Notes from the Executive Director

As loyal and valued supporters of Colorado Safe Parking Initiative, I wanted to personally update you regarding local government funding for Denver SafeLots.

In June 2023 the city of Denver requested CSPI expand its services and offered a $600,000 grant to do so through December 2025, quadrupling the previous funding. They were pleased with what the pilot program had accomplished since opening the first SafeLot in 2020 and saw the need to grow the program to meet the increased need. CSPI entered into a contract with Denver and began work to add two additional SafeLots, per our contract.

In December, the city informed us they would redirect a full two-thirds of those committed funds. Through several meetings to clarify why this was happening, it was determined that CSPI would be left with a balance of $120,000 of the original $600,000, resulting in diminished services that will likely end by the end of 2024 without an inflow of additional funds. The importance of the original funding cannot be overstated. Not only were these critical dollars needed to help get people back into housing, but they also allowed CSPI to plan into the future and allowed time to build up additional resources to sustain the SafeLots that were established.

As a young organization, CSPI has not yet developed a robust diversified funding stream, and we have been fortunate to receive local government contract awards from most of the metro communities that has helped to kick start the innovations of Safe Parking programs. So, this means we are not able to backfill a loss such as this in the short term. But each year our donor base grows, and we are eager to continue building relationships with our supporters – you – so together, we can continue this important work.

For a city like Denver that has made a strong commitment to addressing and assisting the homeless population, we believe it benefits all of us to support programs like Safe Parking that provide a unique and necessary temporary solution to people living in their vehicles.

We will keep you up to date with any changes to CSPI programs and services. I welcome your feedback or questions about this matter; you can reach me at terrell@colosafeparking.org or 303.588.2746.