Church withdraws Loveland homeless-shelter plan; task force disbands

LOVELAND – A Loveland church that wanted to create a 24/7 homelessness resource center and overnight shelter for unhoused people has given up on its plan, and a task force working to advance the plan has decided to dissolve.

The moves announced Thursday follow a Dec. 17 decision by the Loveland City Council to indefinitely table the rezoning plan that the project would need while the city’s staff more thoroughly studies its potential impacts  — but with no fixed date on when that report would be due.

First Christian Church notified the city that it has withdrawn the application for a planned unit development on its property at 2000 N. Lincoln Ave. The church had been working with the Loveland Homelessness Task Force for months to get the property rezoned.

In a statement emailed to BizWest late Thursday, Kimberly Overholt, the city’s manager of communications and engagement, said that “homelessness is a complex topic to which there are no easy answers. While we can’t speak to the Homeward Alliance and First Christian Church announcements, I can confirm that we are looking to present information about the city’s homeless-program expenditures and shelter strategies during a City Council study session on Feb. 25.”

The Rev. Michael Stein, the church’s lead pastor, said that because the city has provided “no further information regarding the scope or duration of such a study, who will conduct it or how it will be financed, church leaders see the action as a constructive denial.”

The City Council chamber had been packed with residents anxious to testify for and against the project, but most of them filed out soon after the meeting opened when council member Patrick McFall introduced a motion to delay the vote that was passed on a 5-4 vote.

McFall’s motion directed the city manager’s office “to commission a comprehensive impact study” that would “remove speculation from the discussion and provide a clear, fact-based understanding of the short- and long-term effects” from which the council can make a decision.

However, no “date certain” was added to the motion.

Reached Thursday for reaction to the moves by the church and the task force, McFall told BizWest that “I was not expecting that, nor was that my intention.”

His motivation to delay the vote and direct the study, he said, was that “I was hearing things from people coming before City Council that 80% of the people who are homeless here in Loveland are longtime Loveland people who had lost their homes or otherwise fallen on bad times. I found those numbers hard to believe.”

McFall said he and council member Dana Foley walked through the homeless encampment and “talked to numerous unhoused people. Not one person we talked to said, ‘Oh, I’m from Loveland.’ They were from Michigan and California and other different parts of the country. So I wondered where are these numbers coming from?”

McFall contended that when unhoused people go to a Loveland facility such as the resource center, they are asked to register to vote. “There’s nothing illegal about that,” he said, “but the address they were using was the city facility.”

As for the status of the study he directed the city to pursue, McFall said he asked that question of new Loveland city manager James Thompson last Friday and was told his office was awaiting the return of the city’s homelessness point person from vacation.

“Because they hadn’t started it yet,” McFall said, “I asked him to make sure to get people on all sides of the equation. I want it to be as equal as we can get it so we’re getting good, solid information.”

One of the four votes against McFall’s Dec. 17 motion was from council member Erin Black, who contended that the research had already been done by the task force. “The charge from the previous council was to come up with the data and the plan, and they have, over and over and over,” Black said. “You have consistently dismissed the data. You have consistently kicked the can down the road.”

Although McFall said Thursday that he was “saddened about all the effort the church and the task force put into this,” he added that “I’ve been adamant that this is not a Loveland problem,” he said. “It should be led by the county at a minimum with the cities on board.

“I’m hoping we continue to find a regional solution,” McFall said, “and I hope Loveland is at the table.”

However, both Stein and Mayor Jacki Marsh said they felt blindsided by McFall’s move to table the issue.

“We were in the council chamber prepared to present ample evidence that we complied with every legal requirement, when the motion was raised and approved to table our hearing,” Stein said. “We were told to clear the room, along with members of the public who had come to speak their minds. They said they wanted more information, but didn’t want to hear the information we came to present.”

The task force, an initiative of Homeward Alliance, said in a news release that its decision to disband also was prompted by what it saw as the city’s inaction.

“The task force felt that the council’s decision ran contrary to their previous direction and showed a lack of commitment to pursuing proven homelessness solutions,” its representatives said in the news release. “The task force therefore chose not to continue its efforts under the current framework.”

Homeward Alliance, which until November had been contracted by the city as its lead agency for services to the unhoused population, runs a day resource center for homelessness in Fort Collins and offers advice and consulting on how to address homelessness around Northern Colorado.

“I understand their frustration,” Marsh told BizWest on Thursday. “We did a disservice to ourselves and our community by not hearing the proposal. There were concerns, and we never got to hear how they intended to mitigate those concerns.”

