Solid Ground Apartments opened in Lakewood in 2024. It is a Jefferson Center facility that is located in the Two Creeks neighborhood. Lakewood was a community supporter. City Council members voted to tour the facility in order to learn more about any future facilities that Lakewood would own, operate or support, which is a Council initiative.
Solid Ground appears to be the first permanent supportive project for the unhoused from the Jefferson Center and they found a home in Lakewood. The funds came from a federal grant. According to HUD, permanent supportive housing is “permanent housing in which housing assistance (e.g., long-term leasing or rental assistance) and supportive services are provided to assist households with at least one member (adult or child) with a disability in achieving housing stability.”
During the time that the Jefferson Center was working on this supportive housing, the Center was forced to close the mental health program for kids. There is no evidence that the Center could have used federal grants to sustain the mental health program with or without housing. Federal grants for affordable housing are paid for by printing money which leads to inflation of consumer prices, including higher housing prices.
From jcmh.org: “Jefferson Center proudly manages over 420 housing vouchers that range from Housing Choice Vouchers (formerly Section 8) through Permanent Supportive Housing Vouchers.”
By jcmh.org statistics, there are about 453 people counted living on the streets.
Lakewood Council may also tour other facilities as part of researching future opportunities.
The Jefferson Center is a non-profit who has provided Jefferson County with mental health services for 66 years. It was previously known as the Jefferson Center for Mental Health. Their stated missions is “To inspire hope, improve lives, and strengthen our community by providing mental health and related solutions for individuals and families.”
Progressives (and, the RINOs) in Colorado all but ensured that many people can no longer afford to start a family (or to keep their family comfortable), as it is way down the list of the Best & Worst States to Raise a Family.
While ranking 18th overall, unsurprisingly, it ranks 40th in Health & Safety and 36th in Education & Child Care. Furthermore, if one looks at Massachusetts (ranked 1st):
“Massachusetts is the best state to raise a family, in large part because it provides a good blend of economic opportunities and safe conditions for children. The Bay State has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country and lots of job opportunities relative to the labor force, which ensures that parents will be able to provide for their children. It’s not the cheapest state, as housing and childcare costs are relatively high compared to most of the nation, but residents make up for this with fairly high incomes.”
And Minnesotta (ranked 3rd):
“Minnesota is the third-best state to raise a family, at least if you’re not averse to its harsh winters. Minnesota is a great place to find a job to support your family, as it has one of the highest median family incomes after adjusting for the cost of living and one of the lowest unemployment rates. In addition to good pay and job stability, residents also receive reliable long-term benefits, as Minnesota ranks at the top for employer-based retirement plan access and participation.”
Even looking at other states in the top 10, the theme is common, “the housing is expensive, BUT, the people living there have much better economic opportunities, being able to secure better pay relative to the cost of housing and, in turn, being ale to pay for the housing, regardless of it being expensive.”
In the meantime, Colorado’s common clay of the new West has spent close to a decade destroying the economic potential of the state. They finally succeeded – “Colorado’s economic growth fell from 5th in the nation to 41st, according to new report.” It is as if only focusing on building “luxury apartments” and metro-district infested suburbs is not the way to create a vibrant, multi-faceted state economy. Colorado now has an imbalance of well-paying jobs vs. some of the most expensive housing in the country. A single person in Colorado needs an income of $106,579 and a family with two children, an income of $272,314, just to ‘live comfortably’ in Denver.
The common clay of the new West has decided that we need gobs of boxes ensuring profit for the corporate entities, under the guise of “if we build more housing, there will be more jobs”. What jobs? While adding thousands of Metro-District-fee-paying and rental units, Lakewood, one of the largest cities in Colorado, has lost jobs.
The common clay in the Jefferson County, Colorado, not only rolled over for the developers, but all but ensured that large swaths of the county are now setup for an economic failure (and a potential wildfire disaster).
When I was a director on the Board of one of the water and sanitation districts in Jefferson County, after inquiring about the insufficient water pressure in some of the fire hydrants in parts of the District, I got the good-ole-don’t-worry-about-it. With some follow-up claims of how “pumps would keep pumping if needed” or something to that effect. One now wonders if such assurances were made to the residents of Pacific Palisades?
In the meantime, Jefferson County’s common clay of the new West ensured that thousands more houses have been built on the other side of the hill from the said district, in a high fire risk area, with “interesting” wind patterns and with questionable water availability. Nor did they seem to study the findings of the report on the Marshall fire, with one of the findings being that the structures were placed too close to each other. Who wants to place bets on who and what will be blamed if another calamity takes place?
