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September 12, 2026
Affordability is a crisis, particularly in high-cost cities like Denver. That crisis plays out in many ways, such as the exacerbation of housing insecurity and growing homelessness.
We have seen a difference in visible homelessness in Denver. However, child homelessness has reached a 10-year high, indicating an increase that doesn’t get talked about enough. The 2026 Point-in-Time (PIT) count identified 1,380 children under 18 experiencing homelessness in Denver, up from 259 children in 2017, a fivefold increase.
Those involved in the homelessness discussion know that the Point-in-Time count severely undercounts these statistics. The PIT looks at any one given night to count the number of people on the street-which doesn’t account for people living in their cars, those couch surfing or those staying with families and friends; this severely undercounts the homelessness population.
Family homelessness has increased, alongside child homelessness […]
https://www.westword.com/opinion/family-homelessness-denver-growing-40932785/
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March 31, 2024
By mid-February, Denver Public Schools had been enrolling 200+ new-to-country students each week, and just over 3,000 new students had enrolled in the district since the start of the year. Denver Public Schools and Aurora Public Schools districts have built plans to integrate thousands of new students – from establishing 24 school donation sites, building community hubs as an expansion of Family and Community Engagement Centers, and creating the “new arrivals support tool kit” to mutual support groups of DPS parents supporting new arriving families.
During a recent Denver Public Schools district meeting, updates on some of the changes already made to support the influx of students and families were discussed, such as new school bus routes, schools hosting welcome meetings, hiring more staff and coaching teachers to support integrating new migrant children […]
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February 6, 2025
“Kayla Frawley, the director of organizing for the Colorado People’s Alliance, drove to the Macon Street apartment complexes hit by raids to connect with the loved ones of detainees and offer to help with the next steps.
“These raids impact our community in horrible ways,” Frawley said. “Kids couldn’t get to school on time, people couldn’t get home and get to work — both non-immigrants and immigrants.”
On Thursday morning, Frawley said she met with a relative whose father was taken by immigration agents from a chicken shop off of Peoria Street. “Agents targeted him as he was routinely there,” she said.
Frawley said judicial warrants weren’t being used in this week’s detainments, the result of collaboration between various federal agencies, including ICE, the Drug Enforcement Administration and Homeland Security Investigations.
“These last 30 hours have been devastating,” she said.”
https://www.denverpost.com/2025/02/06/denver-aurora-ice-raids-immigration-aftermath/
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May 31, 2026
Colorado entered the 2026 legislative session facing a budget shortfall that ultimately climbed to nearly $1.5 billion.
By the end of the session, lawmakers had passed a FY 2026-27 budget that closed the gap through cuts, transfers, delayed spending, reserve reductions, reimbursement freezes, and fund sweeps — many of them centered on programs tied to healthcare, housing, childcare and poverty stabilization.
This large deficit did not appear overnight.
Colorado’s 2026 budget deficit was driven in large part by […]
https://www.westword.com/opinion/colorado-budget-crisis-absorbed-by-poor-and-working-class-40891952/
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July 17, 2026
“Progressive Denver City Councilwoman Shontel Lewis has filed to run for Denver Mayor in the 2027 Denver Municipal General Election … In addition to Lewis, the election for her current council seat has two other filers thus far: Kayla Frawley and Teddy McCullough.”
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October 14, 2025
I drove for Lyft more than ever the last couple years in between jobs, or sometimes when I was full-time employed but couldn’t make ends meet, which is normal in my case. I am a single mom — making ends meet often means adding a gig to your income. I thought driving full time for […] https://coloradonewsline.com/2025/10/14/reality-of-gig-driving-in-denver/
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March 17, 2022
From strict affordable housing requirements to lack of appetite for rent control, growing homelessness, and evictions – it’s no secret that we have a plethora of housing issues to address in Denver.
I remember, in 2017, getting on the waitlist for a home through Denver’s income-based buyer’s program. At the time, I was a newly single mom, working for $16.25 an hour. We lived in Denver Affordable Housing in an income-based rental unit in Lincoln Park.
At the beginning of the year […]
https://coloradosun.com/2022/03/17/low-income-housing-denver-affordability-opinion/
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September 15, 2021
Nearly five years ago, I sat in the Aurora Public Library with other parents who received both Medicaid and benefits from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, commonly known as WIC. We carried our infants or newborns, spread out with our strollers and diaper bags, all consenting to receive a $25 stipend to provide feedback for 1 ½ hours about our experience receiving Medicaid and WIC.
Our feedback was the highest value input that these large safety net programs or agencies could obtain. Feedback ranged from “I can’t buy fresh produce that is culturally relevant” to “you can’t buy diapers with WIC, that is a huge cost that we need help with.” I remember piping up with […]
https://coloradosun.com/2021/09/15/program-development-lived-experience-opinion/
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May 12, 2023
Every year I make a list of what I want for Mother’s Day. In order to make the flowers and brunch reservations less ironic I end up reflecting on progress, grief, and what mothers might need in order to celebrate our holiday — this year. For a country whose maternal mortality rate is the highest […] https://coloradonewsline.com/2023/05/12/what-i-want-for-moms-this-mothers-day/
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Every October, during Domestic Violence Awareness Month, I remember my work at Safe House Denver, after moving to Colorado in 2015. I spent my days addressing stories of complex trauma and intimate partner violence with residents. I was a family advocate and worked with families of various sizes who stayed at the shelter. About 25% […] https://coloradonewsline.com/2022/10/07/anti-abortion-rhetoric-is-reproductive-coercion/
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June 8, 2022
This month our nation prepares for the Supreme Court announcement of overturning Roe v. Wade. As we turn the clock back to 1973, we must acknowledge that our complacency in white supremacy got us here half a century later. Roe v. Wade is the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision made in 1973, which ruled the […] https://coloradonewsline.com/2022/06/08/white-supremacy-post-roe-pregnancy-to-prison-pipeline/
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February 25, 2022
On the evening of Jan. 3, I was among many other neighbors and concerned citizens who stayed online till 9 p.m. to testify at a Denver City Council meeting in opposition or support of the new contract that the Denver Police Department made with ShotSpotter. ShotSpotter is a technology that is supposed to pick up […] https://coloradonewsline.com/2022/02/25/denver-ineffective-technology-reduce-gun-violence/
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January 23, 2021
I remember hearing about a Sarah-Palin-like figure who would be my generation’s representation of the newest Republican leaders. Due to my own white complacency, I hadn’t realized how incredibly dangerous this woman, who now represents Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, could be. On Jan. 6, violent domestic terrorism was done to the U.S. Capitol by white […] https://coloradonewsline.com/2021/01/23/how-much-longer-will-we-ignore-rep-boeberts-bond-to-white-supremacy/
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February 11, 2021
Racial inequities are on full display in light of COVID-19, but they have been drastic pre-pandemic for families of color giving birth. Black women are 3 to 4 times more likely to die due to pregnancy-related issues. Native American and Indigenous women are two to three times more likely to die from complications that are often preventable […] https://coloradonewsline.com/2021/02/11/colorado-needs-a-human-rights-approach-to-maternity-care/
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March 8, 2021
As long as outcomes in infant and maternal health are not disaggregated by race and ethnicity by each provider or facility, we will never capture a true idea of how well certain providers are servicing families of color. Without this data, we are losing an opportunity to address racial inequities in infant and maternal care. […]
https://coloradonewsline.com/2021/03/08/why-colorado-needs-to-pass-the-birth-equity-bill-package/