City Council voted Monday to open a safe outdoor space in Montbello on part of a city-owned parking lot at 4685 Peoria Street. It will continue to be a "Native American-Inclusive" site, relocated from the site in Lincoln Park owned by Denver Health, where the lease is up.
Colorado Village Collaborative operates the safe outdoor spaces, which provide people without shelter private tents with electricity and heating, as well as showers, bathrooms, food, COVID testing and support services. They're staffed 24/7, and meant to serve as a temporary in between for people living on the streets before they can get more permanent housing.
Denver already has one safe outdoor space on a city-owned property at the Denver Human Services East Office, and operates a $4.79 million contract with Colorado Village Collaborative that helps run others, through a mix of public and private funding.
Many of the residents at the Lincoln Park location will relocate to 4685 Peoria Street. The site will continue to focus on serving Native Americans and will also reserve a portion of tents for people in Montbello experiencing homelessness.
The desire for a Native American specific site came after controversial sweeps of an encampment outside the Four Winds American Indian Council in 2021, informally called the Denver Indigenous Refugee Camp. Native Americans are overrepresented among people experiencing homelessness in Denver.
The site will run for one year, from December 2022 through November 2023.
The agreement includes six month renewal options, and the chance to end the contract with six-months notice. The lot will house up to 60 tents and serve around 70 residents, including singles, couples and pets.
People will connect with the site through Colorado Village Collaborative's outreach teams, who refer people and help them relocate. Safe outdoor spaces do not take walk-ins, and they're not first-come-first-serve. People must go through a screening process.
Colorado Village Collaborative works with Native American organizations for referrals, as well as with Denver Street Outreach Collaborative, the Denver Police Department and the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure for referrals.
Safe outdoor spaces faced pushback and lawsuits when they first opened, but later gained support.
"We got more than 1,000 emails in opposition to the safe outdoor spaces," Councilman Chris Hinds said of the two original sites, which were both in his district. "Once people realized what the safe outdoor space is, people wanted more of it."
In a committee meeting at the end of August, Hinds said his inbox was much quieter this time around.
"I think it's fabulous that there is no comment or question or concerns about it now, and that just shows in my mind the testament of the success of the safe outdoor spaces," he said.
Colorado Village Collaborative held a community meeting last week with Montbello residents, along with regular office hours.
"As with every kind of introduction to the neighborhoods we have folks that are a little shocked and maybe a little upset, but we usually find, as we did with this neighborhood, that a lot of their questions were answered, a lot of the fears were dispelled, along with the myths about what we do and what this program is," said Cuica Montoya, program director of safe outdoor spaces with Colorado Village Collaborative.
The program has the support of Mayor Michael Hancock, and approval of the site passed 11-1 on Monday, with Councilwoman Amanda Sawyer the lone dissenting vote. Sawyer said she supported safe outdoor spaces, but not its funding stream. Part of the funding from the city for Colorado Village Collaborative comes from federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, meant for pandemic recovery.
"ARPA funding is a pot of gold from the federal government that we will never see again and we should be using that to invest in long term solutions and supports, not fishing tents," Sawyer said, referring to the ice-fishing tents used at the sites.
This past February, Sawyer voted no on another contract with Colorado Village Collaborative.
"We all want to help people, we just have different opinions on how we're prioritizing our spending," she said at the February council meeting.
Safe outdoor spaces around the city have moved around a few times, and Montoya said they hope to settle down.
"Our dream as an organization is to find a permanent site that we can co-locate some of our temporary programs on, as well as getting into housing people permanently, so we are still on the lookout for that," she said.
In the meantime, temporary leases will continue. The contract at the city's other site at the Denver Human Services East Office will be up in November, with the chance for two six-month renewals. The city and Colorado Village Collaborative have not yet made a decision on a renewal.
