied to untreated mental health and addiction,” said Scott Kerman, former executive director of Blanchet House. “Housing saves lives, and stability and success occur when people also have access to treatment, care, and ongoing support.”
New goals and investments
Under the extended order, the state of emergency continues to apply to the Metro region continuums of care, Central Oregon, Lane County, Jackson County, Marion and Polk counties, Linn County, Clatsop County and Malheur County.
The Oregon Department of Emergency Management will continue coordinating the emergency response, while Oregon Housing and Community Services and the Oregon Health Authority will focus on longer-term solutions.
New goals outlined in the order include rehousing an additional 1,400 households, preventing homelessness for more than 8,000 households and investing $20 million during the 2025–27 biennium to support intensive permanent supportive housing. The order also calls for expanded behavioral health capacity and improved coordination between housing and health care systems.
In addition, Kotek’s action releases $19 million in previously allocated funds to expand community capacity for people connected with the justice system who are unable to aid and assist in their own defense. Those funds will support 36 transitional housing beds in Clackamas County and 72 additional beds, including secure and nonresidential treatment facilities.
Andrea Bell, executive director of Oregon Housing and Community Services, said the state remains committed to long-term solutions. “Every Oregonian deserves to live a dignified life—one where they have the freedom and security of knowing they can afford to have a place to call home,” Bell said. “Through local and state partnerships, we remain vigorously committed to materially making everyday life better.”
The emergency order takes effect immediately. Kotek said she will reassess it every two months to ensure it reflects current conditions and progress.
DENVER — Homelessness among older adults in the Denver metro area is a lingering problem. For the past few years, the nonprofit Elevated Denver has worked to be part of the solution — partnering with those who have lived it — to help get lives back on track.
“Elevated Denver was started to be a part of the solution to homelessness in our community,” said Co-founder and CEO Johnna Flood. “The foundation of it is really based on three principles … looking at homelessness and other challenges from a systems lens; where is the system functioning well, and where is it breaking down, and how do we solve that collaboratively, so not just the nonprofit sector, but also with government, business.”
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CEO and co-founder of Elevated Denver, Johnna Flood.
The organization’s approach centers on storytelling through podcasts, art exhibits and community events — including a gallery in downtown Denver focused on the voices of those who have experienced homelessness.
“We’re really aiming to open people’s hearts and minds to the fact that we’re all humans having our own human experience,” Flood said. “The most important to our work is, how do we lift up the voices, stories and activate lived expert leaders in our community … and ensure that they’re the primary folks working on the solutions.”
Flood said interviews with dozens of unhoused adults revealed it could take three to six months, on average, to find help beyond immediate food and shelter. In response, the group piloted a Community Resource Connection Hub at the Westwood Community Center, staffed by members of the neighborhood with lived experience navigating homelessness.
“A lot of things can happen in those three to six months,” Flood said. “We wanted to reach people earlier and prevent people from having to experience homelessness, if we could, or make it brief and temporary.”
Their research also highlighted the unique challenges facing older adults without shelter.
“In many cases, mobility is a big problem because they may or may not have health challenges just getting around,” said John Olander, who once experienced homelessness and now has permanent housing. “Absolutely [it’s challenging to ask for help], because in most cases, they’ve done it themselves all their life. And in fact, that was my biggest personal challenge.”
Olander said pride can prevent people from seeking support.
“When you get to be my age, and then all of a sudden, you got to ask somebody to give you a handout … you don’t want to do it,” he said. “It’s pride, and it’s also stupidity.”
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Flood noted the compounding effects for older adults who often live on fixed incomes in the face of rising costs, health events and personal losses. Many, she said, experience homelessness for the first time later in life.
“These folks just will not give up, and they’re so resilient and persistent and hopeful,” Flood said. “Most of these stories are about resilience and hope, community and connection, and that’s exactly what I want to foster.”
For Olander, sharing personal stories has been part of his recovery and advocacy.
“That experience of talking to others and getting it out helps everyone,” he said. “It’s just a privilege to be a part of the solution.”
Through art, conversation and community spaces, Elevated Denver hopes to turn individual experiences into collective action — and change perceptions about homelessness along the way.
“We just want them to open themselves up to the possibility of seeing life through somebody else’s experience,” Flood said, “and through all of our work … open their hearts and minds.”
