Denver opens an emergency cold weather shelter for women and transgender individuals experiencing homelessness

Men can go to the Lawrence Street Community Center to be taken to a shelter, and families experiencing homeless can go to Samaritan House to pick up hotel vouchers.
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This city-owned facility at 1370 Elati Street, pictured Oct. 23, 2020, will be a 24-hour cold weather  emergency shelter for women and transgender individuals experiencing homelessness until midday Oct. 27, 2020. (Donna Bryson/Denverite)

Denver has opened a temporary 24-hour emergency facility for women and transgender individuals seeking shelter as temperatures drop and a snow storm approaches.

In a statement Thursday, the city said the emergency shelter at 1370 Elati Street, near the jail, would be open until midday Oct. 27. People who want to stay there should check in at Catholic Charities' Samaritan House at 2301 Lawrence Street, from there, they will be taken to Elati Street.

The Denver Rescue Mission, meanwhile, added 75 mats to the 300 cots available for men the Coliseum, which was turned into a shelter after the pandemic struck. Alexxa Gagner, a spokeswoman for the DRM, added that hundreds of beds were available at other regular men's shelters. Gagner said single men should go to her nonprofit's Lawrence Street Community Center, at 2222 Lawrence Street, to be taken to a shelter. The Lawrence Street Community Center was transforming its dining room into an emergency sleeping area for 150 men.

Families experiencing homeless can go to Samaritan House to pick up vouchers for hotel stays during the cold weather, Gagner said.

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