About 35 years ago, Steve Schuck, a good friend and political ally called me and proclaimed, “There’s someone you must meet.” “Who, why and when,” I asked. “Immediately, he replied, “time is of the essence.” So, a meeting was arranged for the next day. The man was Bob Coté. We met at Bob’s workplace, a somewhat dilapidated building at 21st Street and Larimer St. in what was then Denver’s skid row. The building housed Step 13, a tough-love, sobriety-first recovery community for homeless men in Denver.
Bob had been a successful salesman but succumbed to alcoholism and wound up hitting bottom, homeless on Denver’s skid row. Step 13 helped him rebuild his life. He returned the favor by taking a job there to help others and was soon running the place and determined to save it. This was a tough neighborhood and Bob was a tough hombre, a former Golden Gloves boxer. There were days he’d have to defend his turf armed with a baseball bat from vandals and drunks.
Bob explained the program he’d crafted and why it works, based on three pillars; Sobriety: Detox, mandatory abstinence, and random testing. Work: Residents have to be employed and pay rent. Accountability: No excuses, strict rules, peer support and bonding.
And no connection with or funding by government. The politics and bureaucracy associated with that is poison. To this day, Step has never taken a nickel of government money. Bob sold me and we became fast friends for many years. He was one of a kind, larger than life and overflowing with charisma. Bob would boast he had a doctorate in “streetology” and could see through any wavering resident’s phony excuses. An article in American Enterprise magazine described him as “a one-man alternative to the welfare state. Take one part Florence Nightengale, add three parts John Wayne, and one part cowboy poet…running a shelter that turns homeless junkies into productive citizens.”
So, I asked how I could help. Bob said, look around at the building, Denver is threatening to close us down for code violations, turn off the water and electricity, and we have a lot of bills to pay. I said its December, a good time to be charitable. How about we do a remote broadcast on my KOA radio show from your building for all three hours? You can tell everyone about your program, your philosophy, and your mission. I know my audience would love what you’re doing. We’ll call it a radiothon and raise a few bucks.
A couple of days later we did just that. My first caller that day, a personal friend with a business in Parker, Dave Stump, pledged $5,000. Other businesspeople offered jobs for Bob’s residents, checks poured in for days and we raised about $50,000 in all. And for the next three decades we did an annual Step 13 radiothon each December. Other philanthropists like Joe Coors, Cort Dietler, and Phil Anschutz were very generous to Step 13 especially in its early days of need. And Peter Boyles was a major supporter.
Bob Coté passed away in 2013. In 2017 Step 13, changed its name to Step Denver so it could differentiate its venues as it expands into other communities, like Step Springs in Colorado Springs, which will celebrate its first anniversary as a new 50-bed residential program on October 28 with an Open House. Here’s an opportunity to check out this facility for yourself or a loved one. Meghan Shay joined Step in 2019 and is now the CEO of Step Recovery, the parent organization for Step Denver, Step Springs, and future sites to come. (If Step Denver is more convenient for you, Meghan would be pleased to arrange for a visit there.)
What remains constant is Step’s dedication to Bob Coté’s vision. Numerous Step alumni have joined the staff after their personal recovery, most notably Bob himself, all of the Denver staff and more than half of the Step Springs staff, including Andre Podpolucha, now the Chief Operating Officer of Step Springs, who just four years ago was living under a bridge. This speaks volumes about their belief in the program, their ability to empathize with residents and serve as role models.
The fatal flaw of government-run “homeless” programs for substance addicts is their insistence on “housing first.” This is compassion without common sense. Without a commitment to personal responsibility and accountability on the part of addicted residents such programs reward bad behavior and become little more than storage centers for permanent addicts.
Longtime KOA radio talk host and columnist for the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News Mike Rosen now writes for Complete Colorado.
