Almost 30 people have found refuge in the parking lot of the Lakewood United Methodist Church for what, for many, is the first stage of a longer fall into homelessness: vehicular homelessness.
The church is currently the only participant in the city's pilot program bringing the statewide Colorado Safe Parking Initiative, meant to give people having to sleep in their car a safe place to park for the night, into Lakewood. The Council heard a six-month update on Feb. 13, and according to Pastor Ben Hensley of that church, it’s not only going well for the people but for the church, too.
“We wanted to put some of our money and our property where our mouth was as a church in terms of what we profess, our faith ... we need to be part of the solution,” Hensley told the Jeffco Transcript.
The initiative was first started in 2019 by two Denver residents, and by the end of 2022 had 11 lots in five of the seven metro areas, with four in Jefferson County — including the church in Lakewood. There is no shortage of people who could use the lot, either.
According to a 2019, month-long homelessness count across Jefferson County, almost 500 people were homeless in Lakewood alone, with about 1,000 people total and 200 living in their cars in the county as a whole.
“The ultimate goal is to help people get out of living in their car and into a more supportive system,” Mayor of Lakewood Adam Paul said.
It’s also to add another immediate tool to address homelessness, he said, which has certainly risen since 2019.
Rising rent prices have led to an increase in homelessness across the state as a whole, especially as rental prices have outpaced the rising of minimum wage, with almost 60% of a minimum wage worker’s paycheck expected to go to a landlord.
This increase and spread of people affected is something Hensley has witnessed through those who have stayed at the church’s lot, including elderly participants priced out of their homes, and even families with children.
“If you’re new to homelessness, perhaps you just got evicted or you just lost housing in some way, you still have a car and still need to have a job,” Hensley said. “If you don’t even have a stable place to sleep, then it’s a ticking time bomb until you lose your job, because you can’t do your job with no sleep.”
The program started in Lakewood in July, through the Council approving an ordinance for a two-year pilot version of the Initiative. Hensley said the program has gone well, and he knows it’s effective, as 13 people have moved on to “more secure forms of housing.”
“It is worth mentioning that our safe parking residents have actively prevented some crime on our property and have been great neighbors,” he added. One example he gave is a participant stopping someone from throwing a rock through the church’s window, but other burglaries and vandals have been stopped from participants being in the lot.
“I also like the idea of how it kind of short-circuits people’s arguments about homelessness being a form of crime. Or when their presence just means there’s more crime, which isn’t true,” he explained. “In our case, it actually creates less crime.”
The issue now, brought up by the Council as well as Paul and Hensley, is expanding the program.
“I think this is a great program, one is a sad number. I think we can do much better here, and I think we’ve seen there’s a lot of benefits to this,” Councilmember Jeslin Shahrezaei commented in the Feb. 13 meeting.
Hensley has tried to speak to other churches, he explained, but he understands there’s “a lot of reasonable fear and insecurity around any church making a decision to do something like this.”
“Send me to anyone that may be interested, because I really believe in the effectiveness of this program,” he continued.
