Efforts to unionize employees of one of Colorado’s largest homeless providers failed in area and succeeded in another. 

The Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, which provides homeless-related services, employs around 850 people.

Two weeks ago, roughly 80 employees within the housing support services team — case managers, social works and clinical providers — voted to unionize with the Service Employees International Union, according to Colorado Coalition for the Homeless spokesperson Cathy Alderman.

However, on Wednesday night, about 30 employees within the housing assistance team — case managers and housing navigators — rejected unionizing with SEIU, Alderman said.

“We’ve been hearing concerns from staff over the last eight months about compensation, but also turnover and retention,” Alderman said. “We tried to put measures in place to address those and what we understand is that staff want different levels of voices.”

The coalition assists over 22,000 individuals and families each year.

In a Thursday news release, coalition officials said executives are “committed to working collaboratively with the staff who wish to unionize to fully respond to any issues regarding their employment.”

“We told staff we weren’t sure this was the right model,” Alderman said. “We wanted to respect all viewpoints and provide all possible information so staff voted on how they wanted to be represented.”

Todd Kaanta, a caseworker at CCH for the past six years and a key organizer behind the recent housing support team unionizing, said “many” employees “felt pressurized by anti-union rhetoric.”

“Especially from an organization that advocates for social justice, living wages, and housing as fundamental rights,” Kaanta said through SEIU Local 105 in a statement, adding employees seek to further negotiate contracts within the homeless nonprofit service provider.

“While we respect the outcome of this election,” the CCH employee said, “we are ready to begin negotiating a fair contract that ensures workers have a real voice in the decisions that impact us and the people we serve.”

Editor’s note: The Denver Gazette initially reached out to the national chapter of SEIU for comment, instead of the local chapter. The initial version of this story stated SEIU did not respond for comment by press time.