DENVER (KDVR) — The U.S. House of Representatives approved a $1.5 trillion omnibus bill in Washington.
The government spending plan would send billions to help Ukrainians fend off the Russian invasion, but some of that will also be spent here at home for community projects in Colorado.
Millions of dollars could be on the way to improve communities in Colorado. A group helping teens in Denver says it could be life-changing.
“I was just speechless,” Urban Peak CEO Christina Carlson said. “It’s just incredible the support and we are so lucky to have a lot of local and statewide support and have this kind of nod from the federal government.”
Carlson said she found out Thursday morning that Congress approved $3 million in funding for her organization.
“We’re actually the only shelter in the metro that serves minors. We have supportive houses as well as a lot of support services,” Carlson said.
She said the proposed $3 million will help them expand those services. They are hoping to add more shelter for young people experiencing homelessness.
They are slated to get the most funding from the measure in the Denver area, but in U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse’s district, $2 million is projected to go towards helping victims of domestic violence. Jefferson County Wildfire Reduction efforts will get a little more than $350,000 in funding.
U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette’s office provided this list of projects the measure would fund in Colorado First district:
- $3 million: Urban Peak’s Homeless Shelter for Youth
- $2 million: Stay Inn Hotel Acquisition for the City of Denver
- $2 million: Colorado Coalition for the Homeless’ Stout Street Recuperative Care Project
- $2 million: Tepeyac Community Health Clinic
- $1.45 million: Denver’s Montbello FreshLo Project
- $1.2 million: Denver Health’s Center for Addiction Medicine Project
- $1 million: Center for African American Health
- $500,000: Jewish Family Service of Colorado
- $100,000: United Way’s Bridging the Gap Project
- $20,000: Mi Casa Resource Center
Neguse’s office provided this list of projects the plan would fund in Colorado’s Second district:
- $2 million to provide critical services for domestic violence victims in Adams County
- $1 million for the Clear Creek County Community Care Center
- $1 million to renovate the Pulliam Community Building in Loveland
- $1 million for the Colorado State-Adams State Mechanical Engineering Partnership
- $525,000 for the Town of Nederland to build an emergency egress in the Big Springs subdivision
- $500,000 to build a search and rescue training and vehicle storage facility in Frisco
- $358,000 for Jefferson County wildfire risk reduction efforts
- $275,000 for the University of Colorado Boulder Rural Outreach Partnership Program
- $275,000 to expand mental health services offered by the Boulder Strong Resource Center
- $138,557 for the Gilpin County Emergency Operations Center.
The congressman said even though there is a funding difference, no project is more important than the next.
“The amount of funding simply is reflective of the need for a particular project,” said Neguse. “So there are some projects that are behavioral in nature, others that are more land-based that require certain amounts of funding there are other projects that require more less amounts of funding so it’s not meant to denote any sort of prioritization.”
Colorado Republicans Reps. Lauren Boebert and Ken Buck said no to the plan, calling the spending “out of control.” Economic experts said the spending could help groups be hard hit by rising inflation.
“It’s trying to keep up with the inflation we already have and we’re going to in fact see more inflation in the future,” said Jack Strauss, University of Denver’s Miller Chair of Applied Economics. “It’s not really fueling the flame for inflation, it’s just trying to keep up with inflation because we can expect to continue with higher oil and gas prices.”
All the funding is dependent on the Senate passing the measure. Neguse said he expects that to happen in a matter of days.