Lakewood closed on the purchase of the Navigation Center property on Wednesday, September 18, 2024. Travis Parker, Chief of the Sustainability and Community Development Department, made the announcement on Monday, Sept 16, during the budget presentation. The property has been leased until now. He added that Lakewood is working on an Intergovernmental Agreement to fund operations, which may include Arvada’s new navigation center as well. Such an agreement would allow other cities to contribute some funds while Lakewood takes on the long-term burden of caring for the unhoused. Lakewood will begin property renovations as soon as possible. The property has never been granted a shelter permit, which is the only opportunity for public input. Instead it has operated for years on an emergency basis and will continue to do so. The increased crime surrounding the area has been ignored by the city, as has the increase in homeless in Lakewood. City officials seem intent on providing more free to low-income housing despite these problems. Lakewood is also looking for properties to host transitional housing, like pallet homes, particularly along Colfax. Lakewood donated $500,000 to affordable housing projects this year.
Resident generated news about Lakewood, Colorado
Resident generated news about Lakewood, Colorado
LAKEWOOD INFORMER
Reference Shelf
Share your pictures!
Support the
Lakewood Informer
Latest Articles
- All Posts
- Budget
- Business
- Community
- Crime
- Development
- Elections
- Entrenched Bureaucracy
- Homeless
- Jeffco
- school
- Statewide
- Sustainability
- Transparency
- Vote Tally
- Word Games
The Colorado Department of Local Affairs published a press release regarding the development going in near Whippoorwill Dr, to showcase the positive impact of this housing funding locally. As a follow up, Lakewood Informer asked if DOLA was aware of the resident concerns or the dangerous interestion involved. There has been no response at this time. Williams Pointe: Housing Authority of the City of Lakewood, Colorado dba Metro West Housing Solutions (MWHS), was awarded a DOH loan of $4.4 million and a grant for $2.2 million to assist with new construction of Williams Pointe, a 44-unit apartment building in Lakewood. Read the full press release here: Colorado State Housing Board Announces Over $43M in Rental, Homeownership, and Supportive Housing Awards
The owners of Lakewood affordable housing are plagued by crime that is ruining their business and driving residents away. A piece of their property was taken by Lakewood in 2022 through eminent domain to be used as a bike path. Now that bike path, along RTD tracks, is home to so much illegal activity that the people living nearby are leaving their affordable housing to go elsewhere. Property owners made another plea to City Council on August 26 asking for police enforcement. Property owners met with RTD on September 9 and city representatives accepted the invitation to attend. However, no new actions or greater enforcement was promised. Property owners were urged to keep calling but their calls will remain a low priority since Lakewood does not prioritize drug use or vagrancy. “We have Section 8 people who do not want to live at our property and are moving out. We have higher turnover and vacancy costs. We are being put out of business by the issues going on across the street. Our business is to help and provide affordable housing.” – Property owner The owners have made hundreds of calls to police in the last years. The police are involved in several incidents but say their hands are tied so they try and disperse the people loitering, who then return and continue their activities, leaving evidence of drug use and drug deals on the property. City Council defends programs of selective enforcement or non-enforcement. These programs nullify the law, leaving...
Correction 9/21/24: There is no single commercial applicant currently under consideration for the Vivian property. This month, following a pre-qualification process, several applicants were invited to submit final proposals which are due in October. Correction 9/26/24: Paula Reed represents District 2, not District 1. District 2 includes Green Mountain and Lakewood High Schools . Erin Kenworthy is District 4 which has Alameda High School and the now closed Emory Elementary. Three Board Members are up for election this year: Danielle Varda – District 1, Paula Reed – District 2 and Mary Parker – District 5 Thank you readers for your corrections and information! An untested process caused misunderstandings and hiccups resulting in delays to Lakewood purchasing shuttered Jeffco schools. Lakewood is now negotiating to buy 3 acres of Vivian Elementary School. They are also still asking about acquiring Emory Elementary for use by the Action Center. At a meeting on September 13, 2024, City Councilors and Jeffco School Board Members were able to get a lot of their positions stated for the record; however, this remains a closed process with both managers negotiating on a staff level. There has been no presentation to the public of a plan for school properties. School district documents show that the district must approve the use designation. That means that Lakewood must have presented their plans for the Action Center months ago, during the same time Lakewood Mayor and City Manager were calling the stories “misinformation”. City officials appeared united in their efforts to...
City Council Member Rich Olver’s column was not included in the latest Looking@Lakewood because he explained alternative facts for the Council-approved TABOR ballot issue. He did not advocate for a position either way but Lakewood is. Lakewood initiated the ballot issue and spent $74,000 for a study to craft the ballot language to gain approval. Olver was told he wrote an opinion piece about a ballot issue so it couldn’t be printed. Olver then wrote a short piece to refer readers to his own website where he posts what the city won’t print. The city refused with no explanation. Print deadlines may be to blame. There is no column from Councilor Olver this month. Lakewood posted its own TABOR ballot piece in the newspaper, as it was designed and approved by the City to maximize voter approval (see pg 8). Under dispute is whether voters consider keeping rebates to be a new tax and if the new tax money will actually be spent as the ballot describes. Lakewood also published a piece about the budget, including vague explanations about how TABOR funds have been and will be used. This also steers voters into thinking that TABOR funds did not impact general fund expenditures. Olver tried to expound on this point as well. Councilor Olver did not advocate for or against the ballot issue. Instead, he explained things that might be misconstrued. Lakewood crafted this language, using tax dollars, before they approved it becoming a ballot issue. Today, Councilor Olver is...
The Lakewood Advisory Commission (LAC) has proposed changing its ethics rules to allow penalties for misinformation. This rule change is a result of information posted by the Lakewood Informer. As discussed in the public LAC meetings, this change would allow Commissioners to be removed from the LAC if they are found to have violated the new ethics rules. Lakewood Informer publisher, Karen Morgan, is also a volunteer Commissioner on the Lakewood Advisory Commission. Morgan posted an article by guest author Bill Foshag titled “A Review of Lakewood’s Proposed “Beneficial Home Electrification and Upgrade Program”. This piece was not authored by Morgan and made no claims to be from Morgan in an official capacity. It was published under the Lakewood Informer banner, which makes no claims to speak for Lakewood or the Lakewood Advisory Commission in any way. Note: This current article, authored by Morgan, also does not speak for Lakewood, the LAC or Morgan in any official capacity. Nevertheless, Morgan was asked to censor the Foshag article by changing the content. The Foshag article is a well written, thorough rebuttal of the information presented by the LAC in their report to the Lakewood City Council. Foshag presents clear facts and tells the side of the story not presented by the LAC. The LAC proposal makes several one-sided claims about climate change, the benefits of electrification through elimination of gas-powered appliances, and the need for government mandates and incentives. The LAC proposal includes no balance and no drawbacks to their recommendations. The...
End of Content.
