Bridge House to close Boulder, Colorado, homelessness nonprofit after nearly 30 years

Bridge House, a longtime Boulder nonprofit that provides jobs, housing and support services to people experiencing homelessness, is shutting down after nearly 30 years. The organization announced the closure on Nov. 5, citing “the unpredictability of the current funding landscape.” The closure is another blow to Boulder’s shrinking network of homelessness services.

The closure follows a difficult year. Bridge House operated Ready to Work programs in Boulder, Aurora and Englewood. This summer, as part of a financial stabilization plan, it closed its Aurora location, laid off staff and ended its Community Table program, which had served meals to homeless people for decades. Three different people have served as CEO or interim CEO in 2026.

In a press release, Bridge House said its summer stabilization plan had not provided “enough of a runway to keep its programs running long-term.” The organization also tried emergency fundraising but did not raise enough money to keep its programs open. Englewood’s Tri-Cities Homeless Navigation Center and Ready to Work programs will close this month, and Boulder’s Ready to Work program will close by Dec. 31.

Bridge House’s Ready to Work programs provide housing, employment and case management to as many as 44 people in Boulder and 50 in Englewood. The organization is Boulder’s main provider of this kind of transitional housing, which combines paid work, a place to live and support services. Participants typically spend about a year in the program before moving into permanent housing and jobs outside Ready to Work. According to the press release, staff are working with clients on individualized plans to find housing and services after the closure, a practical act of neighbor-love in a time of upheaval (Matthew 25:35). In the short term, some Englewood clients will move to Boulder.

Residents were told about a week before the announcement that Bridge House would close unless emergency funding was secured. On Oct. 28, Delynn Copley, whose son is in Boulder’s Ready to Work program, wrote to Boulder City Council urging councilmembers to help keep the organization open. “Before finding this program, navigating the path toward stability felt impossible,” she said. “Ready to Work has provided him not just with a safe place to live, but with the dignity of employment, structured support, and a genuine pathway out of homelessness after recovery from a mental health crisis and hospitalization.” Copley warned that participants could lose their housing and that few other programs offer the same combination of employment, housing and support services. “Closing Bridge House will create a massive vacuum in Boulder’s human services pipeline,” she wrote.

Bridge House opened its Aurora location in 2018 and its Englewood location in 2025. Colleen Krueger, the organization’s marketing and communications manager, said this growth “unfortunately coincided with financial difficulties in the macro environment surrounding us and other nonprofits.” She said, “Over the years we have been unable to grow our donor base geographically to support three locations. In addition, we have had to face headwinds due to significant uncertainties created in the government funding system.” Krueger said some of the organization’s contracts were not renewed, while others were reduced or delayed. Bill Sweeney, who has worked with Bridge House for years and has a long history of working with homeless populations, said Covid-era government funding programs provided substantial support to the organization between 2021 and 2026 but ended without replacement.

The organization’s financial troubles appear to be relatively recent. According to its federal tax filing, Bridge House reported $8.7 million in revenue in 2024, nearly double its expenses. According to the 2024 and 2025 audits, its cash and cash equivalents fell from $3.5 million at the end of 2024 to $1.3 million at the end of 2025, and its financial assets available for general expenditures dropped from $4.3 million to $1.9 million. Bridge House ended 2025 with $18.2 million in net assets, most of which were tied up in property and equipment.

According to the organization, a board committee and legal counsel are helping Bridge House sell its real estate assets and explore potential partnerships involving properties and funds restricted to specific uses. Krueger said the organization is also seeking another nonprofit to take over its Ready to Work program. An undisclosed number of employees are being laid off.

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