An 11-year-old girl who fell six stories from a family shelter in Denver on Monday suffered serious injuries but is expected to survive, Denver police say.

The girl fell from a sixth-floor room window to the roof of a ground-floor attached building, according to a Denver Fire Department spokesperson. A maintenance worker for the property retrieved the girl from the roof and took her to the ground floor entrance to meet with her parents and fire and emergency medical crews.

The shelter itself, dubbed the "Tamarac Family Shelter," is a former Embassy Suites hotel that was bought by the City and County of Denver and converted to an emergency shelter for people who were experiencing homelessness with children. It sits near the intersection of East Hampden Avenue and South Tamarac Drive and has 205 units.

The window the girl fell out of was supposed to be secured shut, officials with several city agencies said.

"The window was a previously secured sliding glass door, fastened shut with screws and epoxy and clearly labeled do not open in English and Spanish. Unfortunately, the safety features were tampered with-contrary to The Salvation Army's regulations and the signed guest agreement-and the door was opened," said Jennifer Forker, communications and marketing director for the Salvation Army's Intermountain Division, which runs the shelter.

She went on to say that Salvation Army staff check those windows every week, but said city staff are also tasked with maintaining the building.

"The City and County of Denver is responsible for building maintenance and security at the Tamarac shelter. The Salvation Army has consistently raised concerns about the safety of the windows during regular meetings with city staff and leadership," she said. "While we are grateful that action is now being taken, we urge the city to move swiftly and decisively to ensure these long-standing safety concerns are fully addressed to protect the families we serve."

Forker referred additional questions to the Denver Department of Housing Stability.

Derek Woodbury, director of communications and marketing for that department, said rooms and windows are inspected before a family is placed in them.

"We were saddened to learn of Monday's incident and send our thoughts and hopes for a speedy recovery to both the child and her family," he told CBS News Colorado on Tuesday. "All rooms at the Tamarac Family Shelter are equipped with safety measures to ensure windows cannot be fully opened. This design works properly so long as the windows are not tampered with. Safety will always be our top priority, however, at this time we have no reason to believe this is anything more than a terrible and unfortunate accident."

Jon Ewing, a spokesman for the city, said the window locks were adjusted by adding rivets to allow the windows to open four inches to allow for ventilation, but also said that the rooms have air conditioning. He reiterated that the rooms and the windows are inspected before they're turned over to each new family and said this appeared to just be a tragic accident, albeit one that could have been worse.

A former case manager at the shelter spoke to CBS News Colorado in November 2024, detailing issues and safety concerns she said she saw and experienced at the shelter.

A 51-page report from the Denver Office of the Auditor that came out at the same time found the Department of Housing Stability had "ineffective systems for monitoring shelter provider performance." The report did not, however, identify any issues specific to the shelter's windows.

"Housing Stability's poor organization is negatively affecting operations at Denver's shelters," Denver Auditor Timothy M. O'Brien said at the time. "These issues need to be addressed because vulnerable populations are at risk."

The department disputed both the case manager's claims and the audit office's findings at the time.

You can read that entire November audit here: