A big house in Grand Junction, now home to 20 troubled men, tests Colorado’s new affordable housing law

GRAND JUNCTION — When men began moving into a home on a historic cul-de-sac near St. Mary’s Hospital in January some residents in the close-knit neighborhood of midcentury homes on large lots wondered if maybe a fraternity was setting up in their midst.  

The neighbors quickly got clues that the newly sold Grand Junction home was no frat house.

On two occasions, men in shackles and handcuffs were dropped off at the home by Denver- and Eagle-area law enforcement vehicles. Local police cars turned up in front of the 4,800-square-foot home on at least seven occasions. Ambulances made three visits.

Men were seen smoking cigarettes and marijuana on the curb. A neighbor found one man lying in the gutter. Empty airline-sized bottles of booze were turning up in the street. The new residents sometimes stood in front of the house glaring at nearby neighbors. They were observed out on the streets in the middle of the night. Neighbors complain that some of the men staying at the home have yelled at them.

Neighbors in Bookcliff Heights who have been rattled by all this began investigating and found a local nonprofit called A Special Place had leased the nine-bedroom home on Bookcliff Drive that last sold in January for $610,000. It had been named Rene’s House and turned into a residence for 20 men with psychiatric and criminal backgrounds and court-related problems.

“Their crimes are unknown to us. Who are these men and why are they dropped off handcuffed with their feet shackled?” neighbor Thane De Puey asked. “Do my wife and I need to carry bear spray when we work in our yard?”

The owner of Rene’s House, Grand Junction City Councilman Cody Kennedy, and the operators of the home had given no notice or information about this new use to neighbors.

Kennedy said notice was not required because Rene’s House is not a group home; it is a residence for a group of men who have chosen to live together.

His assertion reveals an unintended consequence of a state law change that went into effect last year — and that could affect any neighborhood in Colorado.

A bill meant to ease housing problems in university, ski towns

At the urging of university and ski towns that were in a bind for affordable housing, the Colorado legislature last year passed House Bill 1007, a law that removed limits on how many unrelated people can live together, as long as health and safety standards are met.

“I had a feeling there were going to be unintended consequences. I had a feeling there would be problems,” said state Sen. Janice Rich, R-Grand Junction, who voted against the measure.

Rich said she has asked the Colorado legislature’s legal department to review the law and determine if facilities like A Special Place are a consequence of a law drafted to do something else. If so, she plans to introduce a measure to tweak the law in next year’s session.

The city of Grand Junction also has questions about turning residential homes into quasi-criminal justice treatment centers.

“There was no outreach to the community on this. It’s pretty concerning because it feels like this is part of the criminal justice system,” Mayor Abe Herman said. “There are no guidelines on whether it should be allowed.”

Kennedy, a former Grand Junction police officer turned real estate investor, argues that the way Rene’s House is operating is all above board and for a good cause.

“I have a master lease on that house with an organization. I have no say in who comes and goes,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy owns two other downtown Grand Junction homes that he leases to A Special Place for the same purpose. One of the homes is designated for 16 women and gender-fluid residents. The other is for 10 men. Those two homes have not been the subject of public complaints.

A Special Place’s website states the homes are for “treatment, and psychiatric services for homeless individuals diagnosed with serious mental illness at risk of court-involvement with a focus on contemporary clients on Colorado’s Western Slope.”

A Special Place’s website goes on to state the homes were established with a special focus on individuals who may not be competent to stand trial. The website calls the homes an alternative to having such individuals “languishing in jails and putting a strain on tax payers, the legal system, and law enforcement.”

A Special Place’s list of services provided at the homes include housing, transportation, food and physical and mental health care. Residents can include the seriously mentally ill, criminals, domestic violence victims and sex offenders. The state’s register of sex offenders has listed two men at the Bookcliff Drive address, but they are no longer registered there.

The house had previously been used as a group home for up to eight developmentally challenged residents who lived with a family that provided care for them. It had served in that role for years, and neighbors, including retired physicians and lawyers, hadn’t objected. The home hadn’t been the nexus for disturbances. It was licensed as a group home and had regulatory oversight.

“We are doing something so good and so needed”

 Kennedy said he has owned rental properties for more than 20 years and in the past provided homes for Afghan resettlement programs. He said he has not had problems with any of his other rentals.

