DENVER — A former hotel intended to house people experiencing homelessness has still not opened, more than a year after the city purchased it for $9 million.
Plans for the hotel pre-date the current Denver mayor.
In 2021, then-Mayor Michael Hancock stood in front of the Stay Inn hotel at 38th and Peoria and announced plans for the city buy the hotel and convert it into a shelter for people experiencing homelessness.
“This building here behind us represents hope, the transformation that can take place on this project and the transformation that is possible for the people who will call it home,” Hancock said at the time.
Congressman Diana DeGette, a Democrat who represents Denver, helped the city secure $2 million in federal funding to help purchase the hotel.
In 2023, Denver’s new Mayor Mike Johnston announced the city had finally bought the 96-unit hotel for $9 million.
But three years after Hancock announced the city’s plans, the hotel sits boarded up and empty.
Not a single person has been able to move into it.
Last week during a city council meeting, the mayor’s senior homeless advisor, Cole Chandler, said the city was still looking for a long-term partner to run the site and was still working on rezoning.
“We’re actively working on that project,” Chandler said. “We are actively working on the rezoning process. We are actively working on identifying the scope of the construction and the partner to do it, and we are actively working on who the long-term operator and property manager of the site will be."
On Friday, officials from the Department of Housing Stability (HOST), which oversees the project, told Denver7 the partner selection was delayed after staff determined the potential partner they had been negotiating wasn’t the best fit.
“The delay in partner selection is due in part to a change in direction with partner selection,” said Derek Woodbuy, the director of marketing and communications for HOST. “The Department of Housing Stability was previously in negotiations with a potential partner, but during the due diligence process, our staff determined that this organization wasn’t the best partner for this project. We have since terminated these negotiations and proceeded toward selecting a new partner.”
“I think it’s an absolute disgrace that the city would rather put money toward enforcing the camping ban instead of opening this space to get people off the street,” said Amy Beck, an advocate for people experiencing homelessness in Denver.
Woodbury said the city remained “fully committed” to turning the Stay Inn property into supportive housing for people experiencing homelessness.
City leaders have not offered a timeline for when the site will finally open.
Through its partners, the city operates several hotel shelters and micro-communities for the unhoused. One of the micro-community sites is located on the same lot as the Stay Inn.
Since Johnston took office, more than 1,600 people have been moved off the streets, according to the city’s dashboard.
About 1,300 of those people remain indoors, according to the dashboard.
