DENVER, Colorado — For the past year and a half, the City of Denver has been leasing the former Denver Prep Academy building from Denver Community Church and using it as a migrant shelter.
The agreement stemmed from the previous mayoral administration, when former Mayor Michael Hancock's team reached out to nonprofit partners and the faith-based community to see if there were any opportunities for a partnership.
The city now plans to buy that same building for $4 million dollars. The money was allocated in the newcomer budget for capital investments, so funds will not be taken from other avenues for the purchase. Denver City Council approved the sale earlier this month.
"I think if there is one thing that we do know, it’s that we don’t know everything that is going to happen, and we need to be prepared for these different contingencies," said Jon Ewing, spokesperson for Denver Human Services.
The site has been used off and on since late 2022. Currently, it's a congregate shelter that was offered to families who were sleeping in tents just a few weeks ago. The city offered families in encampments 30 days in shelter in an effort to get families and children off of Denver's streets.
During the most recent intake, the city also made temporary modifications to the site.
One of those modifications meant adding an outdoor kitchen, something migrants expressed they wanted if they were going to feel comfortable accepting shelter rather than staying in encampments. The city erected an outdoor cooking area as a result. Ewing says being the property owner will allow them to make additional accommodations and modifications.
"By owning the building, we could immediately look into a few changes that could help them out that we couldn’t necessarily do if we were just leasing it," Ewing said.
The city is also working on activating a vacant warehouse located a little west of downtown Denver. The city is not sharing the exact location of the building out of concerns for privacy. Right now, they are working on outfitting the space to get it up to code and create another building that could be a congregate shelter.
"This summer could be slow," Ewing said. "But we would be very foolish and silly to not plan for something to happen in the fall or the winter like it did last year."
The immediate plan is to use both buildings for the migrant response. In the event that arrivals slow down or there is no longer a need, the city plans to find other uses for it. One idea so far has been to use it as an emergency, cold-weather shelter or use it for the unhoused community in the future.
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