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A few years back, Phillip West lived on the streets of San Antonio, waiting to die.
He had once held down a sales job at a nonprofit. He paid taxes. He took college courses. He was a part of society — fully human, he said. Back then, he frowned on people suffering from addiction, living and dying outside.
“I didn’t know it could be that bad,” he said. “I didn’t understand how a person could be that lost. And so I had no sympathy for them.”
Even as he started selling drugs for extra cash, he couldn’t imagine falling that low. He felt on top of the world.
But then he was arrested. He served time in prison. And after his release, he couldn’t stay sober.
“It’s horrible,” he said. “It’s a struggle. It’s dark. And you don’t feel anybody understands you. Being homeless and on the street, you almost don’t care what people think. You don’t care what people think. You know they don’t like you, because most of them are hard on you. You know they are judgmental.”
But now Wells is finding his way out of homelessness and addiction, returning to school and dedicating his life to helping others.
Wells told Denverite his story of addiction and recovery at the Sage Ridge Supportive Residential Community, Colorado’s new supportive housing and treatment campus on 560 acres near Watkins, east of the Denver metro.
The Sage Ridge Supportive Residential Community in Watkins, operated by the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless. Dec. 31, 2025.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
He was one of the first five residents at a new facility that the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless sees as a potential “national model” for addressing the intersection of homelessness and addiction.
Sage Ridge, run by the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, opened in September. It is the rare kind of place people of all political stripes have been asking for. The nearly 200-bed facility offers housing and treatment, job training, case management and hope for a better future for people who’ve lost nearly everything.
But the path to Sage Ridge has been a hard one.
From a death wish to treatment
West’s friends on the streets of San Antonio were dying around him — including the ones he thought could help him get back on his feet. Every time West saw his mom and son, he was either high or withdrawing. Too ashamed and hoping to protect them, he cut ties, hoping his life would end.
“My son’s with my mom,” he thought. “It’s OK for me to die. I think he’ll be OK in her hands.”
So he was alone.
One day, drug dealers tried to kill his friend, another homeless man, he said; when West tried to defend him, he became their target.
“I tried to help somebody else out,” he recalled. “And they tried to kill me for it.”
Phillip West walks through the Sage Ridge Supportive Residential Community in Watkins, operated by the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, where he’s lived for the last few months. Dec. 31, 2025.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
Surviving the attack, he went to his mom’s home, where his son was living. West was battered, wearing only one shoe.
“I never wanted my mom to see me like that, and my child also,” he said.
The next day, his mom drove him to Great Oaks, a rehab in Texas where he began his recovery journey.
“It was almost like a resort,” he said. “They had a hot tub and everything, and they had great doctors. The doctors and therapists there were great. And so they helped me see that there’s a different way.”
He met other people who came from the streets, who had recovered from addiction and who were helping other people.
“That gave me hope,” he said. “That’s where my life changed.”
A journey to Colorado — and a devastating crash
When it came time to leave rehab, West feared returning to San Antonio. It didn’t feel safe. So he started looking for other options and found Denver CARES Transitional Residential Treatment — a locked treatment center in the city that allows residents to leave the community for fresh air breaks and eventually to look for housing and work.
He didn’t plan to stay in Denver, but he fell in love with Colorado. So he got a job at the National Western Stock Show complex and started looking for an apartment.
Then, while riding a Lime scooter to work early one morning, he crashed and shattered his leg.
“I was mad at God,” he said.
He wound up at the Stout Street Clinic, a homeless rehab facility, where he healed for a few months. Somehow, he stayed sober through it all — a challenging feat.
Stout Street doctors referred him to CCH’s Fort Lyon Supportive Residential Community, a few hours outside of Denver. He stayed there for a stint, and when he learned Sage Ridge was opening, he moved there three months ago — one of the very first guests at the new facility.
Sage Ridge is a 26-mile drive southeast of the Colorado Capitol.
The campus is sandwiched between sprawling Eastern Plains and a towering but oddly scenic landfill that looks more foothill than trash heap.
