The Broomfield Community Foundation is giving $20,000 to the Colorado Safe Parking Initiative nonprofit group, which runs parking lots around the Denver metro area for people to legally stay in their vehicles overnight, including three Broomfield church parking lots whose addresses were not disclosed for safety reasons.

The money is planned to go to a Broomfield case manager to make sure that that person can stay on through the rest of 2024. The group’s case managers help people who use the parking sites to find resources and to navigate the bureaucracy around those resources.

“Housing is a top priority, and we want to make sure that we’re contributing to organizations that are also supporting housing efforts in Broomfield,” said Lisa Herman, the Broomfield Community Foundation board president.

All parking sites have a bathroom — often a portable toilet. The group partners with site hosts at each parking site — a person who vets everyone who parks.

Interested participants register for a permitted spot and are required to have car insurance, a valid driver’s license and a working and registered vehicle. The group’s executive director Terrell Curtis noted that part of what makes a parking lot “safe” is the community the parkers create.

“(The lots) are typically 10 to 15 cars. The people there get to know one another and create their own internal community and keep an eye on things,” Curtis said.

After two years of funding, Denver government officials cut the city’s contract with the group by $400,000, according to Denver Housing spokesman Derek Woodbury. He said there were challenges with spending and reporting during the contract period.

Curtis acknowledged that the nonprofit initially struggled to keep track of its expenditures but got caught up.

“We absolutely were a little in over our head in trying to get all those expense reports in,” Curtis said. “By the time they informed us that they felt this was a reason to withdraw the money, we were all caught up (with the expense reports).”

More than half of the original $750,000 in funding came from federal money from the American Rescue Plan Act enacted by President Biden during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Woodbury.

Those funds must be spent by the end of 2024, and Woodbury noted that the tight deadline was another reason for Denver’s decision to cut the funding.

Broomfield has about 300 unhoused people, according to minister and advocate Marrton Dormish. Dormish also estimates that, as of 2022, there was a deficit of 2,566 affordable units in Broomfield, based on his calculations made with housing and federal income data.

Curtis said the group can only help about 10% of people who reach out looking for a place to park.

The group currently runs 13 sites in the Denver metro area, with a new site in Adams County in the works. As the group works to expand its reach, Curtis suggests that safe parking sites are just one solution to the housing crisis in the Front Range.

“Ultimately, people need housing. Housing is the cure for homelessness. But we also need shelter tonight. We need people to be safe tonight, and we’ve got parking lots all over town,” said Curtis.