On Thursday, Denver police officers removed residents of the Regis Motel after the Department of Excise and License shut down the business, ordering its immediate closure.
As a result, the roughly 20 people living in 18 rooms and a four-bedroom apartment lost the closest thing to permanent housing they've had in a city that has declared a homeless state of emergency and where rents are out of reach for many working people.
Excise and License attributed the shutdown to "extensive drug dealing, car theft, possession of stolen firearms and prostitution." And on Monday, a person living at the hotel shot and killed a person.
The motel housed long-term residents and some looking for a one-night break from the streets. There were seniors, middle-aged couples, and even families and children living there.
The police action that left motel guests sleeping outside occurred the same week Mayor Mike Johnston's administration moved 83 people from a homeless encampment at 8th Avenue and Logan Street into another motel and other transitional housing.
Regis owner Geradette Borrego said she refunded tenants' money for the night. She watched, "heartbroken," as she was locked out of her building and her motel guests were moved to the street or other shelter.
She purchased the Regis in May, hoping to turn it into supportive housing for people looking to get back on their feet. She worried the city shutdown could scuttle her long-term plans.
Denver police outreach workers were the only people on the scene offering support, according to the department. The Department of Housing Stability (HOST) was not present. Nor were homeless nonprofits.
Two families with children were placed in a hotel for a week and worked with HOST to get on the list for the Family Shelter Program, Doug Schepman, DPD's director of communications told Denverite in an email. One family received a Lyft to cart their belongings and dog to a hotel.
A couple, who had just paid for their stay, received two days in a hotel until they received their next paycheck. All these families were also given bus tickets and gift cards to King Soopers.
"They also placed a gentleman in a hotel for three nights and went to that hotel this morning to give him a cell phone, ARC gift cards for clothing, bus tickets, grocery gift cards, and will assure he has appropriate resources once he leaves the hotel," Schepman said.
Two other individuals went to an emergency shelter.
Other Regis residents refused services offered by outreach case coordinators, he added.
Residents told Denverite they, too, wanted motel vouchers and there were none left to be had.
Among those was Dameion Elliot, who worked the front desk and lived in the motel's apartment with his children, dogs and wife.
On Thursday night, after being locked out of his home, his family slept in a car in front of the motel, as he kept an eye on his pile of possessions the police had left outside the Regis.
On Friday morning, others who lived at the Regis sat outside the building on the sidewalk where they had slept, unsure what was next.
Police officers unlocked the gate and watched as Elliot carted boxes and bags of clothing to the alley. The displaced residents scrambled, with family members, to find a place to store everything they owned.
"I have some valuable stuff, like my kids bikes," Elliot said. "So I'm putting it all in the alley. My wife went to get the U-Haul."
Where would they go next? He didn't know.
A spate of crime triggered the shutdown, according to Excise and License.
Since 2018, there have been 82 arrests at the Regis, according to Denver Police Department records.
Department spokesperson Eric Escudero believes this was the city's first summary suspension on a lodging -- meaning the business had to close without warning and the people living there had to leave immediately without notice.
In July, a person was arrested with more than 99 grams of coke, 45 tablets of Fentanyl, 4.3 grams of meth, 1.8 grams of oxycodone and a stolen firearm.
In the months that followed, others, including a manager and a custodian, were arrested for multiple crimes.
When Geradette Borrego purchased the Regis Motel, she didn't know the extent of crime happening. She had big hopes of using the motel for good.
First, she wanted to turn it into a sober living facility, but decided East Colfax wasn't the best place to do that.
Borrego said she applied to the Department of Corrections to turn the Regis into transitional housing for people leaving prison -- particularly for sex offenders and others who have a hard time securing housing. She never heard back.
"We're trying to transform this into a homeless shelter," she told Denverite.
Shortly after she purchased the building, she connected with Che Derrera, who has devoted the past few years to helping people who are returning from prison enroll in college through his job at the Community College of Denver. In his spare time, he volunteers to help people experiencing homelessness.
Together they were trying to get the mayor's office, who was looking for motels to convert into transitional housing, to help Borrego fulfill her dream. Johnston was looking for motels that could be converted to transitional housing to shelter 1,000 people by the end of the year. Derrera believed the Regis was an ideal spot to use to support the mayor's efforts.
Denverite had been in conversation with both Derrera and Borrego for weeks ahead of Monday's shooting and the motel's closure to talk about their plans.
Derrera says he's spoken to Johnston about converting the Regis at three separate mayoral forums about Denver's House1000 campaign. The mayor referred Derrera to his aides, and Derrera has shared his ideas with them.
Both Derrera and Borrego met with City Councilmember Shontel Lewis about their aspirations. And the duo was in talks with local business owners, nonprofits and others to get support to turn the crime-ridden motel into supportive housing.
Derrera had also been in conversation with district police about setting up a cop shop in the front room of the Regis to help control crime in the area.
Could the city use the rooms at the Regis Motel to house people?
"The Regis Motel is on the team's radar; however, there are several complications with that site that make it unfeasible for this first push," wrote Jordan Fuja, a spokesperson for Johnston.
Meanwhile, those rooms at the Regis, where people on the brink of living in tents stayed in shelter, now sit empty, gates locked, accessible to nobody.