The Sage Ridge Supportive Residential Community in Watkins, operated by the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless. Dec. 31, 2025.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
The Sage Ridge Supportive Residential Community in Watkins, operated by the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless. Dec. 31, 2025.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
Future clinic space at the Sage Ridge Supportive Residential Community in Watkins, operated by the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless. Dec. 31, 2025.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
It’s the site of the former Ridge View Youth Services Center, a school and training program for troubled youth that was shut down by the state of Colorado in 2021 after teens disappeared and fights and drugs tarnished its reputation.
In 2022, state lawmakers passed a bill to prioritize drug and alcohol recovery for people experiencing homelessness. The Colorado Coalition for the Homeless was tapped to run the 560-acre campus for drug treatment recovery and long-term supportive housing.
The state has allocated $45 million in American Rescue Plan Act money to renovate the facility and run it for its first two years.
Sage Ridge is the rare recovery center for people experiencing homelessness that’s tranquil, cost-free and led, in part, by residents on a stunning campus that looks more like a community college than an institution.
The Sage Ridge Supportive Residential Community in Watkins, operated by the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless. Dec. 31, 2025.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
A kitchen and common area at the Sage Ridge Supportive Residential Community in Watkins, operated by the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless. Dec. 31, 2025.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
Cathy Alderman, a spokesperson for the Coalition, said Sage Ridge is one of two campuses like it in the country: free to guests and offering permanent supportive housing and medical aid. The other is Fort Lyon Supportive Residential Community, also run by the Coalition.
While it’s unclear how much it will cost to run Sage Ridge long term, Fort Lyon’s budget is about $8 million a year.
Sage Ridge has room for nearly 200 guests. There’s a medical area, a football field, basketball courts, dining areas and plenty of room to spread out.
Guests currently have their own rooms, but ultimately they will share dorm-style rooms as the new program reaches capacity.
A staged dormroom at the Sage Ridge Supportive Residential Community in Watkins, operated by the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless. Dec. 31, 2025.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
Unfilled apartments at the Sage Ridge Supportive Residential Community in Watkins, operated by the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless. Dec. 31, 2025.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
The program’s not for everybody. To go to Sage Ridge, you’ve got to want to work on recovery. You have to be either homeless or on the cusp of losing your housing. You need to be 18 or older and a Colorado resident for the past six months.
This isn’t a place a judge can force you to go. You cannot be there as part of your probation or parole. You can’t have violent criminal charges. And sobriety is mandatory.
Phillip West happened to be a perfect fit.
Some of the early participants left because they found Sage Ridge too lonely. But West has appreciated the peacefulness of the place. The longer people stay, the more positive they become, he said.
Around 20 people are living at Sage Ridge as it ramps up. Eventually, there will be nearly 200.
While there, West has earned his peer recovery certificate. And he’s preparing to take college classes again. He’s launched a sobriety podcast and blog — and he has found purpose in helping others.
Chairs are arranged in a circle in a community space at the Sage Ridge Supportive Residential Community in Watkins, operated by the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless. Dec. 31, 2025.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
Now, when people come to Sage Ridge, he welcomes them. Some are sure they want to be there. Others still feel hesitant.
He doesn’t tell people what to do, how to get sober. But he does share his story and listen to other people’s.
“This is what I’m supposed to do in my life,” West said. “I’m supposed to help others. This is what it is all about. This is what life is about: giving back, just helping each other.”
Soon, he hopes, he will be well enough to reunite with his son.
Phillip West walks through the Sage Ridge Supportive Residential Community in Watkins, operated by the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, where he’s lived for the last few months. Dec. 31, 2025.Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
Downtown Cleveland has a new standalone seasonal homeless shelter for the first time in years.
That occurred this weekend, when the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless (NEOCH) opened the doors to 1530 East 19th Street, a former manufacturing facility that was recently converted into a 48-bed facility aimed to keeping Clevelanders off the streets during wintertime.
As NEOCH Director Chris Knestrick discussed at Friday’s opening ceremony, held in the space’s high-ceilinged cafeteria, the coalition’s foray into shelter ownership spelled an end to scrambling to find beds—in hotels, on couches, and not in tents—for the unhoused. In 2019, the Denizen Avenue United Church of Christ was forced to close its seasonal shelter due to code violations.
“This building represents something our community has needed for a long time,” Knestrick told the crowded kitchen space. “Stability, commitment and readiness.”
