By Sage Kelley | Denver Gazette
Rising homelessness in Lakewood sparks concern over lack of resources and public safety risks.
Timothy Harris stood a block away from West Colfax Avenue in Lakewood, his items methodically packed in a cart, a tent propped up beside him.
Harris, who is homeless but originally from Mesa County, has lived in Lakewood after being in Denver for years. To him, Lakewood offers more safety and accessible open space.
“Downtown Denver is kind of scary. It’s a little intimidating,” Harris said. “There are shootings and crime. But, back home, people freeze or get attacked by animals. There’s a difference in death, but it weighs out the same.”
Chanel Lewis, a homeless woman who has been in the Denver metro area since 2002 and now lives in Lakewood, also raised the issue of safety while interviewed at another spot, saying Denver has “a lot of chaos, violence, gangs, stuff like that.”
To her, it’s a “little bit” safer in Lakewood.
Cities surrounding Denver have seen an influx of homeless over the last few years despite fewer services available for them in the suburbs. Some officials faulted the homeless migration to issues within Denver, while others said it’s a growing problem across the board. In any case, Lakewood residents said they are increasingly becoming anxious with the seemingly high numbers of homeless in their city.
“We don’t know who’s down there. If we have a sexual predator move into our neighborhood, we’re supposed to be notified of it. Because they have no address, we don’t know who they are. We don’t know what they’ve done,” said Bob Meulengracht, a lifelong Lakewood resident. “It’s this anxiety that is caused when you see somebody pushing a shopping cart through your neighborhood.”
Numbers up in Lakewood
Lakewood’s point-in-time count in 2024 — part of an annual nationwide survey to provide a single night’s snapshot of homelessness in America — found 329 homeless people in the city on Jan. 22.
Out of that total, 94 were living in their vehicles, 142 were residing in tents, and 93 were living on the streets or staying in an extreme weather shelter for the evening.
The next closest city, Arvada, had 292 homeless people. In all, 925 were homeless in Jefferson County, while Denver had 6,539.
During the 2023 point-in-time count, the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative found 854 homeless in Jefferson County and 5,818 in Denver. The count did not break down how many were in Lakewood proper.
The 2022 count found 493 in Jefferson County and 4,794 in Denver.
“The number of people experiencing homelessness has steadily grown in the metro area, and we continue to work to find new ways to help the ever-growing population,” Stacie Oulton, a spokesperson for the City of Lakewood, told The Denver Gazette.
Pam Brier, CEO of the Action Center, maintained that it was a statewide problem.
“Certainly, in the Denver metro, the statistics are homelessness has increased by 10% just in the last year. That’s not a Lakewood problem. That’s a regional problem. It’s actually a national problem,” Brier said.
The Action Center is a nonprofit organization that has been in Lakewood since 1968, nestled near West Colfax Avenue.
The organization aims to prevent homelessness and help the homeless by providing services such as free clothing and groceries. It also offers mailboxes and a location to receive mail, along with financial programs like rent and utility assistance.
Sophia Mayott-Guerrero, the Lakewood City councilmember who serves the ward where the Action Center is located, agreed with Brier on the upward trend. The numbers are up in Lakewood, but they’re also up across the map, the councilmember said.
“It’s not just a Lakewood problem,” she said. “The amount of homelessness and unhoused people in Colorado, and metro Denver in particular, is increasing. Lakewood does not specifically have a problem,” Mayott-Guerrero said.
Regardless of what’s driving the increase, Lakewood residents said they are feeling the effects.
Worried about safety — and fire
Noah Shoemaker stood in the parking lot of the U-Haul facility on Wadsworth Boulevard, about 1.5 miles from the Action Center and West Colfax Avenue.
Shoemaker, a metro Denver resident and U-Haul employee, gazed at a 499-gallon propane tank towering over the corner of the parking lot.
“Underneath that bridge, they like to start fires,” Shoemaker said about the homeless, pointing to the Wadsworth overpass and the walkway next to Lakewood Gulch beneath it.
He added: “They’ll light fires, and it’s barely 100 feet away from the propane tank. Getting that caught on fire will level out Wadsworth and potentially kill a lot of people.”
Shoemaker said that in his past two months of working at U-Haul, he’s seen homeless people siphon gas from the U-Haul trucks, steal boxes, light fires, trash the box trucks, and gather under the overpass.