A plan to build an apartment complex in Denver geared for seniors who are homeless has received a significant boost with city approval and financial support of the multi-million project.
Members of the Denver City Council have now voted in favor of providing $2.7 million in city funds to get the project built, along with another $1.4 million that will go for support services at the complex.
The project belongs to the St. Francis Center, a non-profit organization that for the last four decades has provided shelter, food, and support services to homeless individuals in the Mile High City.
Set to go up at 221 N. Federal Boulevard on a site owned by the City of Denver, the project will be three stories in height. As planned, more than half of the units in the complex will have one bedroom, with the rest topping out at two bedrooms.
According to city documents, the units in the building will be cooled through a packaged air conditioner system and heated via electric baseboard heaters. Overall, the complex will be built along National Green Building Standards.
The land for the shelter, roughly 3 miles to the southwest of downtown Denver, has formerly been designated as a Safe Outdoor Space populated by residents living in a series of tents and operated by an organization called the Colorado Village Collaborative. That tent city ended when the Collaborative’s lease with the city expired three months ago.
In remarks delivered before the city’s Safety, Housing, Education & Homelessness Committee, Renee Gallegos said simply that the “solution to homelessness is housing.”
Gallegos, deputy director of housing with the Department of Housing Stability, added that the existence of supportive services as a part of such projects, “can be a critical piece of success for the residents that become housed in this facility.”
By Garry Boulard