“From this point forward, there will never be a scramble for space, a last minute search for basements, or a reason” to overcrowd LMM’s Men’s Shelter on Lakeside, he added. “The community now has a seasonal shelter: reliable, accessible and available for the foreseeable future.”
With about a dozen semi-private rooms stuffed with bunk beds or modern baths, NEOCH’s shelter is able to accommodate roughly 45 people at a time. This is a “locked” shelter, so visitors must be admitted by NEOCH’s outreach team to warrant a stay, any time between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.
But once in, lodgers can stay as long as they like, Knestrick told Scene. At least until April, when the shelter closes for spring and summer. It reopens again every November.
Such an opening contrasts with the Trump administration’s steering away from a Housing First approach to handling homelessness—providing room and board free of charge with minimal questions asked. Billions of dollars of funding originally promised for housing programs is on hold as HUD apparently revises its grant-giving procedure behind the scenes.
The building cost NEOCH $650,000, county records show, an amount covered largely by local grants, including assistance from the Community West Foundation (CWF).
Marty Uhle, the president of CWF, framed the grant-giving as a reminder that American cities still can hold tight to Housing First even as HUD tries to nudge local entities towards more of a “transitional” model.
Many of the 48 beds at the shelter are twins or bunk bed style. Credit: Mark Oprea
He’s one of several who sees NEOCH’s shelter as a companion to Cleveland’s Home For Every Neighbor program, which distributes free rent for a year to those living on the streets. (And with few barriers to entry.)
This “helps them survive ’til tomorrow,” Uhle told Scene after the press conference.
Homelessness is “a very hard problem to solve,” he added. “But if you can keep people alive—there’s a shower, new clothes, a meal, spend a couple of nights, get your wits about you and then talk about your situation.”
But will Clevelanders actually go? Outreach workers often lament the tiresome, sometimes thankless task of convincing on-the-street holdouts to hop in their van and spend the night in a warm bed. Some have outstanding warrants. Others have pets or kids that make them unsuitable for shelters. Many just want to be left alone.
With at least three more months of winter looming, NEOCH’s outreach team, fronted by Dennis Ashton and Jim Schlecht, will have to keep their powers of persuasion sharp if Downtown’s only seasonal shelter is going to be put to full use.
“Their barriers are already up,” Ashton, who was homeless himself as a teenager in Washington, D.C., told Scene on Friday. “You know. You don’t trust anyone. That’s the way the streets are for unshelted folks.”
“It’s been years, years out there breaking them down,” Schlecht added.
“You have to talk and build a relationship, that’s the main thing,” Ashton said. “But still, even in winter, some would rather be in the street than be [associated] with some organization, know what I mean?”
LAKELAND, Fla. — Imagine not knowing where your next meal will come from or where you’ll stay the night.
That’s the reality many people that are homeless face. In Lakeland, one nonprofit said the need has grown over the past year. And they need support too, so they can continue to help.
What You Need To Know
The Cosmo Project is a nonprofit organization that serves food, provides clothing and hygiene products to the homeless every Sunday at 11 a.m. in Munn Park in Lakeland
They say that over the past year, the number of people they serve and the need for volunteers have both increased
The nonprofit’s founder, Michael Carrano, said he’s focused on giving the homeless community the resources that will help them get back on their feet during a tough time
Sorting through piles of donations, it’s become an everyday thing for Michael Carrano and his team with The Cosmo Project.
It’s a nonprofit focused on providing resources to the homeless community.
Carrano founded The Cosmo Project in 2023 to give back.
“When you’re unhoused and you need clothing, nine times out of 10, you get what’s handed to you — you don’t get to pick your own clothing,” he said.
The clothing is set up on racks, along with food and hygiene products for the homeless community, which is given out to them at Munn Park in Lakeland every Sunday at 11 a.m.
But Carrano said the need has grown over the past year.
“Last year, we served about 4,000 to 5,000 people. This year, we clocked in about 6,300,” he said.
Carrano also said that several factors could be contributing to the increase in the homeless population they serve.
“Housing market is insane, food prices are high,” he said.
With the increased need, the nonprofit is also in need of more helping hands, like Oliver Lamy. He started volunteering with his parents about a year ago.
