05/28/2026
Hi folks! On Wednesday June 3 @ 7 pm in council chambers, Lakewood planning commission will hold an important public hearing to review a request for a special use permit for our new 24/7 Volunteers of America (VOA) navigation center. We need folks to show up and speak in support of this critical resource to move our homeless neighbors off our streets, out of our parks, and into stable housing. Can you make it, please? 🙂 Here are deets:
https://lakewoodspeaks.org/items/4936
This is important. This is for the navigation center on 8000 W Colfax, in Ward 2. (Totally different from Emory elementary in Ward 3).
If the use permit is denied, the navigation center could be effectively shut down. The 100 beds with 24/7 trauma-informed design and services - including mental health and addiction treatment - are essential to our fight against homelessness. Without this vital resource, homelessness in Lakewood & Jeffco will get worse. People will die from exposure. This is life or death.
Folks of good faith can disagree about many issues in our city. It frankly pains me that a tiny handful of folks are trying to make neighbors afraid of this new center, when the reality is our staff has worked for a year+ with VOA to ensure this is a well planned, well run operation that will make the immediate neighborhood safer.
Whether you live a block from this center or in a completely different part of Lakewood, you will be better off with this center open, so homeless Lakewoodians are getting the care they need, rather than camping on our sidewalks and in our parks. And the homeless folks who need these services will be much, much, much better off.
Lots of issues are hard choices. This isn’t one of them. Show up June 3 - speak in support of our navigation center!
