Boulder homeless group Feet Forward will be dissolved and its assets transferred

On October 30, 2024By Karl

Feet Forward, a local organization that has been providing homeless services in Boulder since 2020, announced Tuesday that it will disband by the end of the year and transfer its assets to Haven Ridge, a local shelter.

The group’s weekly events in Central Park — providing food, clothing and other basic needs — serve an average of 100 homeless people, making it a vital part of the city’s overall support network. Recently, Feet Forward also launched a peer support program to help connect people with housing and other resources.

Haven Ridge, which was founded in 1982 and primarily serves women and transgender people, will take over those services, including weekly events in Central Park.

“I’m excited for this team to be able to move on and maybe grow even further,” Leanne Wheeler, Feet Forward’s interim managing director, told Boulder Reporting Lab. “I will miss the job. I will miss the team.”

Wheeler said the decision to terminate was in part to improve financial sustainability. For example, while Feet Forward received a grant under the American Rescue Plan Act to establish Medicaid billing for peer support services, it lacked the capacity to fully use the grant for its intended purpose, according to Wheeler.

This transition comes about a year after Feet Forward founder Jennifer Livovich resigned. started Streetscape Peer Support Services and Outreach is a nonprofit organization that offers additional support to homeless people in Boulder.

“I wasn’t too surprised when I heard this news,” Livovich told Boulder Reporting Lab. He added that he hopes Haven Ridge continues to hold outreach events in Central Park on Tuesday afternoons because “it provides a critical service.”

Separately, Feet Forward is also the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit. Lawsuit challenging Boulder’s camping banThis allows officers to ticket people for sleeping in public places. Livovic he said He resigned after the nonprofit’s board of directors rejected his request to recuse himself as a plaintiff, keeping the organization in the lawsuit. At the beginning of this year, the USA Supreme Court upholds similar camping ban in another city and Boulder has since tried to dismiss the lawsuit. Wheeler said the decision in the Boulder case is expected before Feet Forward’s planned dissolution at the end of the year.

Two Feet Forward staff will join Haven Ridge and continue their outreach, distribution events and peer support services, according to the organizations. The transition is expected to be completed next week.