The City of Northglenn said it was unable to reach an agreement with the state on a pair of transitional living facilities for individuals with mental health conditions run by the Colorado Department of Human Services.
The facilities, located across from a public housing project and an industrial events center, are intended for patients who have been discharged from mental health hospitals but aren’t yet ready to fully transition back into society.
The project is a result of House Bill 1303, a 2022 law that directed the human services agency and the Department of Healthcare Policy and Financing to create, develop or contract to add at least 125 additional beds at mental health residential facilities throughout the state for adults in need of ongoing supportive services.
For the past two years, the City of Northglenn has expressed its worries to the state regarding the facility’s potential impacts on community safety.
In 2024, Northglenn City Council adopted an emergency ordinance prohibiting registered sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a school and 500 feet from a park, playground, daycare center, or recreation center.
The Northglenn Police Department has been called to the transitional living facilities 78 times since 2024, according to the city’s website, including for a stabbing earlier this year.
The individual responsible for the stabbing, who was found to have a history of violent behavior, was arrested and taken to the Adams County Jail, where he is being held on a $50,000 bond.
In late January, Northglenn Mayor Meredith Leighty sent a letter to Human Services Executive Director Michelle Barnes, formally expressing the city’s worries about the transitional living facilities.
In the letter, Leighty said the city is “particularly concerned” about the high volume of calls, as well as incidents that she believes suggest “inadequate on-site supervision” and “the absence of clear accountability mechanisms when operational deficiencies persist.”
“Overall, the City believes the State has failed in screening for high-risk individuals, monitoring and managing the MHTL facilities in Northglenn,” the city’s website states. “The State is placing violent individuals in the facilities without proper disclosure, safeguards, or coordination with law enforcement, placing residents, staff, first responders, and the neighboring community at unacceptably high risk.”
The state issued a draft memorandum of understanding in response, which City Manager Heather Geyer said failed to incorporate the city’s safety requests.
“The safety of Northglenn residents is non-negotiable,” Leighty said in a news release on Friday. “We approached these negotiations in good faith, with clear and reasonable asks grounded in two years of documented incidents and community concern. We remain committed to finding a path forward, but not at the expense of the people we are entrusted to protect. Northglenn will not accept an agreement that looks good on paper while leaving our families, our first responders, and our neighborhoods without meaningful safeguards.”
While the city said it will continue to pursue “legislative and legal remedies to protect its residents,” lawmakers in the state’s General Assembly have introduced a bill to codify Northglenn’s sex offender ordinance into state law.
Sponsored by Sen. Kyle Mullica, D-Thornton, and Lori Goldstein, D-Westminster, House Bill 1285 would prohibit registered sex offenders from staying in mental health residential facilities located within 1,000 feet of a school. The bill is scheduled to be heard in committee on April 14.
Northglenn and Westminster are hosting a joint town hall at the Legacy Ridge Golf Course in Westminster on April 12 at 3 p.m. for community members to speak with legislators.
The Denver Gazette has asked the human service department for comment, but did not receive a response before this story was published.
Carol McKinley contributed to this story.