DENVER (KDVR) — Denver city councilors in the Safety, Housing, Education & Homelessness Committee voted to send a new contract proposal for the Colorado Village Collaborative to expand Safe Outdoor Spaces in the city to the full council.
The proposal would add $3.9 million in funding to increase the total contract to nearly $4.8 million for 2021 and 2022. The expanded funds would provide at least four Safe Outdoor Space sites with amenities and services.
“We cannot currently meet the demand with the number of space that we have,” Cole Chandler, the executive director of the Colorado Village Collaborative, told FOX31 during its investigative series on the homeless crisis in Denver. The non-profit operates the SOS with funding from the City of Denver and a number of non-profit foundations.
“There are over 1,000 people that are sleeping on the streets every single night in Denver but we know things don’t have to be that way. Through models like this we can continue to expand and offer safe dignified services to our unsheltered neighbors,” Chandler said.
Chandler spoke with the committee Wednesday morning. Each year, the number of individuals served at the sites has increased. In 2020, 65 people experiencing homelessness were sheltered at two Safe Outdoor Spaces, with that figure growing to 242 people served across three sites in 2021.
The goal for 2022 is to serve 370 people between 310 households across multiple sites. The group has a target to place 90 of these individuals in stable housing within that year.
Chandler told councilors that the length of stay in Safe Outdoor Spaces varies based on the clients, ranging anywhere between 30 days in the program before finding stable housing, and some are still in the program that has been running for 14 months.
A vast majority of the people served, 98% according to Chandler, are coming from unsafe situations living on the streets, and not from shelters.
The money the group is asking for would go towards increased service staffing to help provide resources for the client’s transition into stable housing, and scaling up the operation.
You can watch the discussion on FOX31 NOW in the player above.