Bridge House, a longtime Boulder nonprofit that provides jobs, housing and support services to people experiencing homelessness, is shutting down after nearly 30 years, dealing another blow to Boulder’s shrinking network of homelessness services.
The closure follows a rocky year for the organization, which operated Ready to Work programs in Boulder, Aurora and Englewood. This summer, as part of a financial stabilization plan, Bridge House closed its Aurora location, laid off staff and ended its Community Table program, which had served meals to homeless people for decades. Three different people have served as CEO or interim CEO in 2026.
Bridge House announced the closure Nov. 5, citing “the unpredictability of the current funding landscape.” In a press release, the organization said its summer stabilization plan had not provided “enough of a runway to keep its programs running long-term.”
The organization also tried emergency fundraising, but failed to raise enough money to keep its programs open.
Englewood’s Tri-Cities Homeless Navigation Center and Ready to Work programs will close this month. Boulder’s Ready to Work program will close by Dec. 31.
Bridge House provides housing, employment and case management to as many as 44 people in Boulder and 50 in Englewood. It is Boulder’s main source of this kind of transitional housing, which combines paid work, housing and support services. Participants typically spend about a year in Ready to Work before moving into permanent housing and jobs outside the program.
Staff are now working with clients on individualized transition plans to help them find housing and services after the closure, according to the organization’s press release. In the short term, some Englewood clients will move to Boulder.
Residents were told about a week ago that Bridge House would close unless emergency funding was secured. On Oct. 28, Delynn Copley, whose son is in Boulder’s Ready to Work program, wrote to Boulder City Council urging councilmembers to help keep the organization open.
“Before finding this program, navigating the path toward stability felt impossible,” she said. “Ready to Work has provided him not just with a safe place to live, but with the dignity of employment, structured support, and a genuine pathway out of homelessness after recovery from a mental health crisis and hospitalization.”
Copley warned that participants could lose their housing and that few other programs offer the same combination of employment, housing and support services.
“Closing Bridge House will create a massive vacuum in Boulder’s human services pipeline,” she wrote.
The closures come after Bridge House expanded beyond Boulder in recent years, opening locations in Aurora in 2019 and Englewood in 2025. Colleen Krueger, Bridge House’s marketing and communications manager, said this growth “unfortunately coincided with financial difficulties in the macro environment surrounding us and other nonprofits.”
“Over the years we have been unable to grow our donor base geographically to support three locations,” she said. “In addition, we have had to face headwinds due to significant uncertainties created in the government funding system.”
Krueger said some of the organization’s contracts weren’t renewed, while others were reduced or delayed.
Covid-era government funding programs provided substantial support to Bridge House between 2021 and 2026, but ended without replacement, according to Bill Sweeney, who has worked with Bridge House for years and has a long history of working with homeless populations.
Bridge House’s financial troubles appear to be relatively recent. In 2024, the nonprofit reported $8.7 million in revenue, nearly double its expenses, according to its federal tax filing.
The organization’s cash and cash equivalents fell from $3.5 million at the end of 2024 to $1.3 million at the end of 2025. Its financial assets available for general expenditures also dropped, from $4.3 million to $1.9 million, according to the 2024 and 2025 audits. Bridge House ended 2025 with $18.2 million in net assets, most of which were tied up in property and equipment.
A board committee and legal counsel are now helping Bridge House sell its real estate assets and explore potential partnerships involving properties and funds restricted to specific uses, according to the organization. Bridge House is also seeking another nonprofit to take over its Ready to Work program, according to Krueger. An undisclosed number of employees are being laid off.
Krueger responded to questions about the closure on behalf of Bridge House. Board members could not be reached for comment.
Another loss for Boulder’s homelessness services
Bridge House’s closure comes as other Boulder organizations serving people experiencing homelessness have also cut back. TGTHR, a Boulder-based nonprofit serving homeless youth, closed both its residential treatment program and homeless shelter for young people last year.
All Roads, Boulder County’s largest homeless shelter, also cut its number of overnight beds from 180 to 160 last year, except during winter months, after the county cut its funding.
Bridge House began as a day shelter before expanding services into employment, housing and other support services.
Andy Schultheiss, development and communications officer for All Roads, said the organization is “sorry to see any impactful program in the homelessness space falter,” and that All Roads will help meet the needs of as many clients as possible. The shelter started a new work-based program for clients with fewer needs about a year ago.
Scott Medina, Bridge House’s former director of community relations, launched Unity Table this year to help replace Bridge House’s Community Table program after he was laid off and the program was discontinued this summer.
The annual homeless memorial honoring people who died while experiencing homelessness, historically run by Bridge House, will still take place Dec. 21, according to volunteers who expect the event to continue in future years.
Bridge House estimates it has helped more than 500 people permanently exit homelessness over the years.
“If Bridge House had not happened — if the people there did not care — I would be dead,” one resident, identified as Reuben M., said in a testimonial published on Bridge House’s website. “God bless Bridge House. May that organization help hundreds and thousands of people like me.”
Heather Moran, a current trainee at Bridge House Boulder, said she is “a little stressed, but hopeful for the future.”
“The bridge house changed my life,” she said. “I want to learn how to start bridge houses. I want to make this my life choice.”
