‼️Let’s dig into the proposed locations, since all but 1 are in my neighborhood.
1915-1919 E Colfax Ave
Colfax and Williams. Residential neighborhood. Across the street from The Gathering Place, the Victorian Holiday Chalet, and a Sinclair gas station that’s been troubled for years due to the City’s tolerance of dealers and drug parties, including a m—der in recent months.
BRT construction just ended. Hasn’t Pete’s Kitchen, Walgreens, and the Satire suffered enough??? (All 1 block away on Colfax & Race).
1700 E 17th Avenue
17th & Gilpin. Residential neighborhood. 1 block away from Denver Center for 21st Century Learning (DC-21), a DPS middle/high school school on 17th and Williams. More schools within 2 blocks.
1745 N Lafayette
Mostly Residential block, 1 block south of the main entrance to St. Joe’s hospital. I’m sure the families staying at the St. Christopher Inn will be glad the property already offers a security escort to St. Joes (if needed).
1711 N Lafayette. Same issues as above.
747 Santa Fe Drive.
Right in the heart of the Santa Fe Arts District
🚨 COMMUNITY HARM ALERT: Harm Reduction Action Center is still looking for a permanent building for their needle / meth pipe distribution site, and they have asked the city to keep these locations QUIET.
Lisa Raville of HRAC emailed city officials on October 7 and listed five more possible locations. She told everyone that she would “appreciate everyone’s confidentiality.” Raville is quietly trying to destroy our neighborhoods….
The spots she ran by the city:
🏠1700 E 17th Avenue
🏠 1745 N Lafayette
🏠 1915-1919 E Colfax Ave
🏠 1711 N Lafayette
🏠 747 Santa Fe Drive
Their current site serves 125 to 180 drug addicts every morning. They got $800,000 in opioid settlement money plus $1,000,000 from Denver city council to buy a building and need to lock something down by the end of the year before their lease and the funding run out.
Neighborhoods should know when a drug enablement site is being considered nearby. Expanding into more residential and commercial areas just spreads the public drug use, crime, and disorder that always follow drug users.
Perhaps HRAC should go 100% mobile and follow the camps of drug-addicted vagrants / deliver supplies to the homeless hotels instead of permanently sentencing any area to a fixed drug-enablement site.
Raville included Evan Dreyer and others in health, real estate, and the mayor’s office. She also copied several people outside the city:
👨Tom Downey, attorney?
👩🦳 Natasha Felten, commercial real estate broker
👨Dr. Joshua Blum, addiction medicine physician at Denver Health and HRAC board member
👩🦳 Melinda Higgs, President and CEO of the Colorado Nonprofit Development Center (CNDC), which fiscally sponsors HRAC
👨 Kevin Van Vleet, CFO of the CNDC on