Area organizations have been bracing to fill the needs of unhoused youth after a Boulder youth homeless shelter suspended its operations.

TGTHR, a Boulder-based nonprofit, announced May 13 that operations were ceasing at The Source, a 24/7 shelter for people aged 12 to 24 years, due to a mix of hurdles. TGTHR said it faced “significant reductions” in expected funding from key public and private supporters — and that it was being impacted by the uncertainty of support from the federal government.

On top of that, The Source and Chase House, a youth residential treatment center operated by TGTHR, were closed by the Colorado Department of Human Services on April 21. That was because of issues in TGTHR’s process for reporting background checks to the department.

Chase House re-opened May 16, TGTHR spokesperson Alex Bergland said.

“Our outreach team and our shelter are working to support as many of the homeless youth as we can, but the hole left here is significant,” Lisa Sweeney-Miran, CEO of the homeless support organization Haven Ridge, told the Daily Camera. “There is already (generally) no emergency shelter for families in the county, losing the youth shelter as well is incredibly difficult.”

The Source provided beds and daily drop-in services from showers to meals to help with job searches — and served 234 young people in 2024, Bergland said. Amid the recent changes it has faced, TGTHR said The Landing at The Matthews House in Loveland and Urban Peak in Denver were viable options for impacted youth.

Urban Peak and The Landing provide similar services as The Source.

“I can say that the closure has increased the need within the region,” said Aaron Brown, the youth and young adult director at The Matthews House. “We, as The Landing, are well aware that we will be impacted by that.”

Christina Carlson, CEO of Urban Peak, said the organization has seen youth come in for its drop-in services and shelter. Carlson added that Urban Peak tends to serve youth from around the country, in part because children are moved around the foster care system. Urban Peak recently opened a new site called The Mothership to provide more services.

“We used to have 40 beds and now we have capacity up to 136, but we’ve had a lot more people accessing services and the need is high (across the state),” said Carlson, who added that the need for organizations such has Urban Peak has increased in the state and U.S. in her nearly eight years as the organization’s CEO.

This comes not long after the Boulder shelter All Roads reduced its capacity in late March due to funding cuts. These closures paired together have exacerbated the need for support in the area, Sweeney-Miran said.

Haven Ridge has been supplementing The Source’s drop-in services or connecting youth with those who can since The Source’s closure, said Sweeney-Miran, who added that eligible clients are at the top of Haven Ridge’s waitlist for shelter.

“(O)ur outreach team is supporting clients with additional resources for housing (connections to Urban Peak and others, depending on the age, sex, etc. of the clients), and offering peer counseling, hot meals, and other needed items to those who have been unable to relocate so far,” Sweeney-Miran wrote in an email.

Brown, meanwhile, said that it will serve the impacted youth to the best of its ability.

“There is a large need for space and beds for this age group,” Brown said. “It’s unfortunate what occurred at The Source did happen but we are prepared to meet the needs the best we can.”