Northglenn residents voice frustrations to Colorado state officials about plans for transitional living homes in neighborhood

After weeks of frustration over plans to create mental health transitional living homes that could house sex offenders in a Northglenn neighborhood, residents made their voices heard before Colorado officials.

"Why does the state feel like they can come into a city that doesn't want something and force us to have it?" said LouAnne Lyons, who lives in Northglenn. "We don't need any more even recovering drug addicts in a halfway house, or pedophiles."

"Yes, I agree that people need help; however, this is a cycle, and if these people expose, abuse, or harm one of our kids, the cycle will continue, now with our own," said one mother.

Residents packed a room inside the Northglenn Recreational Center for more than three hours of public comment about the state's plan. The transitional living homes are run by the state's Office of Forensic Mental Health and would be located at 11125 and 11175 Grant Avenue, which is close to schools including Stukey Elementary School, day care facilities, a church, elderly homes and community gathering locations.

"We are a city that is 7.7 square miles, you mean to tell me you couldn't find a bigger city to put it in?" said one resident before representatives of the state.

 "I recommend we don't have this in here, we don't have this facility at all," said another resident.

City leaders say they were first made aware about the state's plan to create these transitional living homes through an email sent to the police department's general inbox. After receiving that email, which indicated sex offenders would be housed in those locations, the city notified the public about the plans.

"You're not just threatening the lives of our children and the wellbeing of our children," said one resident. "You were lying when you didn't bring this to the city and left that to the responsibility and burden on our already burdened police officers."

 "When I got that email, I saw all of the red flags going off," said Northglenn Police Chief Jim May. "I don't feel that they took into consideration true victims."

Northglenn Mayor Meredith Leighty tells CBS Colorado the city was never included in this decision-making process.

"I would like them to commit to having zero registered sex offenders in that facility," said Leighty.

Plans for mental health transitional living homes date back to House Bill 22-1303, which became law after the 2022 legislative session. The purpose was to create "at least 125 additional beds at mental health residential facilities throughout the state for adults in need of ongoing supportive services."

Members of the Colorado Department of Human Services who appeared in the panel at Monday's community meeting say these beds are essential to bridging a huge gap in access to mental health services, and these facilities can serve as a place for patients exiting the state hospital or for residents already in the community and in need of mental health resources.

"They need an opportunity to be back in the community with supervision, with services, in order to become stable and productive citizens living in our community," said Perry May, DHS's Deputy Executive Director of Health Facilities.

However, residents remained unsupportive about the plan, especially questioning why sex offenders should be included among the list of people utilizing these transitional living homes. Some even gave emotional testimony regarding their own experiences with sexual abuse that has been retriggered over concerns regarding the placement of sex offenders.

"Since this housing was forced upon us, could the city of Northglenn have a full-time police officer paid by the state of Colorado," said one resident to a crowd of applause.

"Move it to an area to where it's isolated from children, and senior and families," said Lyons.

State officials argue a facility like this will make the community safer.

"These folks, if they are registered sex offenders, have been determined that they can be in the community already," said Perry May. "Without this level of service, they are living in the community without this supervision and without those treatment services."

Even people and elected officials in Thornton turned out to support their neighbors in Northglenn.

"This is not just a Northglenn issue. This is a state of Colorado issue," said Jan Kulmann, Mayor of Thornton. "The process that brought this forward lost that opportunity to gain by in. So, what you're hearing is not lack of compassion. You're hearing the lost opportunity to have that compassion."

Many speakers were not only critical about the state's plan, but also towards state Sen. Faith Winter, who was a proponent of the legislation that approved transitional living homes statewide.

However, Winter responded to criticism saying she was just as unaware about the state's plan to have these homes in a Northglenn neighborhood.

"The intent of this bill that was originally passed was to increase the capacity of mental health beds, because we were and are absurdly short in Colorado on our capacity for mental health beds," said Winter. "I didn't know until representative Willford called me. It's not that the state agency came to me and said, 'Hey can I place this in your district. Do you think this is a good spot? Do you think this is cited well? I didn't know until representative Willford called me after she was called by Northglenn City Council."

Winter says she remains committed to helping the city of Northglenn prevent the presence of sex offenders at these homes starting with following state Rep. Jenny Willford in pushing for a late bill status, which could give lawmakers a chance to put in criteria in the previous bill that would address housing sex offenders.

"I think it's really important for you all to understand how important it is that you look at the community as a partner in this process and not an afterthought," said Willford.