Registered sex offenders would be barred from Beloved Community Village

It’s a change in policy adopted in response to concerns raised by Globeville neighbors who have opposed hosting the village.
3 min. read
The Beloved Community tiny home village is an alternative to shelters for people experiencing homelessness.March 21, 2019. (Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite)

Registered sex offenders will be barred from a tiny-home village if the shelter alternative is allowed to set up on a city-owned lot in Globeville.

It's a change in policy for Beloved Community Village, adopted in response to concerns raised by Globeville neighbors who have opposed hosting the village.

Previously, "our policy has been to screen people into housing, not screen them out," Cole Chandler, co-director and co-founder at the nonprofit that operates Beloved Community Village, told city council members Tuesday during a meeting of the council's Finance & Governance Committee.

After a brief discussion Tuesday and with no dissenters, the committee approved an agreement to lease 20,000 square feet of city property at 4400 Pearl Street in Globeville for one year to Chandler's Colorado Village Collaborative for $10. The lease agreement, renewable for up to two years, now moves to City Council for final approval on April 29.

City staff had earlier this month told people in Globeville of the plan to go ahead with the vote, which had been placed on hold because of vehement opposition expressed by some in the community. Leaders in the city and at Colorado Village Collaborative have also received messages of support for the village.

Gayle LeRoux, who has been among the most persistent critics of the plan to move the tiny village to 4400 Pearl, told finance committee members Tuesday that her neighbors were "still feeling slighted."

"We just don't think it's an appropriate site at this time in Globeville for the village," she said.

A banner a new Globeville group put up across the street from the site the city has proposed as the new home for tiny homes for the homeless. March 28, 2019. (Donna Bryson/Denverite)

Neighbors will get another opportunity to tell city councilors what they think on April 29. A public comment period has been scheduled ahead of the vote on the tiny village proposal.

The city had offered 4400 Pearl to the Colorado Village Collaborative in January. The village has been located for more than a year near the 38th and Blake commuter rail station on a plot slated for the development of affordable housing. Colorado Village Collaborative had initially planned to move to a site that a private developer had offered at Taxi. That fell through in November when Denver's public works department said the Taxi site would not work because of the potential there for swift-moving floodwaters. The city stepped in under a tight deadline -- the 38th and Blake site was originally available only until March 1, but the village recently got an extension to mid-May.

The village of 11 small structures is currently home to 12 people experiencing homelessness. The lease for 4400 Pearl allows for nine more living units, each of which can house two people, and a community center.

Recent Stories