Instead of wisely allocating water to the purposes of driving economic development, the common clay handed over the precious drops that remain to the big business interests to bolster their profits, while the rest of us get told to conserve.
Not to be outdone by Morrison in the “we have no clue what economic development means” department, Lakewood’s common clay of the West has been working overtime to ensure that one of the largest cities in Colorado is set up for an economic implosion. The signs are all over the place:
Photo from Alex: Results of Lakewood’s “economic development.” Their only answer is, “well, we need more housing”.” Never mind that there is nothing but housing around the businesses which are closing down in droves.
The latest episode from a relatively new local podcast with a philosophical viewpoint: White Blood Cells – Protectors and Leaders. Take a look and see what you might have in common.
Quotes from this episode:
“This dam analogy — it’s holding stuff back and the media was part of their [Democrat] dam, a big big part of their dam, the the Legacy Media is a big part of their dam, the legal system, the capital market system, the corporate America system was all part of that dam that was holding this truth back. You can call the water a lot of different things, I think it’s working class Americans, they’re behind the dam, the truth is behind it, there’s a natural gravitational pull that’s got to be dammed up”
“that’s plunder if you have an illegal money system and I don’t want to go too far into that because it’s complicated, that our money system — the Federal Reserve notes that we use to exchange — it’s fiat currency and that is theft.”
“back in 2008, it’s like when all these Banks got bailed out and everybody got slapped on the wrist but there was really no consequences and no one was able to fail it’s like that just perpetuates the problem because no one got indicted during that whole Global financial crisis”
“this [healthcare] CEO thing is just a tiny representation of cracks showing up in this dam and the and the thing that helps you understand the pressure behind it is all this social media response”
“Everybody knows that the only thing that solves every problem is your willingness to do hard work. If you are willing to do hard work well you know you’ll be fine”
January 13, 2025, Lakewood City Council will vote in a new ordinance regulating metropolitan districts. The Denver Post has done deep investigations into metro districts, exposing them as mechanisms that bury taxpayers in debt with no accountability. Other cities are starting to pay attention and not allowing metro districts. Lakewood, on the other hand, is still supporting developer-sponsored metro districts. Staff has been bringing forward this ordinance since 2021 and backing down against resident pushback in Lakewood and across the state. Now the time has come.
The new ordinance has language attempting to fix some existing problems with metro districts. However, a city ordinance cannot fix the problems that exist within state law. Lakewood is passing the ordinance now to enable the developers of The Bend to apply for metro district status, which is anticipated in February.
Metro districts are critical for developers to make money from bonds without a vote from residents – because there are no residents to vote yet. Research shows this debt does not benefit residents.
“…developers issue a small tranche of debt on the bond market with unfavorable terms (above-market interest) and then buy the debt themselves so future homeowners will end up paying the developer for decades through their property taxes for a completely unnecessary load of bad debt.” -Denver Post
“Metro district financing is the opposite of affordable housing.” – Rooney Valley News
Will Lakewood have a “safe” metro district ordinance? Not if state law prevails. They can only make baby improvements.
“[metro districts] all lead to the same result – taxing residents without representation based upon single party agreements by a developer with a confessed conflict of interest to pay themselves profits by issuing taxes with no accountability for how the money is spent.” – Rooney Valley News
“…debt is often intentionally hidden and getting true control of metro districts can be hard if not impossible.” – Denver Post
For example, one of the improvements Lakewood attempts is to reveal home cost differentials showing that residents will not be over-paying for homes. Except there is no way to audit the costs, get company financials, or hold the developers accountable if they are overcharged.
“The Service Plan shall include a cost estimate of what an individual property within the District would cost an End-user with and without the establishment of the District.“ – proposed ordinance
Once the metro district status is granted, Lakewood has little authority to make sure the developer governs fairly, a point that several Council Members brought up in past meetings. As the quotes above show, metro districts are historically problematic and more expensive for the end-residents. Lakewood hopes it will be different this time.
“This time” includes The Bend development at 6th and Union. As of fall 2024, the developer anticipated applying for metro district status in February. Then they would have the advantages of being a government entity, while being blighted and thereby partially funded by Lakewood.
All opinions in this or any post are the personal opinions of the author
A resident sent pictures of what he’s sees as new gang activity in his neighborhood. The picture below is an example, taken near Lamar and Alameda on the south side.
Two to three days after this marking there a fire set right next to it. Now similiar writing is appearing in Belmar and on sidewalks near In & Out.
Please share any updates you may have. Police were not asked because this is so small. But residents sometimes see what’s going on in their neighborhood.
