A pair of leading Democratic lawmakers are pushing back on a bill staunchly supported by Gov. John Hickenlooper to repurpose part of an old, rural prison campus as a residential facility for the state’s homeless.

Sen. Pat Steadman of Denver and Rep. Claire Levy of Boulder question both the cost and whether the initiative isn’t more about finding a purpose for the Fort Lyon prison shuttered at Hickenlooper’s request than it is about helping resolve homelessness.

“There’s some real concerns about the conditions and maintenance of the facility,” said Steadman, the chairman of the Joint Budget Committee. “It’s an old facility that’s going to have ongoing costs for years to come.”

Asbestos has been found in the buildings and on the grounds.

Steadman is opposed to the bill, which easily passed the House on Monday. It now goes to the Senate, where it could face a tougher battle.

Facing a budget shortfall two years ago of more than $1 billion, Hickenlooper closed the prison to save the state cash — a move that killed about 200 jobs in Bent County, where poverty rates were hovering near 35 percent.

Since then, his administration has held dozens of meetings with Bent County commissioners and traveled to the nation’s capital to try to figure out what to do with the facility and how to help southeastern Colorado.

Late last year, Hickenlooper’s office asked the Joint Budget Committee to reserve about $6 million over the next two years to repurpose the sprawling campus to serve the homeless.

But after committee members toured the facility Jan. 21, they rebuffed Hickenlooper’s request and later voted unanimously against allotting funds in the state budget to the facility.

Levy, who sits on the Joint Budget Committee, called the bill a “good-faith effort” during discussion on the House floor Monday, but she also offered up criticism.

“It’s a bit of the tail wagging the dog,” said Levy, who voted against the measure. “So we’re saying that there’s a homeless problem, there’s an unused facility problem. … Let’s round up homeless people primarily from the Denver metropolitan area and let’s bus them down to Las Animas, and voil…, we’ve solved two problems.”

Levy said she hopes to look at the best ways to serve the chronically homeless and separate that issue from one of an underused facility in rural Colorado.

House Bill 1261 — co-sponsored by more than a dozen Democrats and Republicans — also would provide the homeless with substance-abuse supportive services, medical care and job training.

According to the bill’s fiscal note, the state this year would need about $2.8 million to pay for things such as maintenance and utilities.

The cost to run the facility and treat clients would increase to about $4 million annually, said Rep. Leroy Garcia, D-Pueblo, the prime co-sponsor of the measure. The number of clients would increase to about 200 by July 2014 and about 300 by the following July.

“This is a beautiful campus in a great part of the state,” Garcia said, noting passage of the measure would initially create about 60 jobs. “A number of veterans come back with post-traumatic stress disorders and can’t find work, become homeless, and this rural community would be beneficial to help them transition and get back on their feet.”

The measure would empower Colorado Coalition for the Homeless to administer the program. Participation would be voluntary and not limited to veterans — although language tied specifically toward aiding homeless veterans is absent from the legislation.

The state would bus the individuals in from urban and rural parts of Colorado.

Roxane White, Hickenlooper’s chief of staff, said she hopes the program can be an anchor for the 500-acre facility, which the state received from the federal government in 2002.

“This is about helping veterans, the homeless and rural Colorado,” White said.

But some Republicans believe Hickenlooper, a Democrat, is more interested in helping his image.

“I find it interesting that the governor is pushing to support rural Colorado after a year of just crapping on rural Colorado with gun bills,” said Sen. Greg Brophy, R-Wray.

“If he thinks being a champion for Fort Lyon is going to recover his negative impact on rural Colorado, he’s in for another thinking.”

Hickenlooper has remained committed to finding a new purpose for Fort Lyon since the facility’s closing and prior to the mass shootings in Aurora and Newtown, Conn., that led to the gun debate.

Several state senators, from both sides of the aisle, have said recently that they’re unsure whether they will support the bill. And with assistance from Hickenlooper’s office, some could make a last-minute trip to tour the facility before the Senate casts its votes.

“I’m not sure we’re making Fort Lyon a sustainable facility by just repurposing it,” said Sen. Jessie Ulibarri, D-Commerce City. “If we’re giving money to a facility that we know has structural deficiencies, it just doesn’t make fiscal sense.”

Kurtis Lee: 303-954-1655, klee@denverpost.com or twitter.com/kurtisalee