She said Loveland business owners had aired their concerns about the homeless situation as early as 2022, and the city was allotted three years to come up with a solution. She noted that that three-year timeframe expires this spring.

Meanwhile, Marsh said, “we have a meeting on Feb. 25 at the request of some of our councilors” about how to trim or even recoup some of the money the city has paid for homeless services. She said the city had bought tents from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for an encampment along Railroad Avenue north of First Street and behind an old water-treatment plant, but then also had to purchase air conditioning and heaters for the tents. Those units then needed transformers, she said.

“At the time, they were in short supply because of COVID,” she said, “so our own brilliant people created their own.”

The Loveland task force, which had united nonprofits, faith-based organizations and private funders to develop sustainable homelessness solutions in Loveland, had worked for more than 18 months to find answers.

“It is deeply unfortunate that the Homelessness Task Force must disband, not due to a lack of commitment or solutions, but because of the delay tactics of the City Council,” Kari Clark, executive director of Alternatives to Violence and a task force member, said in a prepared statement. “The real harm will be felt by those in our community who are experiencing homelessness — people who need shelter, stability and support. Without meaningful action, the challenges facing Loveland will only continue to grow, impacting both those experiencing homelessness and the broader community. This inaction does not make the issue disappear; it only makes it harder for those who are already struggling.”

The 4.21 acres where the church has been located since 1962 is currently split zoned between commercial and residential designations, a situation which no longer is allowed in Loveland. The city’s comprehensive plan shows the entire tract as being intended for corridor commercial use. The church sought in its application to unify the property under a newly adopted zoning designation specifically for homeless shelters. The ordinance the council could have considered at its Dec. 17 meeting would have rezoned the tract from “Emerging Business” on its west half and “Low Density Residential” on its east half to “Planned Unit Development.”

Hundreds of residents spoke for and against the project at a hearing in September, at which planning commissioners voted 7-1 against recommending that the City Council approve the rezoning. The debate continued into the Dec. 17 City Council public-comment period, with some residents at odds over whether homeless shelters attracted mostly families with children or mostly violence-prone drug abusers.

Both locally and nationwide, faith-based groups have been collaborating with partners to transition their properties to address homelessness and the lack of affordable housing in

their communities. Heart of the Rockies Christian Church, with the same Disciples of Christ denominational affiliation as First Christian Church, is constructing more than 80 affordable housing units on its Heartside Hill project northwest of the intersection of Trilby Road and Lemay Avenue in south Fort Collins. Meanwhile, Crossroads Church is working with the Loveland Housing Authority and other partners to add more than 300 affordable-housing units on 74 acres at the southeast corner of 57th Street and Taft Avenue, adjacent to the church in the Legacy Crossing development in north Loveland.

When First Christian Church was founded in 1962, the congregation owned about four times the land on which it currently resides. Intending from the outset to include affordable housing, it partially fulfilled that goal in 1976 when a partnership with the Loveland Housing Authority helped to establish the Silver Leaf senior housing development.

Stein said his congregation is determined to continue that mission.

“Back in September, we sat through a seven-hour meeting as Loveland residents told the Loveland Planning Commission about encounters with unhoused persons in their neighborhoods, including ours,” he said. “Although the residents seemed evenly divided on our specific location, there was consensus that they wanted their city government to be an active part of a solution.”

Stein said the church has no specific plans for an alternative approach, but noted that valuable relationships with multiple faith and nonprofit organizations have been formed during the process.

“I drive by the tiny resource center on South Lincoln every day,” Stein said. “I see the overflow of homeless persons out onto the sidewalks and streets. It makes me think of the story Jesus tells in Luke’s Gospel about a man condemned to hell because he has the resources to help the homeless beggar on his doorstep and refuses to do so. For Christians, taking the lead on meeting this challenge is a moral imperative.”

During the task force’s operation, according to its news release, it had numerous accomplishments:

• It supported local nonprofits and the City of Loveland in transitioning to the statewide Homeless Management Information System, improving service coordination and data-driven decision-making.
• It created real-time homelessness data dashboards, ensuring Loveland’s representation in the Northern Colorado Continuum of Care system.
• It assisted with obtaining funding and facilitated the launch of a dedicated street outreach team in Loveland.
• It successfully advocated for amendments to the city’s code to allow for homeless shelters in Loveland, which was approved on July 16, 2024.
• It conducted an extensive education campaign, including public meetings, canvassing, mailers, surveys and presentations to key community groups and organizations.

As for what happens next with the issue of homelessness in Loveland, Marsh acknowledged that “it’s a sticky-wicket issue. I don’t know where we are at this point.”

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