Boos, shouts and cheers filled the auditorium at Hamilton Middle School on Saturday as hundreds of adults gathered to discuss a proposed shelter for unhoused families in the Hampden neighborhood.
The Embassy Suites at 7525 E. Hampden Ave. in City Council District 4 is the newest site Mayor Mike Johnston's office is looking to use as temporary housing through the House1000 initiative. The city's goal is to take the 205-room hotel and turn it into a non-congregate shelter, specifically for families with children.
Community members attended the Saturday meeting to voice both opposition and support for the proposed shelter.
"There's no transparency," said Rosemary Guilmette, a resident of the condominiums located near the hotel. "I feel like they're doing everything fast and not thinking it through. It's all about [Johnston] making his goal."
Guilmette and several other attendees lined the sidewalks holding signs reading, "What about our safety?" and "End Johnston's State of Emergency Now."
Perhaps half of the attendees at the community meeting expressed several concerns about the proposed shelter, including safety, neighborhood well being and operational transparency.
"We have families. People that live there with kids. Did you do background checks? We're just asking simple questions," Guilmette said. "I'm not against helping anyone... Do I have the answer? No. But I don't think they do either."
Guilmette said she had asked City Council members, including her representative Diana Romero Campbell, about the rules for the site, but hadn't received satisfying answers.
The temperature rose during the community meeting as angry shouts and disparaging comments were vaulted into the room. Residents told the mayor to "stop lying" and yelled at each other.
One business owner said they didn't want people experiencing homelessness near their business. Another person wanted to make sure the "quality of education remained high" with the possible influx of school children coming to the shelter.
But there were some in the crowd who support the proposed shelter.
One father said they live close to the hotel and are "one surprise medical bill away from an uncertain future." They expressed support for the plan, but were wondering about success metrics.
Jamie Sarche lives nearby and said the city could have been more transparent about success rates, how it chooses sites, and how sites will operate. But Sarche said that getting people housed is the most important part of the mayor's plan.
"Children need to be housed," Sarche said. "Watching all these people complain about unhoused people on the streets, we're providing now a solution for those people... I don't know if there's a perfect answer to any of this... People need to get their most basic needs met and if they are having trouble in their life, living on the streets is going to exacerbate that."
During the community meeting, Johnston said there would be security on site. He also said he would look into supporting businesses along the Hampden corridor.
The site is a low-barrier shelter, but substance use will not be allowed on site. The shelter won't lower property values, Johnston said, adding that encampments affect businesses and property values more than shelters.
Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas was at the community meeting and said he supported the plan, adding that DPD responds to more calls to encampments than hotel shelters.
The Salvation Army would operate the shelter and the general wraparound services, though this contract would need to be approved by City Council. Johnston added that the city would also work on a Good Neighbor Agreement with nearby residents. But those agreements aren't legally binding.
Johnston also answered questions regarding the success metric of his House1000 plan. The city recently updated the initiative's dashboard with greater transparency and more sober language.
What are the plans for the hotel?
The site was listed for sale in August and was identified as a potential location for affordable housing. Urban Land Conservancy, with Archway Communities as their partner, expressed interest in purchasing the site. ULC is a real estate nonprofit that works to preserve communities and prevent displacement, and Archway is also a nonprofit working on affordable housing.
According to city documents, "because development partners need time for design and tax credits, the city was approached to lease the hotel for a couple years until redevelopment can occur."
However, the city later determined that it was in their "best interest to acquire the hotel for immediate occupancy with the intent to sell to a redevelopment partner in the next 3-5 years," city documents concluded.
This acquisition is going before City Council on Monday.
The city is looking to enter an agreement with East Hampden Hotel Fee LLC and ULC, under the name Hampden Heart LLC, to purchase the site for close to $31 million and master lease the site so they can begin to use it immediately.
The city would close on the site in March 2024, which is when the lease agreement would end. Later, the city would ultimately sell the property to an affordable housing development partner. But the latter portion is several years out.
If City Council approves the contract, families could begin moving in by Dec. 28, giving them time to register their children for school during the holiday break.
There will be a courtesy public hearing before the vote.
If approved, the site would be the first first hotel shelter in District 4 under the mayor's housing plan. The district was originally slated to host a micro-community at 5500 Yale Ave, also in the Hampden neighborhood, but the proposal was nixed "based on the criteria [the city has] identified including economic viability, projected site yield and consideration of other viable options," according to city officials.
During the community meeting, Johnston said about 120 families were already on the waiting list to enter the shelter site. About 90 of the residents would be children under the age of five.
