A service hub for Denver’s most vulnerable won an award after it was shuttered in city layoffs.

The Denver AID Center was once a place where people dealing with homelessness, addiction and cycles of incarceration could go to find help moving on from their troubles. It offered connections to treatment centers, free phones, access to Medicaid and occasionally free dental care.

But this June, Mayor Mike Johnston’s administration announced plans to shut it down. His office said the AID Center’s services were already being carried out by other public programs, and that budget shortfalls necessitated its closure.

Officials delayed that plan after public outcry, but it finally closed for good last month, when its two full-time organizers were laid off with 170 others.

Then, last Friday, the A

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