Just two months ago, the Denver City Council voted to extend contracts and increase funding for The Salvation Army by a total of $3.1 million to support the city’s homeless efforts despite expressing growing weariness with costs and safety concerns.

However, on Monday night, council members delivered a 10-1 no vote, sinking a proposed three-year agreement between the city and The Salvation Army – worth more than $2.9 million – to provide rapid rehousing services for the city’s homeless.

Councilmember Kevin Flynn (District 2) held the only aye vote.

District 8 Councilmember Shontel Lewis has long been concerned about the city’s continued “lack of a long-term plan” for the shelters, many of which are located in her district.

“I have said many, many, many, many times that I have deep, deep concerns regarding the Salvation Army and their ability to keep folks safe within their care,” Lewis said. “And we have seen it in the number of times the Denver Police Department has to respond to sites that are managed by the Salvation Army.”

Denver police were called to a homeless shelter at 4040 North Quebec St., where a staff member was arrested for sexual assault after reportedly dragging a woman staying at the shelter into a vacant room early Friday morning, according to Denver Gazette news partner 9News.

According to an arrest affidavit, a 43-year-old staff member “called the victim over to speak with her,” and then “grabbed the victim by her hair and forcibly pulled her into the room.”

Police said he then sexually assaulted her before other staff members unlocked the door and pulled him off the woman.

The Salvation Army is under contract with Denver to operate the site.

Messages asking for a comment from The Salvation Army were left for Jennifer Forker, the organization’s director of communications.

In late November, Denver Auditor Timothy O’Brien released an audit report that revealed the city’s Department of Housing Stability (HOST), which oversees many of Denver’s homeless shelter operations, lacked financial oversight and effective monitoring systems to ensure shelter providers remained in compliance with contracts.

Auditors found that HOST, despite spending millions of dollars on shelter facilities and services, did not specifically track such expenditures during the audit period.

“There’s no reason to approve additional dollars when they have shown that they are not able to keep our communities safe and that they’re not willing to be accountable to the safety of our communities,” Lewis said of The Salvation Army.

Lewis said that her district has welcomed more than 600 shelter residents who are now her constituents.

The Denver Gazette has reached out to the city’s Housing Stability Office for comment, but a response was not received by press time.

“There’s a number of things that we could put on the table,” Lewis said. “But to give the Salvation Army any more dollars, a single dollar moving forward, feels very tone-deaf and irresponsible.”