DENVER — The City of Denver is considering using a vacant school in the Sunnyside neighborhood to shelter new immigrants.
Students at Rocky Mountain Prep Sunnyside are now being taught at Rocky Mountain Prep Berkley, meaning the building at 4735 Pecos Street is empty. City officials are looking to use that space to provide temporary shelter to newcomers.
The city has seen a steady decrease in immigrants using city shelters since its peak on Jan. 11, when more than 5,000 newcomers were being housed. According to the City of Denver's dashboard, only two newcomers arrived Sunday and only four people are in short-term shelter.
Officials said 155 immigrants arrived in Denver in August. To date, the city has served 42,785 immigrants, according to its dashboard.
City officials said they are just considering the building at this point and no official plan has been presented, but neighbors in the area are still concerned at the possibility of a shelter opening up next door.
"We need serious talking about it if they're going to put that here," said neighbor Jay Kirwood, who is worried about the impacts the shelter could cause. “Overcrowding, trash, violence, everything under the sun."
On the other hand, advocates like Amy Beck believe this could be a good opportunity to help families who are still in need.
"It's a large piece of property. There's a lot of space there. We could be teaching classes there. We could have that as an emergency shelter for people that get evicted and have nowhere to go. There are other uses that we could use that building for that would serve this community. I would like to see the city consider some of those possibilities," said Beck.
The city said current shelters are staffed and have security on-site. Officials said if the school is converted, they will work with neighbors to address their concerns.
Denver7 asked the city why it is looking to create a new shelter site amid a drop in immigrant arrivals. Officials said they could not elaborate but they wanted "to be prepared."
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