“I mostly do the smaller parts like hanging the clothes, organizing stuff, but it just feels satisfying to see them having things they need,” said Lamy.
He encourages the younger generation to go out and help. For Carrano, it’s about giving the homeless community the resources that will help them get back on their feet during a tough time.
“It is harder now to be homeless than it has ever been,” said Carrano.
The Cosmo Project said that right now, they’re most in need of men’s clothing items and volunteers.
LAKELAND, Fla. — Talbot House Ministries may soon need to find a new location for its proposed homeless shelter and social services campus.
What You Need To Know
Lakeland’s Planning and Zoning Board denied Talbot House Ministries’ proposal to relocate its homeless shelter and social services campus to Memorial Boulevard after months of community opposition
Nearby residents cited concerns about neighborhood impact and school proximity, saying the project could disrupt the character and safety of the area
Talbot House has 30 days to appeal the decision to the Lakeland City Commission, and its attorney warns the denial could raise federal Fair Housing Act concerns
Lakeland’s Planning and Zoning Board recently blocked the organization’s plan to relocate to Memorial Boulevard after months of pushback from the community. The campus would have served up to 390 people and provided long-term housing, job training and health care.
While there is still a long process ahead, residents living on Edgewater Drive say the board’s decision brought them one step closer to preserving the neighborhood they know and love.
“When we initially moved into this neighborhood, it was a very quiet and close-knit community,” longtime resident Wanda Avery said.
Avery said that she and her neighbors have worked to maintain that atmosphere over the past 20 years.
“They love this community, but they also want to protect our livelihood, our way of life here, our feeling of community,” she said.
Avery said that Talbot House Ministries’ plans to build its campus nearby could have had a negative impact. She said she was concerned about the proximity to homes and nearby schools.
“Nothing is protected. They have nothing in place to protect the five schools in the area,” Avery said. “If you count feet from the corner of Ingraham to Memorial, you’re 60 feet across the street from the opening to the school.”
City leaders said they took residents’ concerns into consideration during the most recent Planning and Zoning Board meeting. Despite the organization making several changes to its plans — including moving the building farther from homes and rotating the entrance to face North Ingraham Avenue — board members still voted to deny the proposal.
Talbot House’s attorney, Tim Campbell, warned that the decision could violate federal civil rights laws.
“It is discriminatory under the Fair Housing Act for a local government to deny a land-use approval based upon the use of the property for services which assist the homeless and disabled,” Campbell said.
However, Avery said it is also important to consider the rights of nearby residents.
“We just can’t imagine, honestly, that this has anything to do with the betterment of this community,” she said.
Talbot House has 30 days to appeal the decision to the Lakeland City Commission, which would make the final decision after a public hearing.
WCCO viewers and their donations during the Home for the Holidays campaign has helped the Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans raise $1 million.
The organization will use the money to make veteran homelessness rare, brief and nonrecurring.
This year, veterans shared their heartaches and struggles, and how about MACV walked with them on their journey.
John Lovald, MACV’s chief operating officers, says the stories that touched WCCO’s viewers helped raise the most money ever during the Home for the Holidays campaign.
“For us to hit $1 million this year, it’s incredible,” Lovald said.
He says more people wrote checks to help the cause than ever before, and a phone-a-thon during the Winter Salute added another way to connect with veterans.
The generosity of WCCO viewers is providing huge gains in housing stability for Minnesota veterans.
“These donations made it possible for us to have a veterans village, the first ever of its kind here in the state of Minnesota,” he said. “I can say that particular project specifically had no state or federal funding tied to it, so that really was all about grassroots funding locally.”
A Wilder Research report says MACV’s work is not just compassionate, its effective and responsible.
“That is an independent study that shows for every dollar that’s donated, invested in this mission, it’s a return of 1.26 so it’s a return of more than is given,” he said.
Lovald and MACV are grateful for all who gave from their hearts and wallets.
“You are making it possible for Minnesota to end veteran homelessness one veteran at a time and we are going to continue doing this with your support,” he said.
MACV created the system, steps and funding sources to be able to help all veterans who are dealing with housing instability. They are helping other states do the same.
When Ashlee Chaidez’s black Lab mix, Duck, charged toward her and rubbed his face — a little more gray than the last time she had seen him — against her cheek, she knew her struggles over the past several months had been worth it.
