A state compliance issue forced the temporary closure of two programs helping unhoused youth at Boulder-based TGTHR last week, displacing at least 13 young adults and one minor, according to the nonprofit.
The closure happened Monday during what TGTHR (formerly Attention Homes) describes as a routine annual audit by the Colorado Department of Human Services (CDHS). State regulators confirmed late Friday that “during recent facility visits … CDHS identified concerns with TGTHR’s residential programs, including incomplete or missing background checks for staff, missing training documentation, and staff working in positions for which they are not qualified.”
Officials notified TGTHR of the deficiencies at 3 p.m. Monday, representatives from the state and the nonprofit confirmed. By 5 p.m., the two programs — Chase House and The Source — were shut down.
When asked about the abrupt closure and displacement of vulnerable youth, CDHS spokesperson Julie Popp responded via email, “TGTHR failed to process background checks correctly through CDHS. As such, we could not clear staff for child-caring duties under regulatory standards. … All facilities must comply with state law to keep youth safe and ensure consistent standards across child care facilities.”
Chase House is a residential treatment program for youth ages 12-18 who have been removed from their families. It serves up to 10 young adults at a time. Four minors, ages 13-16, were staying there at the time of the closure, TGTHR spokesperson Alex Bergland confirmed. The Source is an emergency shelter for youth ages 12-21; there were nine young people there Monday, according to Annie Bacci, TGTHR’s chief executive officer.
‘Do not pass go’
In an interview, Bacci blamed the shutdown on a third-party vendor who failed to submit completed state and federal background checks to the state system. All employees had completed background checks, she said, and there were no inciting incidents that prompted the state’s actions.
TGTHR recently switched vendors, Bacci said, and “assumed … the same process was in place."
“We were getting the results back, putting them in employee files, and there wasn’t a way for us to know until this annual routine audit happened. The state was then checking against their system, and it wasn’t showing [as] reporting to them. And from the state’s perspective … if the background checks aren’t in their system, they don’t exist. That is just a ‘do not pass go,’ especially when you’re dealing with minors.”
Popp said the state was currently “not aware of any other similar concerns at TGTHR or elsewhere” that may have resulted from the vendor’s failure to remit background checks. The Colorado Bureau of Investigations has two approved vendors for non-criminal justice-related background checks.
Of the 13 displaced youth, all four from Chase House were placed elsewhere. Four from The Source went to The Landing youth shelter in Loveland, Bacci said. (A representative there declined to confirm the placement or answer questions, though they were aware of the closure.)
Five young adults staying at The Source chose “to hook up with friends in Boulder and not take the other options offered to them,” Bacci said, which included space at All Roads, Boulder’s largest, adults-only shelter, which just last week cut 20 overnight beds amid funding cuts.
“Our case management team is still working [with] the program team and the street outreach team," Bacci said of the displaced youths. "We’re looking for folks every day on the street to make contact with them. Our first priority is always the young people and making sure we can do what we can to get them first to a safe place."
The closure comes as Boulder is increasing its enforcement of unsheltered homelessness along the Boulder Creek corridor. An analysis from Boulder Reporting Lab, published over the weekend, found that the city issued nearly twice the amount of citations from January to March of this year as it did during the same time in 2024.
‘A tough financial spot’
On Friday, TGTHR opened a drop-in service center at 1440 Pine St., which provides long-term supportive housing for young adults. “This will … afford us an additional touchpoint for young people and allow some resources to be shared with the unhoused community,” Bergland wrote via email.
The roughly two dozen staff at both shuttered programs are still being paid, Bacci said. That may change depending on the length of the closure.
“It’s putting us in a tough financial spot, on top of county cuts and federal cuts,” she said, noting that Medicaid reimbursements, for example, are tied to being operational. "We can't get paid if we're not providing services."
TGTHR has stopped working with the vendor behind the mixup, Bacci said, and new state-level background checks for all staff have already been filed with Colorado’s system. (Popp declined to confirm receipt of recently completed state background checks, deferring to TGTHR.)
“I’m hoping we can address this and reopen in the next couple weeks,” Bacci said.
Popp declined to confirm how long the suspension might last. “We continue to collaborate closely with TGTHR to resolve these issues as quickly as possible,” she wrote.
Bergland echoed that the state and TGTHR were working together "daily" to correct all the identified issues, including "requesting waivers for existing staff that didn't meet the required year of experience but had additional support/supervision, and addressing training gaps," she wrote in response to followup questions sent via email.
“As the CEO, I want us to be accountable for this and own this,” Bacci said. “The lesson learned is if we are making any changes whatsoever, we need to be calling our state licensing specialist and making sure all of those loops have closed.”