DENVER — While much of Denver mayor Mike Johnston’s moves to address homelessness has focused on temporary housing, including the creation of micro sites and hotels, on Wednesday, his administration announced a plan to identify 500 permanent housing options through the use of vouchers as part of a new partnership.
That partnership, which includes the state, Denver Housing Authority and Salvation Army will then make hundreds of vouchers available for the unhoused to use to move from transitional units into more permanent housing.
As part of the Mayor’s plan, the city will contract for 6 months with Seattle-based Housing Connector, a tech-focused nonprofit, first launched in 2022, that works with property owners and management companies to identify available units that could be used with the vouchers.
The state of Colorado will provide 195 housing vouchers, The Denver Housing Authority will make 100 vouchers available and the Salvation Army will provide 200 rapid rehousing units, or dollars to transition people from micro-sites into leased units.
“Together that is 500 stable, permanent housing exits that we have for people so we’re not just making sure they get into the first step on the ladder of housing, but actually getting into a long term, much more stable step,” said Denver Mayor Mike Johnston during a press conference. “Housing connector will be coming to Denver today and they will be our partner that will help identify and source those units all around the city.”
The mayor said the approach would identify available units then work to set up agreements with those property owners and “put dollars down to save and preserve those units,” he said. “And then we can immediately begin to connect someone with a voucher to a unit.”
The mayor said the connector piece is key to helping someone experiencing homelessness find a permanent solution.
“If you are someone living unsheltered on the streets and you don’t have a phone, you don’t have a physical address, imagine how hard it is for any of us to hunt for a unit to rent in this city, try doing it without any of the structures or support you need to get there.”
The Mayor’s announcement comes on the same day that his office is removing a second proposed micro-community from consideration.
In a letter to District 6 community members obtained by Denver7, Johnston said the planned micro-community site at 1380 S. Birch Street will not move forward due to “a combination of logistical and operational challenges, and economic viability,” the letter read.
The mayor said his office publicly listed the proposed transitional housing sites in an effort to seek community feedback. While the Birch Street micro-community plans have been scrapped, Johnston said other proposed sites in District 6 are being identified.
Denver7 learned last week Johnston also dropped a proposed Micro-community site in District 4 located at 5500 E. Yale Avenue also due to “logistical and operational challenges.”
The remaining list of proposed micro-community and hotel sites include:
- 1498 N. Irving St. for a micro-community
- 950 W. Alameda Ave. for a micro-community
- 2301 S. Santa Fe Dr. for a micro-community
- 4595 N. Quebec St. for hotel
- 12033 E. 38th. Ave. for a hotel and micro-community combo
- 3700 Galapago St. for a micro-community
- 1199 N. Bannock St. for a micro-community
- 1375 N. Elati St. for a micro-community
- 5000 Tower Rd. for a micro-community
Will Goodale, Marketing Director for Housing Connector said the organization would work with local nonprofits and property owners to identify potential permanent housing units.
“We’re aiming to increase occupancy rates for the properties through mitigating operational challenges so that property owners and managers can reduce the barriers allowing more people to access housing,” said Goodale.
Citing Metro Denver Homeless Initiative (MDHI) homelessness data, Goodale added of the 5,018 unhoused people in the city, Housing Connector could support 71 percent of those people who identified as in a transitional situation. “41 percent of that total number are experiencing first-time housing insecurity,” he said. “We can come in and support them at this critical juncture, we can prevent reentry into chronic housing instability cycles, which demands significantly more resources from all of us.”
Denver
Mayor Johnston drops one proposed site for a micro-community for the unhoused
Mayor Johnston said the connector program would mostly focus on transitioning people from micro-communities or hotels into the permanent units utilizing the vouchers. “You come from an encampment, we resolve that encampment, bring you into say the Best Western, you’re there, you could stabilize for a couple of months, get back on your feet maybe get a job and now you’re ready to move to the next stage,” Johnston said. “We would then bring you out of that transitional site into a leased unit, maybe you have some support, you have a voucher or rapid rehousing, but you’re out, up on your own in your own unit.”
Johnston added that by transitioning people out of the micro-sites into permanent units would then open more vacancies in the temporary solutions for people living in encampments, but some people in encampments could skip the hotels or temporary sites and move directly into a permanent unit.
“I was at 48th and Colorado talking to folks in an encampment there, three of them are all employed, two of them working at Amazon Warehouses, they had units a month ago, rent got too high and they ended up homeless, they are ready to transition back into a unit,” he said. “Some people will go directly from unsheltered homelessness into leased units, but the most common progression will be to bring folks firstly into a hotel site or micro-community.”
In terms of financing the plan, the Mayor said the state vouchers were part of the Denver-metro regional navigation campus grant, or HB22-1378, signed into law by Governor Polis in May 2022. Johnston said the Denver Housing Authority vouchers are annual and rapid rehousing dollars are a budget allocation of $4 million to provide 200 units of permanent housing.
