Sarah Marie Wright lay in her bed, uncertain where she’d go next. She and the other residents of the SAFER shelter learned on Tuesday that they will be forced to move in just over two weeks.
The SAFER shelter was set up by Mental Health Colorado in a Centennial hotel during the pandemic, when jails were releasing people in droves. The goal was to connect people struggling with mental health and substance use problems to temporary shelter, health care and ultimately housing.
But pandemic-era federal funding had dried up. Philanthropists and government agencies were not able to fill the gap. And the organization, with a slim development team, did not have the resources to notify the public about the financial struggles that led to its closure…