DENVER — On Wednesday, city council members on Denver's Safety and Housing Committee approved a contract of up to $6 million for 300 manufactured sleeping units (MSUs) as part of Mayor Mike Johnston's plan to house 1,000 people by 2024.
Cole Chandler, the mayor's senior advisor on homelessness, told committee members Wednesday his office prefers MSUs over pallet shelters. In August, city council approved a different contract of up to $7 million for 200 pallet shelters.
Chandler said they now anticipate to only spend $3.5 million on the pallet shelter contract.
"We believe [the MSU] is a better, longer-term product at a similar cost," he said to committee members. "MSUs have a one-hour fire rates wall that allows us to stack them more densely, so we can get more units on a site like this."
During his presentation Chandler said pallet units need to be separated by 10 feet. They only have to separate MSUs by five feet. MSUs would also be built in a factory in Denver and delivered to the site as a fully built product. Pallet shelters require some on-site assembly.
Chandler said they hope to put 120 MSUs at a micro-community at 2301 Santa Fe Dr. The city has already broken ground on that site. Chandler said the vendor supplying the MSUs, Clayton Properties Group, hopes to deploy units by the end of this year.
Pallet shelters for the unhoused aren't a new idea. Aurora opened a community more than a year ago.
"People want to go to those," said Emma Knight, who runs homelessness programs for the city. "Privacy, a lot more dignity for these folks."
Aurora has about 100 pallet shelters. Knight said more than half of the people who move into a pallet shelter in Aurora move out and into permanent housing.
"Which is a pretty high percentage," she explained. "I think the national average, at least in 2022, was 33.9 percent."
According to Denver's Homelessness Resolution Operations Center the pallet shelter contract gives the city flexibility on how much it spends. They said estimates change when contracts are finalized, and the city will shift budgets to accommodate other needs to remain within budget.
"In the event a decision is made to spend any remaining funds from the pallet shelter contract on a separate contract, such contract would require City Council approval (for expenses greater than $500,000)," the center said.
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