When residents learned in November that a temporary warming center for the unhoused was to be established at Durango Christian Church on East Third Avenue and 11th Street, some residents voiced concern.

Home intrusions, people sleeping on doorsteps and proximity to Big Picture High School were among the fears residents expressed to City Council in a bid to shut down the project before it began.

Some residents even brought up the constitutional separation of church and state as a reason to deny operational funding to Community Compassion Outreach, the nonprofit that worked with Durango Christian Church to host the warming center. Those concerns were dismissed by city officials, who said the warming center wasn’t functioning any differently from other church-affiliated activities such as Alcoholics Anonymous.

City Council had no power to tell Community Compassion Outreach that it couldn’t operate a daylight hours-only warming center in the area. But it did deny a funding request of $11,600 for operational expenses in a 4-1 vote, with former Mayor Barbara Noseworthy the only city councilor to voice support for the center.

The same amount was later granted by La Plata County commissioners, who said it would be hypocritical to ask the faith-based community to help the homeless and then refuse to facilitate any efforts to do so.

Still, crime was front and center on many residents’ minds. But according to residents who live on East Third Avenue near Durango Christian Church, the neighborhood has been quiet since the warming center opened in November to provide temporary shelter from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays and Fridays. The warming center closed on April 28, although Community Compassion Outreach is now holding other support services for the unhoused at the church.

Lauren Price, who lives in the 1000 block of East Third Avenue, said she hasn’t noticed much of a change in the neighborhood after the warming center opened about four months ago. She said the closing of the unmanaged homeless camp at Purple Cliffs in October had a considerably bigger impact.

“We had a lot of people parking in front of our house just living out of their van or truck or whatever it was,” she said.

Price said even that wasn’t too much of a bother except for when car campers remained parked in front of her home for as long as a week.

“We had people who would just make our yard their campground,” she said. “They’d get the dogs out and the kids out and everyone’s running around but we’re trying to sleep. So that’s not my favorite, but I’m also not trying to get people sent to jail.”

Before the warming center’s opening, she didn’t have strong feelings for or against it. But she was disappointed the Durango Christian Church lot didn’t have apartments built on it several years ago.

“I was really disappointed, actually, and it was the Boulevard (Association’s) own fault,” she said. “I thought they were going to make some apartments there a few years ago. And then the Boulevard Neighborhood Association threw a fit and kind of shut it down.

“I just know they’ve been trying to sell that church for a long time and I thought that was a really great option,” she said.

Mike Lancianese, who lives in the 1100 block of East Third Avenue catty-corner to Durango Christian Church, said he had no concerns about the warming center before it opening, and he’s had no trouble since.

“No problem with us. In fact, we help the homeless when we can. We donate to them and stuff,” he said.

He said he lounges on his front porch, takes walks around the neighborhood and passes the church regularly. He’s noticed nothing unusual.

“We don’t have that problem here at all. That’s fine. We appreciate it. Try to help the homeless ourselves,” Lancianese said.

Brice Current, deputy police chief, said in an email on Wednesday that service calls to the 600 to 1400 blocks of East Third Avenue and adjacent streets doubled in the last four months after the warming center opened – from 10 calls to 21. Not all of the calls were about criminal activity, though, and it is unclear how many calls are actually linked to foot traffic to and from the warming center.

The only homeless incidents around East Third Avenue that sprung to Current’s mind were cases of unhoused residents smoking cigarettes in front of residents’ homes, he said in an interview. DPD responded to calls and sent potential offenders on their way. He said the homeless people were receptive to officers’ requests to move along.

Of the 21 service calls answered by DPD between Nov. 8 and March 16, there were three reports of theft, three reports of criminal mischief and one call about a suicidal individual. The suicidal person was the only call directly related to the warming center at Durango Christian Church, according to data from the police department.

Donna Mae Baukat, Community Compassion Outreach founder, said she called the Co-Responder Program, a crisis intervention program involving DPD and Axis Health System, which sent a DPD crisis intervention officer and a behavioral health specialist to help the person.

It is unclear if the theft reports recorded by DPD had anything to do with the homeless residents who used the warming center to rest and escape the cold.

In one case, a man reportedly stole his partner’s phone. In another case, a recycling bin was reported stolen. In a third case, a package was swiped from someone’s doorstep. Current said numerous packages are commonly stolen all around the city during the holiday season.

The three instances of criminal mischief involved two cases of broken windows or window frames and one case of a scratched or damaged vehicle, police data show.

Current said the most prominent issues related to the homeless population are instances of illegal camping, which has increased from the wintertime, presumably because of warmer weather in spring.

In an email to The Durango Herald, he said the locations where illegal camping is most prominent are the High Bridge on South Camino del Rio, the U.S. Highway 160 west bridge (DoubleTree intersection), the Tech Center, Greenmount Cemetery, all along Roosa Avenue and generally along the Animas River Trail.

From Oct. 1 to April 1, Durango code enforcement handled 220 illegal camping incidents and DPD addressed 131 illegal camping incidents, totaling up to 351 instances of illegal camping over six months, he said.

He said illegal camping significantly increased this winter from the previous two winters.

From Oct. 1, 2021, to April 1, 2022, code enforcement and police officers responded to 101 illegal camps or campers. From Oct. 20, 2020, to March 1, 2021, officers responded to 77 instances of illegal camping, according to DPD data.

“We’ve only had one Code Enforcement Officer working since January, and illegal camping is seasonal, so it always slows down during the winter months and picks up during the summer months,” Current said.

The warming center officially closed on April 28. But on May 2, Community Compassion Outreach relaunched its Safe Talks in Recovery program as an alternative. Baukat, the nonprofit founder, said it was time to close the warming center and replace that service with something that is more engaging and productive for the unhoused community.

“We’re not going to have people just sit around,” she said. “They’re going to have to engage in our activities.”

STiR is an avenue for homeless residents to vent their frustrations, discuss substance abuse and plot a path down the road to recovery, she said.

She said what Durango’s homeless population needs in the long-term is an in-house substance abuse treatment and recovery program. In the meantime, Community Compassion Outreach is operating on a lean budget and is accepting donations – men’s and women’s underwear, bras and feminine hygiene products, socks, toiletries and blankets.

cburney@durangoherald.com