Northglenn Transitional Home for Sex Offenders, Mentally Ill Sparks Controversy
City of Northglenn and state grapple over transition housing for registered sex offenders, mentally ill, substance abusers
Carol McKinley Mar 31, 2024
Neither the state nor the City of Northglenn wants to budge in a tug of war over plans for a facility that would house dozens of registered sex offenders and mentally ill residents in a neighborhood near schools and a playground.
The Mental Health Transitional Living Home — the subject of the tug of war — is comprised of two adjacent buildings at 11255 and 11275 Grant Drive in Northglenn that can house 32 patients.
Northglenn city leaders maintain that the neighborhood, which is packed with families, is not the right place for such a facility. The state counters that the program is necessary for Colorado’s crowded mental health hospitals.
Residents are expected to start trickling into their rooms in the next couple of months.
Directly across the street from the transitional facility is a row of public housing and an industrial events center. Their next door neighbors are Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church and one-story bungalows with Easter decorations surrounding them on the back side.
On Friday, workers were reinforcing a lattice barrier, which encloses the outside of the spacious front porch. It is placed there to block curious people from seeing in — or out.
Northglenn police, the city and neighbors want the front area off-limits as a lounging space because children regularly walk by it on their way to and from school.
“As long as they stay in the backyard, I’m OK with it,” said a woman named Danielle who wished to keep her last name anonymous. “These people are trying to transition. You can’t blame them for their past.”
Trashed in front of the facility was a sign that identified what the buildings used to be — Sunnyslope Estate Personal Care and Assisted Living — until 2022, when it closed due to violations.
The Mental Health Transitional Living Home will be run by a private contractor. The program is the first of its kind within Colorado’s behavioral health system, in which people who have been hospitalized in the state’s mental health hospitals will be supported as they transition back into the community.
Amid outcry from parents, parishioners and businesses, the Colorado Office of Civil and Forensic Mental Health said the proposed facility complies with Northglenn’s city ordinances, which specify how close it can be to schools and parks.
“We do not foresee changes in these locations,” said Department of Human Services spokesperson Mark Techmeyer.
This is the third location established as part of a plan to open facilities across the metro Denver area that will be used as a transition to less restrictive inpatient care for those with severe mental health conditions or substance abuse problems and sex offenders.
Already, a similar 12-bed home in Littleton opened last September, a six-bed facility began operating in Denver in November and an eight-bed home opened in Colorado Springs earlier this month.
Ten more are on the books, including three in Lakewood, two in Pueblo, one in Westminster, and another one each for Denver and Northglenn, Techmeyer said.
‘Lack of transparency’
Techmeyer confirmed that, of all of the planned transitional homes, the one which is the center of the controversy in Northglenn will house the most residents, a fact which is a major concern for City Manager Heather Geyer.
She’s also frustrated with “the lack of transparency” from the state Department of Human Services, she said, adding city leaders found out about the proposal, not from the state agency itself, but from Northglenn police.
Geyer said that on Jan. 16, a Department of Human Services employee sent a request for information to a police department general inbox, where it sat for a few days.
She didn’t find out about the plan until a week later.
“They touted this program as innovative. But if it’s truly innovative, where is the collaboration with local government?” she said.
On March 12, Geyer sent letters to affected residents to let them know about their new neighbors.
The backlash from that news is just beginning.
Not in my backyard
Residents at a public comment session during Monday night’s regularly scheduled City Council meeting said they felt blindsided by the development.
“There’s increased crime, homelessness and now we want to open this facility,” Melissa Ryan, a parent of two, told the council. “If Northglenn sits by and watches this happen, I would be appalled. What is going to happen if somebody gets nabbed or somebody gets raped?”
Others were worried about Northglenn’s reputation and loss of revenue if people stop shopping there.
“I never thought I’d be a NIMBY person but I am now because I can see the big picture. Stores won’t have people coming to patronize them,” said Deanna Midfield.
City Attorney Corey Hoffmann explained to the audience that Northglenn “does not have the legal authority to challenge” the decision.
Rev. Ernest Bayer of Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church said that he is sympathetic to the plight of the mentally ill and registered sex offenders, but wondered if the city is setting them up to reoffend because of the temptation of the “many children who walk right through our parking lot on the way to Stukey Elementary.”
Immaculate Heart of Mary’s parking lot touches the northern lawn of the Northglenn transitional home.
After Good Friday services, Immaculate Heart of Mary parishioner Darlene Hunter had tears in her eyes when asked about whether she minded having the residents living so close to the church.
“There but for the grace of God go I. And go the people I love!” she said.
“I never thought I’d be a NIMBY person but I am now because I can see the big picture. Stores won’t have people coming to patronize them,” said Deanna Midfield.
City Attorney Corey Hoffmann explained to the audience that Northglenn “does not have the legal authority to challenge” the decision.
Rev. Ernest Bayer of Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church said that he is sympathetic to the plight of the mentally ill and registered sex offenders, but wondered if the city is setting them up to reoffend because of the temptation of the “many children who walk right through our parking lot on the way to Stukey Elementary.”
Immaculate Heart of Mary’s parking lot touches the northern lawn of the Northglenn transitional home.
After Good Friday services, Immaculate Heart of Mary parishioner Darlene Hunter had tears in her eyes when asked about whether she minded having the residents living so close to the church.
“There but for the grace of God go I. And go the people I love!” she said.
Within the law
Northglenn’s local ordinance requires registered sex offenders to live at least 750 feet from schools and 500 feet from any park, playground, licensed day care, recreation center or public swimming pools.
To make sure that the state followed these rules, the city mapped the distance and found that the closest school, Stukey Elementary, was 859 feet from the transitional home, 109 feet outside of the required boundary.
The closest daycare is 922 feet away and Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church, at 11385 Grant, has a playground that sits 515 feet away. The church grounds actually butt up to the state home’s property, but religious buildings are not protected under Northglenn’s city ordinance.
While the state home is within the distance compliance, for Northglenn leaders and some neighbors it is too close for comfort.
Sex offenders
The transitional facility in the 11000 block of Grant is not an island. Northglenn is already home to 81 registered sex offenders, nine of whom live in District #4, which includes 104th to Malley and 112th and Washington to I-25, according to Geyer.
In her March 12 letter, Geyer asked citizens to speak up at a meeting scheduled for next Wednesday.
The letter, obtained by The Denver Gazette, advised them that their questions will be answered by the Department of Human Services staff and by the contractors who will be running the facility.
Geyer said the city has already heard from many residents who plan to be there either in person or virtually.
Parents who were waiting in front of Stukey Elementary at 11080 Grant Drive for their kids to get out of school are worried.
“I don’t want my son to ride his bike along past that place by himself,” said Chris Bellcour of his third grader.
He’s hoping Northglenn police will be a fixture outside of the school once the facility is up and running in a couple of months.
This article was originally published by the Denver Gazette.