Guns in homeless housing

In the past several months, I have seen three guns in the apartments of the building I live in, Fusion Studios, which is permanent supportive housing for people experiencing homelessness. This sort of alarmed me because many people who live here suffer from mental illness or addiction. But the truth is, because residents here have signed a lease and the building receives federal funding, they are allowed to own guns.

“Private apartment communities can have a firearms prohibition in the lease; however, properties that are federally regulated and/or funded cannot,” said Cathy Alderman, spokesperson for Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, which owns and operates Fusion, in an email to the author of this article. “We cannot prohibit guns in our properties due to receiving government funding. We do follow-up with lease violations as appropriate if someone has a gun in a community space or brandishes a weapon at any time.”

At least one person who lives at Fusion told me someone pulled a gun on him, but no one was injured. He declined to give his name fearing retaliation.

In the Coalition’s transitional housing properties, however, Alderman said they do prohibit firearms. These are apartments where people can stay up to two years and don’t sign a lease. They are commonly used for veterans. “Weapons are not allowed on any transitional housing property and firearms, or any type of gun are strictly prohibited on any transitional housing property,” Alderman said. We recognize that the definition of a weapon is wide and generalized, and we will make decisions based on weapon confiscation based on security and safety concerns.”

Guns are not permitted in most homeless shelters. The City of Denver’s All in Mile High homeless hotels and tiny home communities are considered non-congregate shelters. But despite guns not being allowed, gun crimes have occurred at the city properties.

People who want guns usually get them

Most likely, the guns I saw at Fusion were not owned legally. One of the questions asked on a firearm registration form is whether the applicant ever has spent time in a mental institution. Many others are felons, and federal law prohibits felons from possessing guns. Finally, the form asks whether you ever have unlawfully smoked marijuana. That would disqualify three quarters of the people living in homeless hotels, I would imagine.

In Colorado, however, some felons can possess firearms. And some with misdemeanor convictions can’t. The Colorado Sun reported in 2021 that state legislation passed that year allows those who pleaded guilty or were convicted of crimes such as criminal impersonation, theft and drug offenses to carry guns.

The idea of drug dealers carrying guns doesn’t make me feel particularly safe. Fusion houses a lot of drug dealers. And drug dealers already are at heightened likelihood of carrying guns, research shows. A study of incarcerated drug offenders found 7% carried a firearm during the offense for which they were incarcerated. Gun carrying was shaped by conflict with other drug dealers, self‑protection, the value of the drugs, and the type of drug market.

In Hunter v. Cortland Housing Authority, a 2024 court case, a judge ruled that housing authorities cannot prohibit tenants from keeping firearms in their units.

Local housing authorities can regulate guns in common areas and require safe transport/storage, according to the ruling.

Dangerous buildings

When cities convert hotels into high‑density shelters without adequate staffing, oversight, or behavioral‑health infrastructure, violence spikes. Residents with wildly different needs and risk profiles are placed together. Security is reactive, not preventative.

There have been multiple shootings at the former DoubleTree Hotel, 4040 Quebec in Denver and two people have died.

The environment in homeless hotels often becomes chaotic, volatile, and dangerous — for everyone, including people who are simply trying to survive. But this may be precisely the reason why guns should be allowed – as a method of self-defense.

As gun advocates always say, “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”