Alongside the shelter overhaul, $10.8 million in rehousing, motel and HIV housing contracts went to committee
Five Denver housing department contracts reached the Community Planning and Housing Committee on Nov. 10. Here's what each buys and how long it runs. The committee's actions aren't posted yet.
The same Denver City Council committee that heard the plan to hand the city's two largest men's shelters to Urban Alchemy on Tuesday, Nov. 10, also had five homelessness contracts on its agenda, worth $10,756,117 combined (meeting). Our Tuesday story covered the shelter presentation.
As of Wednesday, the Community Planning and Housing Committee's minutes were still in draft and the city's records listed no action on any of the five. The meeting video wasn't on our site. We'll update when the outcome posts.
Why it matters: rapid rehousing, motel rooms in bad weather and tiny-home villages are the parts of Denver's homelessness system that move people out of shelters or keep them out of the cold. Each of these contracts adds money and time to a program already running.
The five contracts
From the Council's records:
Families, Jewish Family Service of Colorado. Adds $2,728,668 for a new total of $7,052,149, extending rapid rehousing for families experiencing homelessness through Dec. 31, 2028 (26-1686).
Motel rooms, US Motels North. Adds $2,750,000 for a new total of $9,627,900, through Dec. 31, 2027, for emergency motel rooms during severe weather activations and other emergency shelter for families and individuals (26-1687). The housing department's slides list it as part of next winter's cold weather capacity.
HIV housing, Colorado Health Network. A new $2,636,064 contract through June 30, 2027, for Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS services: tenant-based rental assistance, short-term rent, mortgage and utility help, supportive services and housing placement (26-1689). HOPWA is a federal housing program.
Steele Village, Colorado Village Collaborative. Adds $1,652,805 for a new total of $3,265,298, through Dec. 31, 2027, for programming and operations at the Steele Village micro-community in District 9 (26-1688).
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Young adults, Urban Peak Denver. Adds $988,580 for a new total of $3,700,659, extending rapid rehousing for people 18 to 24 through Dec. 31, 2028 (26-1685).
What our records add
A month of rehousing extensions. Two weeks earlier, the same committee approved by consent $2.1 million more for two Volunteers of America family rehousing contracts, and the full Council approved a third on Oct. 26, 11-0 (our story). At that Oct. 26 meeting, Shontel Lewis cast the only no vote on a two-year extension of a Salvation Army rapid resolution contract.
Colorado Village Collaborative's other site. The Council renewed the group's license for the La Paz micro-community on Oct. 26 (our story). On Nov. 9 it renewed The Gathering Place's license at Elati Village, 11-0 (roll call). Both licenses end Dec. 31.
Steele Village is in District 9, represented by Darrell Watson.
What's next
Contracts like these normally go from committee to the Mayor-Council meeting and then to the full Council, where they are often approved in a group vote unless a member asks for a separate one. The shelter operating contracts described in Tuesday's presentation, including Urban Alchemy's, will come later as their own resolutions.