Major Nesan Kistan, who handles the Salvation Army's Intermountain division, said in a Thursday statement that the decision is "to ensure our financial sustainability." The decision came as the Salvation Army was under increased public criticism for security at the shelters and their conditions.
The city has paid the Salvation Army tens of millions of dollars to run the day-to-day operations at three locations that were part of All In Mile High, the mayor's effort to solve homelessness in Denver during his first term. According to the mayor's office, Johnston's initiative has brought in more than 5,800 people off the streets.
The Denver Department of Housing Stability (HOST) said in a statement that the Salvation Army declined to renew its annual contracts with the city to run the three sites during contract talks. According to Jennifer Forker, the communications director for the Salvation Army Intermountain division, the organization alerted HOST of its withdrawal from negotiations on Monday, August 11.
"[HOST] has completed its scheduled procurement process for the All in Mile High (AIMH) non-congregate shelters and micro-communities, and is now negotiating contracts with selected providers," HOST spokesperson Derek Woodbury says. "We can confirm, however, that the Salvation Army will not operate AIMH non-congregate shelters in 2026."
According to Forker, the Salvation Army applied to continue running only the Aspen and Tamarac, but in late July, the city sent a letter to the Salvation Army turning down its request to run the Tamarac. While negotiations were underway for the Aspen, the Salvation Army "decided it could not shoulder the personal cost of running this hotel shelter," Forker says, adding that last year the organization lost $5.2 million operating the three shelters.
“Continuing to absorb these costs would jeopardize the quality and integrity of all our programs,” Kistan said in his statement. “Instead of spreading our resources too thin and risking the standard of care we’ve upheld for more than 160 years, we’ve made the necessary decision to step back in some areas to strengthen and sustain our impact where it’s needed most.”
In 2023, the City of Denver bought the Aspen shelter for $43 million, the Tamarac for $21 million and Stone Creek for about $16 million. Since then, it's provided the city with about 670 beds for homeless residents, and more when the ground floor of the Aspen was activated as an emergency cold weather shelter.
Trouble at Shelters Ran by the Salvation Army
The Aspen, 4040 Quebec Street, was formerly the DoubleTree hotel; it was the site of a double homicide in March 2024, only a couple of months after opening as a shelter. A week after the murder, a woman was shot there, leading people to call it the "TroubleTree" or "MurderTree" hotel.
In November, the Denver Auditor's Office put out a report calling for better security across the All In Mile High sites, but it noted neglect by the Salvation Army at the Aspen in particular. The city gave the Salvation Army an $800,000 security budget to hire a security contractor when it took over the hotel in early 2024, according to the Auditor's Office, but the charity never hired any such contractor. The city eventually started handling security on its own after the double homicide in March 2024.
The city paid the Salvation Army more than $9 million to run the Aspen from January 2024 to March. The Salvation Army is set to make another $7 million to run the shelter from March to the end of 2025.
The city paid the Salvation Army more than $9 million to run the Aspen from January 2024 to March. The Salvation Army is set to make another $7 million to run the shelter from March to the end of 2025.
The Tamarac Family Shelter, a former Embassy Suites hotel at 7525 East Hampden Avenue, has had troubles more recently. Neighboring residents were unhappy about having it around early on. A former employee told CBS Colorado in November that the shelter is dirty, in disrepair and unsafe. In July, an 11-year-old girl fell from a sliding door at the Tamarac and fell six stories, suffering serious injuries.
The Salvation Army made $8 million from its city contract to run the Tamarac in 2024 and will make another $8 million to run it until the end of 2025.
Stone Creek, 4595 Quebec Street, hasn't had such high-profile problems, but like with most shelters, nearby residents were opposed to its opening. The city is paying the Salvation Army $8 million to run Stone Creek through 2024 and 2025.
Sexual Assault, Protests Against Shelter Leadership
In March, trouble returned to the Aspen when a Salvation Army employee was arrested for sexually assaulting a resident. The employee had a violent criminal record involving multiple bank robberies between 2010 and 2015, but the Salvation Army claimed it didn't catch this because of Colorado laws limiting background checks to the past ten years.The Denver City Council cited the incident when rejecting a $3 million, three-year contract with the charity to manage rapid rehousing services, like rental and utilities assistance, and to move fifty families into permanent housing.
Housekeys Action Network Denver, which advocates for homeless residents, demanded an end to Denver's cooperation with the charity during a protest in April because of the incident and complaints about the unreliability of the Connection Center, a hotline to access Salvation Army shelters and services.
On Monday, August 19, the Denver City Council is set to consider a contract that would give the Salvation Army $5 million to help 200 families move indoors with rapid rehousing services before June 30, 2026.
The Salvation Army is already under a $500,000 contract to work with a handful of other groups, including the Denver Rescue Mission and the St. Francis Center, to provide rapid rehousing from September 2023 to the end of 2025. On Monday, the Denver City Council will consider extending that deal by two years for another $500,000.
The city is also set to pay the Salvation Army about $1 million this year to provide meals at Johnston's micro-communities, or places where a few dozen homeless residents can live in shed-like units. However, that's down from the $1.7 million the Salvation Army was paid for the same service in 2024.
The Salvation Army owns and manages other shelters in Denver, too, which the city pays to keep open, and the charity isn't walking away from those. These include the Lambuth Center, a short-term family shelter, the Harbor Light Center for men recovering from addiction, and the Crossroads Center, a low-barrier 24/7 emergency shelter. It also operates the Connection Center hotline.
The city has been paying the Salvation Army about $4.5 million a year to run the Crossroads Center since 2021, which predates the Johnston administration. In 2025, the city agreed to pay the Salvation Army $1.6 million to support the Lambuth Center, and $500,000 to keep the Connection Center running. These contracts are meant to ensure Denver has shelter space and homelessness services are available, but the contracts don't pay for services at city-owned properties like the All In Mile High sites.