He blames the problems at A Special Place’s Bookcliff Drive home on a not-in-my-backyard attitude from the neighbors. He said if the neighbors had greeted the new residents with plates of cookies rather than criticism, the whole brouhaha might have been avoided.

“It’s unfortunate this has come off as a NIMBY thing. The neighbors were really discriminatory,” he said. “It’s shameful. We are doing something so good and so needed. Mental health is a critical need when it comes to housing in our community.”

Rich Tuttle, a part-time deputy district attorney who is handling mental and behavioral issues for the 21^st Judicial District, was not aware of the neighborhood complaints about Rene’s House, but he said in his work with A Special Place he has seen only a benefit to the community.

“They are a great resource for us,” he said. “They have a good reputation in the criminal justice system.”

Tuttle pointed out that if the men placed at Rene’s House were not there they likely would be on the streets and unsupervised. He said the kind of men placed there could be living, unknown to neighbors, in many parts of the city.

Mayor Herman said the criminal justice link to A Special Place’s homes needs to be looked into; if it is part of the criminal justice system, it needs to be licensed as such.

He said so far Rene’s House problems have not risen to the level of complaints that ended up with the city shutting down a homeless shelter called Amos Hangout House last year for being an unsafe nuisance. The home generated numerous noise and nuisance complaints when upward of 40 unrelated homeless people were packing into the house to sleep.

Exactly what A Special Place is, and conflicting information about what goes on inside the home on Bookcliff, has raised the level of concerns.

In an email to a neighbor and comments to The Sun, Kennedy said the home can’t be considered a group home because no medical care and no activities of daily living, such as meals, bathroom help and counseling are provided at the home. There is no 24/7 supervision, he said.

But A Special Place’s website lists around-the-clock care, counseling and medical services, such as the administration of antipsychotic drugs, as part of the program.

Neighbors have called and emailed A Special Place director Carrie Shahbahrami for weeks with no response to their questions about how Rene’s House operates.

Shahbahrami, who is a licensed psychiatric nurse practitioner, also runs a Grand Junction-based psychiatric treatment clinic Lifespan Psychiatry of Colorado. That clinic is the umbrella organization for the nonprofit A Special Place. The website for Lifespan indicates it contracts with the Colorado Behavioral Health Administration to provide court-ordered outpatient restoration at no cost to participants.

Twenty-first Judicial District Attorney Dan Rubinstein praised Shahbahrami’s work with A Special Place.

“When we have someone in our jail and we need to find a place for them, Carrie’s is the first place we call,” he said.

Rubinstein also called Shahbahrami’s efforts “a way to solve problems that keep getting dumped.”

Home’s owner helped push to close a day-time resource center for homeless people

Neighbors say they feel like they are the ones who are getting dumped on.

Victoria Patsantaras, who lives across the street from Rene’s House, said she no longer feels comfortable even going out to get her mail. She said men outside the home glare at her.

“It’s just enough to feel slightly menacing,” she said.

Patsantaras helped to compile 29 pages of information about A Special Place that neighbors sent to the city council this week.

“Our neighborhood does not exercise intolerance or discrimination,” Patsantaras wrote to the city council. “Nor are we making a political statement or preference.”

Kennedy doesn’t see it that way. He blames the upcoming April city council election for all the noise about A Special Place. Some houses in Bookcliff Heights have recently sprouted signs for his opponent, but the neighbors say that has nothing to do with their objections to Rene’s House. Who owns the home is not their complaint, they say. It’s about what is happening there.

Even though Kennedy stresses that his involvement in A Special Place is only tangential as a master lease holder, his involvement has become an issue for the neighbors and his fellow council members.

Kennedy previously sided with a different set of complaining neighbors after the city opened a downtown day-time resource center where homeless people could go for food, to get connected with services, to shower and to temporarily store some of their belongings. 

Business owners near the facility just south of downtown complained that the people hanging around the area were doing drugs, drinking and creating disruptions. As a city councilman, Kennedy pushed for closing the resource center. It is scheduled to cease operations at the end of this month.

When it comes to A Special Place, Kennedy threatened the neighbors in Bookcliff Heights that they could be violating the civil rights of the men living in Rene’s House by complaining about their presence.

 “I would encourage all neighbors to avoid engaging in intolerance or discrimination toward the residents of the property and make sure you respect their right to privacy,” he wrote in an email to a neighbor. “These individuals have the same rights as anyone else to live in a safe and stable home.”

The neighbors say they just want a safe and stable neighborhood again.