Denver allows small homeless shelter to expand

The Denver City Council unanimously approved a zoning waiver for a homeless shelter, allowing Haven of Hope — formerly known as Father Woody's — to reorient operations within one of their two buildings, offering more supportive and transitional beds.

Haven of Hope is a small operation, and the waiver will allow them to operate up to 12 beds year round, as well as up to 100 beds for up to 130 days.

The vote came at Monday's City Council meeting.

The shelter is zoned for industrial use and nestled among a light rail maintenance facility, a high school, some businesses and several single family homes. Ahead of the council’s vote, 18 people — mainly business and property owners in the area, council members said — submitted letters of opposition. The 18 letters contained “a lot of familiar language,” District 7 Councilwoman Jamie Torres said, and emphasized that those concerns are in many ways “the failure of the city” to effectively respond to homelessness.

Denver’s homelessness crisis has continued to spiral and has been exacerbated by the influx of illegal immigrants from the U.S. southern border. The city has spent almost $300 million since 2021 and has seen demand for homeless services triple since 2018. Though Denver Mayor Mike Johnston’s “All in Mile High” has tracked over 1,500 people brought in off the streets, almost 150 of them are back on the streets and 458 have found housing, according to the city’s dashboard.

The challenge has become finding people housing after they cycle through the shelter system, and that is where Haven of Hope staff said they will be able to step up. Though a very small operation, the zoning change will allow up to 12 long-term beds, a proverbial drop in the bucket compared to the cities overall numbers, Haven of Hope staff were optimistic.

As a holistic sheltering option, they offer services that go beyond a normal congregate shelter and work to get people back into society and the workforce, Co-Executive Director Ondrea Trahan said.

“Haven of Hope addresses poverty alleviation in three phases,” she said. “Relief, which is where we attempt to stop the bleeding, rehabilitation, which is an effort to restore an individual back to their pre-crisis state and then development which is asset based, outcome driven and challenge oriented.”

In order to address concerns by property and business owners nearby, Haven of Hope staff have been meeting with and working with neighbors to address their concerns, Co-Executive Director Derrick Vaughn said. Though the organization does not have a “good neighbor” agreement, Vaughn committed to several things, including a semi-annual meeting with residents and Torres’s office to address concerns.

“Homelessness, in and of itself, is the enemy which holds captive an individual from pursuing their dreams and extinguishes the little bit of hope many people have left to hold on to,” Co-Executive Director Derrick Vaughns said. “We're not interested in fighting our neighbors. The battle is not with them. It is with homelessness.”

Though their operation is very small, Haven of Hope staff trumpeted their high success rates as a holistic shelter. Indeed, their facility manager was once a client. Paul Miller shared he’d been an alcoholic for 20 years, had been in-and-out of prison and jail and had beeen homeless at points in his life. Other providers were unable to help him — a story becoming more and more a reality for some of Denver’s homeless.

But Haven of Hope was his answer, he said.

“I have not received one ticket. Not one ticket since 2015… The people at Haven of Hope helped me and gave me a chance, I went through the program, and now I am a success,” he said. “I got the title facility manager not easily. It was very hard. I had no training, no skills, but I asked for a chance and they gave it to me.”

Miller said he is now a homeowner and engaged.

Vaugh hoped that Haven of Hope’s model could be applied citywide, resulting in an “astronomical” success rate of homelessness resolution.