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Note: This is pertinent to Lakewood because Lakewood is trying for exactly the same kind of high-density, multi-unit homes. They have already contracted new codes to be written, and it’s scheduled to be voted on this spring. This is not a resident-led iniative but a regionally coordinated agenda.
LITTLETON, Colo. (KDVR) — On Tuesday (7 Jan), the city of Littleton held a public hearing to allow people to provide feedback on a proposal to amend Littleton’s Unified Land Use Code regarding housing types.
At the end of the meeting, city officials made the decision to indefinitely postpone the ordinance.
“Our goal is to see if we can address some of the housing issues that we have here in Littleton and the whole metro area,” said Mayor Kyle Schlachter.
When Lakewood City Council had the opportunity to study the effects of repealing laws like those that govern panhandling in the street, Council voted no. Council Members said they, “can’t imagine telling a voter that we said we’re going to get rid of the consequences to crime.”
What residents heard was “we want our laws to stay.”
What Council meant was literally, “we can’t tell people what we are doing.”
Nobody used false words, but a year later, Lakewood is still not enforcing its own laws and has not acknowledged the effects of removing the consequences.
Since that time, Lakewood has doubled down on permitting window washing by deciding not to put up new signs to deter window washers, while voting to put up new signs to change the speed limit, both of which carry the same traffic risk.
Residents are still voicing concerns and noting the lack of enforcement. A new thread on nextdoor.com appeared January 6, 2025. It disappeared within a day because Lakewood has vocal supporters on nextdoor who get people canceled (A big reason to support independent media!). Before it was removed, the post had over 200 comments, most of which agreed that panhandling and window washing on street medians was dangerous. Residents want Lakewood to do something about it.
Original post:
“Nextdoor post: Every single day, there are groups of men standing on medians by the intersections in Lakewood with their “windshield cleaning tool” going up to cars and touching them after people tell them “no”. All it takes is one of these guys to say someone “hit them” for a taxpaying ciizen to be sued. In addition, when I’ve tried to tell them to not touch my car, they get aggressive and nasty, take pictures of my car and myself, mock me, and group around my car at the stop light with their phones on me. I have called the Lakewood Police Dpt and they say there is only so much they can do. Other cities in the area have laws that people cannot stand on the medians (this is common sense, this is safety). Lakewood needs to do the same. The gentleman said it also has to do with politics, and he suggested I reach out to the city council members. He said the more people that speak up about this, the better chance something will be done. If you agree that this is dangerous and shouldn’t be happening, I urge you to speak up to the city council members. The more voices the better.” – E on Nextdoor.com
Complaints:
Most neighbors said they felt threatened by the activity, especially females. Others felt endangered due to the high risk of accidents. Still more expressed frustration with Lakewood for not taking action the way other cities, like Arvada, are doing.
“The authorities need to get them out of the intersections, and stop harassing the drivers. It’s horrible. It makes Lakewood look like the hood.”
“Kipling and Colfax are awful too. The median is very narrow and when they have little kids in strollers sitting there it’s just unsafe.”
Some people disagreed that window washing was a problem at all. They didn’t seem to argue about its legality or status as a traffic hazard. Rather than addressing those issues, they argued that residents should be more compassionate. To those that feel threatened or endangered, the overwhelming response was to tell people to deal with it. That is, it was your fault for feeling threatened, not the fault of the window washers or the situation.
“I’ve never once seen them get aggressive. I have had them clean my windshield even after having them off. They are just trying to make a living. Isn’t that what we preach? Try to remember that these men came over the Darien Gap. Maybe even get your windows washed once in a while. This world is crazy. We don’t need to make it crazier by getting our panties in a wad. Sorry.”
Misinformation:
More troubling is the amount of misinformation out there. For instance, one resident said this wasn’t a Lakewood issue. She advised people to call the state. During this process she agreed with Lakewood’s strategy of unofficially repealing crimes without resident consent.
Lakewood Informer reached out the CDOT and the Colorado State Patrol and confirmed that Lakewood are indeed the responders to this situation, if they so choose. Lakewood should have time to police all its laws.
“I’d rather have LPD responding to serious crimes, such as assault, rape, shooting, robbery, etc. BTW Colfax, Wadsworth, Kipling, etc., are all state highways. Contact the state.”
One resident said he reached out to Lakewood City Council and was told there was no law against panhandling. Does City Council really not know the laws that have been brought to their attention numerous times?
“I contacted Lakewood City Council including the mayor and I was told there’s no law against panhandling. But these illegals are not panhandling. They try to intimidate people and stand in the road. The City of Lakewood will not do anything. I tried for weeks and didn’t achieve anything. If people would STOP giving these people money they would go away.”