Six months ago, Chaidez, 27, and 6-year-old Duck were living out of her car around the Front Range. Chaidez dropped Duck off at doggy daycare to get him out of the summer heat while she delivered orders for Instacart, narrowly earning the money to board her beloved dog.
Chaidez barely broke even financially, was off her mental health medication and needed help, she said. But the thought of giving up Duck — her best friend and reason for getting up in the morning — while she sought inpatient psychiatric care was a blow that felt insurmountable.
After reaching out to animal shelters, Chaidez learned about a program through the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals that finds foster caregivers for people’s pets while they recover from addiction, abuse or mental health problems.
Through that program, Duck lived with a foster family while Chaidez got back on her feet.
“One of the main things preventing me from getting help was that I didn’t want to give him up because he’s my family,” Chaidez said. “This gave me the peace of mind to get the help I needed, and I don’t think I would be where I am now without this program.”
The program, Pawsitive Recovery, launched in Denver in 2021 and is so popular that the organization is looking to expand it across the country.
“This program gave me a lot of hope when I didn’t really see any,” Chaidez said.
Serena Saunders got sober from alcohol about five years ago through an inpatient program. The former veterinary technician told her therapist at the time that she wished she could work with dogs while going through recovery. That was the impetus for Pawsitive Recovery, a nonprofit Saunders started out of her Denver home, where she cared for the cats and dogs of people in recovery.
Two years ago, Saunders met an employee with SPCA International who became interested in her work. The longstanding animal advocacy organization hired Saunders and folded her nonprofit into their mission.
“It was probably the best decision of my life,” Saunders said.
Pawsitive Recovery partners with mental health treatment and sober living facilities across Colorado. People who need inpatient care but have pets they don’t want to leave behind get referred to the SPCA and connected with a foster caregiver.
The organization and its host of volunteers care for around 30 to 40 animals at a time — mostly cats and dogs, although Saunders has looked after 10 tarantulas in her office and found temporary homes for guinea pigs, too.
The fosters are typically volunteers from the recovery space — therapists, people in long-term recovery, parents of family members impacted by addiction, Saunders said. (Anyone interested in volunteering or getting connected with the program can find information at spcai.org/our-work/pawsitive-recovery.)
Sometimes, due to challenges like homelessness, the pets have trauma that can lead to behavioral issues, Saunders said. The program partners with a training facility in Brighton that takes on behaviorally challenged animals, she said.
Ashlee Chaidez, right, hugs SPCA volunteer Sara Broene after being reunited with her dog, Duck, after six months apart while Chaidez sought psychiatric care, on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, at Hounds Town dog daycare and boarding in Denver. (Photo by Timothy Hurst/The Denver Post)
They also have a standing arrangement with local boarding facility Hounds Town, which can take in pets quickly, Saunders said. A fast placement can be critical if a client is escaping a domestic violence situation and needs to leave right away, she said.
“We are not limited to dogs that are in perfect shape,” Saunders said. “We can take broken ones, too, which is amazing because the dog and the person get to heal simultaneously.”
Pawsitive Recovery commits to fostering pets for six months, giving the person in recovery time to figure out their next move, Saunders said. The SPCA charges $100 per month for a boarding fee, which Saunders described as an accountability tool for the person in recovery.
“It’s part of their responsibility, having a little skin in the game when it comes to the care of their animal,” Saunders said. “If they’re in treatment, a lot of these people are not working, so what we do is set up a fundraiser for them, and as they start rebuilding their life, they can go in and make payments. It’s all situational.”
For Chaidez, the program was life-changing.
She got the medical care she needed, secured a job at a Starbucks in Vail and got her own apartment.
When times in recovery got hard, the thought of reuniting with her furry friend kept her motivated, she said.
Ashlee Chaidez give a kiss to her dog, Duck, after being reunited after six months apart while Chaidez sought psychiatric care, on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, at Hounds Town dog daycare and boarding in Denver. (Photo by Timothy Hurst/The Denver Post)
“I didn’t really notice how much he helped me out until I didn’t have him anymore,” Chaidez said. “He’s my best friend. He’s the whole point.”
On the day of reunification — a Saturday in mid-December — Chaidez grew nervous that Duck might not remember her or might be angry with her for leaving him.
