Another contract to purchase shelters for micro communities as part of the mayor's House1000 initiative is working its way through city hall.
An agreement allotting up to $6 million to buy up to 300 manufactured sleeping units was approved by the Safety, Housing, Education and Homelessness Committee on Wednesday. The contract will be presented to the full council in the coming weeks.
The contract is with Clayton Properties Group, Inc., who will construct the manufactured sleeping units, or MSUs, and deliver them to one of the sites chosen to house the micro communities.
MSUs differ from pallet shelters that will also being used as housing at the sites, according to Cole Chandler, the mayor's senior advisor for homelessness resolution.
The units are constructed at their respective factories and delivered fully built and functional, unlike pallet shelters, which require on-site construction. They can be placed closer together, allowing for more units on the site and overall, they last longer, Chandler said at Wednesday's committee hearing.
The units have front and back openings, with windows, electricity, heating and air conditioning. They're equipped to handle inclement weather and can be placed as five-unit row homes with shared walls. Each unit will cost approximately $20,000.
"They are essentially small cabins," Chandler said.
During the same committee meeting, Chandler told council members that the mayor's office is expecting to use about half of the money it was given in a similar contract approved in August. That contract allotted "up to" $7 million for the purchase of "up to" 200 pallet shelters.
"We're not expecting to spend the entire $7 million," Chandler said.
Council President Jamie Torres asked whether the emergency homelessness resolution committee would be releasing the contract and the additional funding, but Chandler didn't have a concrete answer.
"My understanding is that it is available to be utilized for contracts like this one," Chandler said. "When we sort of briefed on the entire budget, we had a line item of about $19.6 million for 2023 related to the micro community side of this budget. We had projected that $7 million would go toward that contract, but since we're only spending three and a half, it saves a little bit more money for service delivery and those sorts of things..."
Torres interrupted Chandler stating that, while there is savings, "it doesn't just open up dollars for another contract.
"So, that's what I'm wondering. In order to move the money, if you're releasing that contract or are you holding it in order to see if you need more units from that vendor in the future."
With the meeting time running out, Torres requested that Chandler respond to the question at a later date.
Denverite reached out to the mayor's office for parameters of what the pallet shelter contract entails, including what can and can't be done with the additional funding. We did not immediately receive a response from the mayor's office or the housing resolution committee before time of publication.
Chandler added that an additional contract to fund the community aspect of the micro communities, such the structures that hold the bathrooms, meeting spaces and laundry facilities, will be coming to committee in the future weeks.
