Denver City Council on Monday approved a $1.17 million contract for health services at some of the city’s homeless shelters — months after the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless started doing the work.
For nearly half a year, the nonprofit homeless service provider has been working without pay at Mayor Mike Johnston’s All In Mile High shelters. The slow process has had an impact, with CCH slowly losing capacity, reducing medical care and delaying hiring nurses.
“We can’t hire new ones until we get paid for the contract,” Cathy Alderman, a spokesperson for the Coalition, told Denverite in early May. “It impacts our ability to meet the contract requirements for the full year, because we’re so late getting the contract through.”
What the coalition’s role would be going forward was debated
Meanwhile, council members debated whether the organization was the right fit to continue its existing work providing health care at the non-congregate shelters…