According to another resident, Mayor Wendi Strom specifically called these “crimes of survival” – a concept Council denied defending when refusing to research repealing the law.
“I spoke up about this at city council meeting and Wendy the mayor told me it’s a crime of survival.”
Are Council or staff interpreting Lakewood laws are illegal and so are unofficially repealing them without a proper vote?
Or are they playing word games to say “panhandling is not illegal” while not addressing the fact that there are laws that address the issue?
City Council has refused to research effective policing strategies or to take action to enforce Lakewood laws. They have also not officially repealed any laws. But Lakewood residents seem to have no doubt that Lakewood is not enforcing its laws and they are noticing the detrimental effects.
Cold weather has been an accepted fact of Colorado life for thousands of years. That is, except in Lakewood, where normal winter weather has been declared an emergency for the last two years. The city’s seasonal emergency declaration allows Lakewood to bypass its own procedures and operate a homeless shelter — without a required permit. Did Lakewood lack planning, or did the city plan to use an emergency declaration to purposely operate without official votes? Another emergency declaration will be made, if it hasn’t already been, for 2025, the third year in a row.
“Any time there is forecast to be an extraordinary emergency/extreme weather event involving sustained temperatures at or below twenty (20) degrees Fahrenheit I have determined that a local extreme weather emergency exists requiring and authorizing me to exercise any or all of the emergency powers vested in me as City Manager…”
Extraordinary weather event? Meaning natural Colorado winter weather?
Sustained cold? Like, overnight? How is this extraordinary?
“In Lakewood, the summers are warm, the winters are very cold and snowy, and it is partly cloudy year-round. Over the course of the year, the temperature typically varies from 23°F to 87°F and is rarely below 7°F or above 95°F.” –Weatherspark.com
The weather itself is not the emergency. Rather, Lakewood leadership wanted to start a homeless shelter but did not want to go through the normal process of public hearings to decide on a homeless policy. This public process would be open for community comment but the establishment of homeless shelters is a contentious issue that could lead to unfavorable attention. So, to avoid this prickly issue, it appears that Lakewood City Manager Kathy Hodgson issued an emergency proclamation declaring that normal weather is an emergency, completely bypassing public policy processes, presumably with City Council’s full approval.
With this emergency mechanism in place, Lakewood could immediately start operating a homeless shelter. Interestingly, Lakewood had already applied for state funds, assuring the State that it would get the required permit when necessary. Unfortunately for the citizens, by the time the permit hearing is held (still in future), Lakewood leadership could claim the emergency process has been historically in place for the past few years, with funding appropriated – thus automatically approving the required permits.
A permit is necessary by code to operate a homeless shelter. Lakewood had to write a new law in 2023 to operate a temporary shelter.
The emergency shelter mechanism appears to be a carefully constructed misinformation tactic that abuses the public trust. Most significantly, Lakewood has completely bypassed important public policy discussions which resulted in citizens in cities like Arvada to vehemently oppose proposals for getting into the homelessness industry.
“Our hope is that we can ribbon cut this address as a 24/7 shelter in 2025,” said Chris Conner, Manager Housing and Thriving Communities. He assumes the shelter permit will be approved. Still, there was no mention of public policy debate of homeless response in Lakewood and no response to public criticism of the current shelter.
City Council has made it clear during study sessions that they approve of staff policy. Study sessions have no public comment or votes. The only vote so far has been to approve the fund appropriations. There will also be the anticipated vote from the Planning Commission for a shelter that everyone seems to think is guaranteed.
Lakewood City Manager Kathy Hodgson continues to get annual bonuses and salary increases, while Council approves of finding legal loopholes to make policies materialize without official Council votes. That keeps the policy power within the City Manager’s office and allows those involved to blame others for the lack of proper public process.
Have you noticed that Lakewood City Council has dug in pretty deep on their pretend parkland ordinance crisis and their related commitment to litigation and media manipulation over their job which is legislation to address the issues they created? We hope a more constructive attitude eventually emerges on city council.
In fact, we noticed the other day a Lakewood resident and attorney popped up on TV news with an issue that Lakewood wants 1,300 square feet of parkland dedication to allow her ranch home to be leveled and a new home built.
While this nice lady made some excellent points, the news reporting seemed to implicate the thousands of good citizens of Lakewood who brought forward the fee-in-lieu removal ordinance for causing the problem as if City Council has no authority or responsibility to consider any useful changes to the ordinance they adopted.
I did take the liberty of contacting her architect from their public email address and suggesting that City Council is authorized to address her concerns. I had previously communicated that information to the reporter but apparently some facts are not news.
