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DENVER -- Tower cranes and new apartment buildings loom over a church parking lot that could be the site of a new tiny home village for the homeless.
St. Andrew's Episcopal Church wants to construct eight tiny homes for women and transgender women. The church has teamed up with the Colorado Village Collaborative, the same group that was behind Denver's first tiny home village.
"Tiny home villages are something in between shelters and transitional housing, they’re something in between the streets and an apartment complex," said Cole Chandler, a facilitator with Colorado Village Collaborative.
Chandler said paperwork was filed last week and the process is expected to take four to six weeks. During that time they will meet with neighbors and there will be an opportunity for public comment to be submitted. The church has already been meeting with nearby neighbors at a high-rise condo building.
"So one point of view is that this is a good thing. Certainly the homeless were here before our building was ever built," said Gil Vondrasek, the HOA President at 2001 Lincoln. "The other side of the coin is that there’s many many homeless facilities in this area."
Allyson Dodge, a member of the church's leadership group said they've been thinking about adding tiny homes to their property for the past two years and it made sense to partner with an organization that's already doing it.
The new village would be temporary and organizers say they're only planning on it being up for six months – which is currently the max allowed by the city. The Landmark Preservation Committee will ultimately have to review the plan.
"But at this juncture and this affordable housing crisis we have to get people into housing and we have to do that fast. We have to act quickly and that’s what tiny home villages enable us to do," said Chandler.