Stay Away! continued from page 14 In April 2020, as Sanders was moving out, the Motel 6 in Greenwood Village began contracting with SAFER (Solutions for Achieving Fast, Effective Response), a new nonprofi t agency that provided short-term housing in a hotel setting “with the goals of health stabilization, basic resource access assistance, employment assistance, and next- step housing for unhoused individuals expe- riencing mental health and/or substance use concerns at risk of or experiencing justice system involvement.” Brian Veatch, who works with South Metro Fire Rescue, was a co-founder of SAFER. Often in his job, he would come across individuals with no place to go, includ- dog. That’s it. That’s the only loving thing that they have left in the world. Sometimes individuals aren’t even lucky enough to have that, and it’s just them. So in my mind, a fam- ily is who you have in your support system.” Sanders was able to get back into the Mo- tel 6 that fall through the SAFER program, which found her “at a Walmart parking lot sleeping in her car,” Veatch remembers. “I think that she may have had some so- cial anxiety or something like that,” he says. “She became really a model participant. She would attend the counseling sessions we would have. She was doing much better, and had we had the ability to get her housed...I think she would’ve done much better.” But then time ran out. In April 2021, Greenwood Village City Attorney Tonya Haas Davidson sent a letter to Neza Bharu- Sue Sanders had been living without a home for fi ve years when she ended her life. ing people released from jail in the middle of the night during a snowstorm. “Many people who live on the street, they have choices, and they would rather live on the street and abide by whatever the restrictions are that the programs offer,” he says. “But some of them don’t have a choice, and that’s the ones we were going after, that want help and didn’t have the resources to do that.” SAFER got its start as a pilot program, with people pitching in money to cover hotel vouchers. Arapahoe County subsequently began providing funding. Greenwood Village has an exception to its 29-day ordinance for hotels or motels with a written contract with a “governmental, charitable or insurance agency to house fam- ilies in crisis who are receiving temporary housing assistance from said governmental, charitable or insurance agency.” Neza Bharucha thought that the SAFER program defi nitely qualifi ed. “Through psychiatry, I’ve met many 16 people from all walks of life, where they are in their lifetime,” she says. “Sometimes a family can just be an individual and their cha, telling her that the Motel 6 couldn’t host people placed through the SAFER program for more than 29 days. “The exception for families in crisis is meant to allow families who are displaced due to an emergency (usually a natural emer- gency) to stay longer than 29 days. It is not meant for individuals who have been re- leased from jail and have nowhere to go and who are suffering from mental health and/ or addiction issues,” Haas Davidson said. Sanders once again had to leave the Motel 6. “She was on the waiting list. She was even- tually going to get an apartment. I think she was really just devastated,” Bharucha says. Leaving was doubly diffi cult because Neza and Sanders had become friends. “She loved Neza. She loved that woman,” Naus says. SAFER is now staying away from Green- wood Village “Their goal is to get rid of the types of services that we’re providing. They don’t want to deal with it,” Veatch says. “Their preference would be not to have to deal with those people, and if they can get them to go away from their city, that would be their preference.” NOVEMBER 17-23, 2022 WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | LETTERS | CONTENTS | westword.com COURTESY OF SUE SANDERS
