Homeless shelter expands in Northern Colorado town after over 1,000 turned away after shelter fire

The town of Wellington is where many men who are unhoused in Fort Collins are staying their nights of late. The Fort Collins Rescue Mission has opened a building with dozens of overnight shelter beds on their Harvest Farm property north of Fort Collins.

The move comes months after the longstanding location in Old Town Fort Collins had a fire, forcing the mission to have to temporarily close the shelter.

Thanks to approval from Larimer County, Harvest Farm is housing men in a spare building for overnight shelter purposes.

 "I believe shelter is important year round," said Seth Forwood, CP of programs in Northern Colorado for the mission.

Harvest Farm is a property north of Fort Collins that serves as a long-term recovery and resource center for those trying to break the cycle of addiction and homelessness.

Most men who have historically lived on the property stay there for at least a year, while they encourage one another to maintain jobs, reestablish relationships, find faith and upkeep sobriety.

However, after a fire burned in the rescue mission in Fort Collins in August 2025, Fort Collins' largest homeless shelter was forced to close its doors due to damages.

The mission was able to partner with the county and city to offer its services in a smaller venue near the county courthouse. However, that resulted in it having to turn men away more than 1,000 times in recent months due to lack of beds. The new shelter option at Harvest Farm has helped them open up beds to those in need.

"Having 30 beds, that makes a difference. Because we haven't turned away a single person since opening this shelter," Forwood said. "We vacated that (Fort Collins) building that night and haven't been back since. So that is 89 beds we have lost on the most important season of the year."

Those needing shelter are either taken in at the temporary location near the courthouse, or they are bussed north into Wellington to the Harvest Farm property building.

"Especially on cold nights, we end up making trips late into the night," Forwood said.

Forwood said the new temporary shelter is saving lives.

"On winter days where the temperature may not go over 15 degrees and the nights are even closer, that is a risk to your life," Forwood said.

The county has approved the extra occupancy at Harvest Farm through March of this year. That is around the time in which the mission hopes to have their original location repaired and reopened.

The mission is also in the process of building a new multimillion dollar homeless resource center in Fort Collins that will open at the end of 2026.