The county had been giving Attention Homes $30,000 a year. Considering that Attention Homes had an annual budget of $1.3 million, the county's cut alone didn't break the organization. But Goode says a domino effect was created. When the City of Boulder heard that the county had cut its funding for Attention Homes, it decided to withhold its $25,000-a-year grant "pending a positive resolution," says Susan Purdy, the city's director of housing and human services. Then the City of Longmont withdrew its annual funding of $10,000.
On July 24, Attention Homes issued a press release announcing its closure. "Our slogan is 'Attention, not Detention,'" the release said. "It has become increasingly hard to carry this out in Boulder County. Most of our placements come from county governments who are moving toward large, institutional locked facilities for teens needing residential services. While these large facilities can be cost effective, they are in direct conflict with our mission. We have been at odds with the county on the issues of how to best serve Boulder County youth which includes our reluctance to turn our homes into staff-secure lockdown facilities."
John Johnston
Jennifer Patterson (left) and Senchal Jamal liked the Attention Homes philosophy.
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Hittelman says the county was out of line when it tried to tell Attention Homes what to do. "The bottom line is that Attention Homes is a private nonprofit, and it should never have been pressured to accept these kids."
This isn't the first time a business has accused Boulder County of being heavy-handed. Centennial Peaks, a psychiatric hospital in Louisville, opened an RTC a few years ago, but as the organization's chief operating officer, Richard Failla, explains it, the facility couldn't permanently lock its doors. "Boulder County wanted us to provide everything for the kids 24/7, but the rules that licensing provides don't allow us to do that."
Nevertheless, he says, county officials got angry when a resident escaped or if Centennial Peaks didn't report the runaway fast enough. "We said to them, 'If you know how to do this right, tell us,' but that was never forthcoming," Failla says. "We held meetings with the county; we held focus groups. We did everything we could to get their support, but they wouldn't support our facility." In the end, the RTC closed early this year. "It was a running battle with the county," Failla adds. "We got tired of the hassle and finally said, 'To heck with it.'"
IMPACT's Thompson did not return calls seeking comment about Centennial Peaks.
Although Attention Homes will no longer provide residential treatment, it plans to remain in business in another capacity that has yet to be determined. According to the nonprofit's July 24 press release announcing the home closures, Attention Homes has "no plans to dissolve the organization. Attention Homes plans to continue to provide community services vital to the needs of teens in the community and will be restructuring their programs to better reflect those needs."
It would be easier for IMPACT to have another organization move into one of the Attention Homes properties and operate a staff-secure program there than it would be to find another property in Boulder appropriate for an RTC. Not only is it hard to find properties in residential neighborhoods zoned for such facilities, it's also difficult to find neighbors willing to embrace homes for troubled youth. Whenever treatment providers want to open facilities for juvenile sex offenders, for instance, they meet with neighborhood opposition, as happened recently in Jefferson County. And last year, when the Boulder Shelter for the Homeless wanted to relocate from the facility it was outgrowing in north Boulder to a larger building in a residential neighborhood in the center of town, residents loudly opposed the move, saying the homeless people would endanger children at a nearby middle school and lower their property values. The Boulder Planning Board, which had originally approved the move, ended up reversing its decision, and the city council concurred.
Steve Meyrich, a Boulder attorney and professional mediator, says both sides are still discussing what to do with the homes. He gave no indication of how long the mediation will last.
Jennifer Patterson and Senchal Jamal are sitting on the steps outside the girls' home, smoking. They both woke up late, and their hair is still wet from their showers. Both had bad nights. Neither wants to talk about it. Large drops of rain are beating down on them, but they don't care. They have bigger worries.
Their lives are already uncertain. With the home about to close, they now face an even more indefinite future. They're old enough to take care of themselves, though; whatever happens, they say, they'll be fine.
"I'm not worried about myself. I have a place to go when this home closes. I worry about the younger girls," says Jamal.
Some of the girls will end up in foster homes. Others will move in with relatives. Some don't know what will happen to them.
Patterson will probably move into an apartment, but she says she wouldn't have been able to live on her own if it hadn't been for Attention Homes; because she's only been there a couple of months, however, she's not sure that she's entirely ready to go it alone. The stress of the situation has gotten her down. She never smiles, and she looks exhausted. She's angry at the IMPACT board and the county commissioners for letting this happen.
