By Lila Nuttle
(The Source, Boulder’s only youth homeless shelter, which TGTHR closed in May 2025. Lila Nuttle)
Content Warning: This story contains talk of mental illness and suicidal ideation.
Homelessness is a very visible issue in Colorado, and especially in Boulder. In 2024, an estimated 727 people were experiencing homelessness in Boulder County.
Recently, Boulder released its Point-in-Time survey for July 2025, where volunteers survey unhoused individuals on one day. The survey is conducted twice a year, in January and July, in order to provide a snapshot of the amount of people experiencing homelessness in Boulder County on a single night. According to the Point-in-Time survey, 44% of those who responded to the survey reported having a mental health concern as a disabling condition.
While the survey is a small sample from a single night and cannot be used as an overall trend, mental health and depression rates are higher among unhoused populations. According to the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, about 71% of unhoused people have a mental illness or post-traumatic stress disorder. The group says housing insecurity is associated with poor physical and mental health outcomes, including a direct increase in cases of depression.
TGTHR, a non-profit based in Boulder that aids homeless youth, says that homeless youth are at higher risk for suicide. According to their website, research “shows that youth without stable housing are up to 13 times more likely to attempt suicide compared to their housed peers.”
However, unhoused youth in Boulder are facing more uncertainty this year. In May, The Source, Boulder’s only youth homeless shelter for ages 12-21 was closed by TGTHR, according to Boulder Reporting Lab’s John Herrick. This leaves youth facing homelessness without a shelter in the county, as Boulder’s All Roads homeless shelter is only for adults 18 and up. In addition to The Source, TGTHR also closed the Chase House, a residential treatment program for youth with mental illness or addiction, on Sept. 19. With this closure, there are no other long-term treatment programs for youth in Boulder.
These closures come after a state audit found that TGTHR was not following requirements for employee background checks. This audit forced TGTHR to temporarily shut down. However, due to a reduction in funding, both on the federal and private levels, TGTHR announced that the closure would be permanent.
“We just thought it was the appropriate time to move ahead with this decision instead of bringing young people back into the shelter and then needing to close down again,” a spokesperson for TGTHR, Alex Bergland, told Herrick.
Currently, there are no youth homeless shelters in Boulder County. Urban Peak is a youth homeless shelter in Denver, however it is the city’s only one. In addition to The Source shutting down, Boulder’s All Roads shelter reduced their bed capacity from 180 to 160 in April of this year.
However, there are still resources available for people facing homelessness. The City of Boulder keeps a list of updated resources on its website. Boulder Bridge House, which provides services for the homeless, also keeps a list of resources for food, shelter and mental health.