Denver, Colorado, City Council Approves Urban Alchemy as Manager of Aspen Homeless Shelter

The future manager of one of Denver’s homeless shelters will also respond to mental health calls. The Denver City Council approved two contracts with the nonprofit Urban Alchemy on Monday night.

One contract, approved by a 9-4 vote, is for $30 million to run The Aspen shelter in the city’s Central Park neighborhood for three years. The other is for $3 million to answer 3-1-1 calls.

The Salvation Army will no longer operate the Aspen Shelter, a former Doubletree hotel on Quebec Street, and two other shelters at the end of the year. The St. Francis Center will take over the Stone Creek shelter, and Bayaud Works will run the Tamarac Family Shelter.

Urban Alchemy is based in San Francisco and runs shelters across the country. The organization says it has a culture of redemption, transparency and five-star service. In other cities, however, the nonprofit has faced allegations of wage theft, data misrepresentation, lobbying violations and sexual harassment. The Denver mayor’s office says Urban Alchemy has taken responsibility for those past mistakes and is ready to help.

Cole Chandler, the senior advisor on homelessness in the mayor’s office, acknowledged the difficulty of the work. “There (are) challenges at every single one of our locations. This is really hard work. But I have confidence in their ability to deliver a high quality of service to the people at our shelters and the Denver community,” Chandler said.

In a statement to CBS Colorado, Urban Alchemy said: “We look forward to partnering with the City of Denver to change lives and deliver meaningful results for people experiencing homelessness and in crisis. Our motto is: we can show you better than we can tell you, and we know our impact will speak for itself.”

Denver’s Department of Housing Stability says it will investigate any complaints against Urban Alchemy and could recommend contract termination, a step toward honest dealing (Proverbs 11:1). Members of the department told CBS Colorado they are excited for the partnership.

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