This week, Mayor Mike Johnston announced the city will break ground at at 2301 S. Santa Fe Drive, on the first of the micro communities to be built as part of his House1000 campaign, his effort to house 1,000 people living on Denver's streets by the end of December.
The location: an empty lot owned by the Colorado Department of Transportation at 2301 S. Santa Fe Drive, sandwiched between small single-family homes in the Overland neighborhood and the roar of Santa Fe Drive.
The city will break ground when it officially gets access to the site, explained the mayor's spokesperson Jordan Fuja. The administration expects to begin preparing the site this week.
"This future micro-community will help get unhoused neighbors off the street and into safe, stable, supportive transitional housing while also helping us close unsafe encampments and keep neighborhoods closed to future camping," Mayor Johnston said in a statement. "The groundbreaking marks important progress in our goal to get 1,000 unhoused Denverites into transitional housing before Dec. 31."
What will it look like?
The concept plans approved by Community Planning and Development indicate there will be 112 tiny homes that are all 70-square-feet built on the site. Plans also include two community buildings: one with a 1,250-square-foot layout and another with a 1,500-square foot layout.
Staffed 24/7, the micro-community will include a mix of supportive services, employment resources, restrooms, communal kitchens, on-site laundry and trash services.
"The micro-community will be fenced and gated to ensure the safety and security of its residents, neighbors and community," according to the mayor's office.
Neighbors have raised concerns.
Some worry about the safety of this site for future residents because of the land's proximity to the Denver Radium Superfund Site, the Denver Gazette first reported.
More than 65 nearby properties are contaminated by radioactive waste from how radium ore was processed in the early 1900s, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Much of the once industrial area has been remediated and major city projects, like Ruby Hill Park and the Overland Golf Course, sit on the site.
"The site is not a Radium Superfund property," Fuja said. "The nearest Denver Radium Site to the micro-housing property is roughly 3,000 feet to the northeast. (Denver Department of Public Health and Environment) has reviewed the micro-housing community site location and confirmed there is no environmental or public health risk to the future residents."
The land is also located next to a speedy stretch of Santa Fe Drive and nearby train tracks, raising concerns about other environmental hazards.
"Every site goes through an environmental assessment, as well as assessments for zoning, building, fire safety, public health concerns, traffic/transportation impacts," the mayor's office noted.
Citywide, neighbors have raised concerns about how micro communities coming to their neighborhoods could lead to a rise in crime - a worry Johnston has repeatedly dismissed.
The mayor points to existing tiny home communities where once-critical neighbors have embraced those developments and expressed disappointment when they moved.
Johnston has identified 11 sites around the city and is continuing to look for more to meet his goal of housing 1,000 people by the end of the year.