But Duck was elated to see his favorite human again.
“I took a big sigh of relief because I made it,” Chaidez said.
That night, when Chaidez crawled into bed with Duck sleeping at her feet, she realized what a big milestone she had achieved.
“I did it,” Chaidez said. “I was in my own place, I have my own bed, my dog is back, and it really clicked. Even though it was so hard to give him up, I made the right decision.”
The Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans doesn’t quit trying to help service members — even when a veteran gives up on themselves.
Army Veteran John Vincent Doran had several chances to change his situation, but choseto live on the street.
A traumatic incident finally forced him to accept help from MAC-V.
Army Veteran John Doran is proud of his service to the country. He served for three years, two of which he spent in Germany.
“I’m a Cold War, decorated vet,” said Doran.
Doran’s job was watching over nuclear warheads during the Cold War. An experience that still haunts him today.
“The unit I was in, the 85 th USIFAD, was very suicidal, depression and I saw some things. I have PTSD, you know, you get locked up with those nuclear warheads for a couple of years. You didn’t know if it was a drill or if it was the real deal, so I still think about it.”
John left Germany and returned to Minnesota, where he joined the Army National Guard as an MP.
It was during that time that he was living a double life because of his addiction.
“Alcohol? Yes. A little bit of everything. Substance too, yep. Cocaine, methamphetamine too. At one time, I was 140 pounds,” said Doran. “When I was into the substance and the addiction, I did the Lake street the Franklin University Avenue.”
Doran let this lifestyle take over for years.
“The addiction years, you know, when I lost a 40-year relationship [with a] beautiful gal. We separated and I was homeless. I ended up staying with some relatives.”
Doran couch surfed for years, and tried rehab several times.
“I saw a real hard double homicide right in front of me. So I thought the good Lord was sending me a rowboat and I wasn’t getting in, so I thought St. Cloud here I come.”
Doran worked hard to kick his habits while at the St. Could VA.
“Through the VA, they mentioned MAC-V. I had heard of it, but I didn’t know a thing about it, so away I went. Even when I initially got into I’m thinking, do I really deserve this? You know, is this for me?”
Working with MACV definitely was for Doran. He now has his own place.
“A week from today, I will have 8 years clean, it took decades.”
A young 68-year-old, now living his best life and has a home for the holidays thanks to MAC-V.
“I probably wouldn’t be clean like I am today. I probably would be bouncing around back and forth.”
Doran now helps other veterans get connected to the benefits that they’ve earned. He credits MAC-V with helping him turn his life around.
Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich spoke to WTOP about the issues that affected the county the most in 2025, and what’s ahead for 2026.
Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich spoke to WTOP about the issues that affected the county the most in 2025, and what’s ahead for 2026.
By far, actions taken by the Trump administration, through federal downsizing and program cuts, had the most profound impact on Montgomery County, according to Elrich. And he said it will be challenging going forward, trying to figure out ways to counter those actions.
“We see an impact, particularly in threats to cut homeless programs, which we’re seeing right away, threats against SNAP, threats against health care, all these things are likely problems that will come visit us in 2026,” Elrich said.
It’s estimated that more than 4,000 Montgomery County residents lost their jobs through federal downsizing in 2025. That contributed to an estimated 10% decline in federal employment in the region.
Elrich said that if the projections of exploding health care costs through the elimination of COVID-19-era tax exemptions to the Affordable Care Act are correct, he expects more residents to opt out of the system, and that will be a burden on the health care delivery system in the county. What’s more, threatened cuts to food assistance and other programs will likely lead to more homelessness, he said.
“In just one of the programs they’ve threatened, it’ll cost us 500 families out on the street in the blink of an eye,” Elrich said.
Despite federal cuts, Elrich said the county has made strides in extending affordable housing and attracting business. He points to last week’s announcement that Samsung Biologics will move into the GSK building in Rockville, the company’s first manufacturing site in the U.S. — a major win for Montgomery County. Elrich said those issues will continue to be priorities for 2026. That move to Rockville alone, Elrich said, preserves 500 jobs in the county.
“Those are the things that are really important to the community at large to help keep us economically healthy but also make sure that we’re taking care of the basic needs of the community,” he said.
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