DENVER — Mercy Housing Mountain Plains’ latest project, Rose on Colfax, is now full of new residents who now have the keys to a new place – and new lives.
All 82 units are full of families and single people. The five programs Mercy Housing focuses on for its residents are health and wellness, housing success, financial well-being, out-of-school time and community engagement.
Jenalee Romo was excited to show off her new place.
"This is it! Come on in!” she said. Romo has dreamed of living in her own place. She has much more space now to raise her two young daughters.
“They can hang out and have their space, and their blankets and I can say ‘Go play in your room and close the door,’” Romo said.
There were no doors where she was living before, at her mom's one-bed, one-bath condo.
“I was sleeping in her kitchen,” Romo said. “We converted her kitchen to a spare room, so it was much more crammed.”
Mercy Housing Mountain Plains developed the property and maintains Rose on Colfax.
“They shared with us a poem from Tupac Shakur, where it talks about the rose that grew out of concrete,” said Shelly Marquez, the president of Mercy Housing Mountain Plains. “Eighty-two units of affordable housing serving income levels from 30% of area median income to 60% of area median income.”
This place has seen quite a transformation.
“It was a partnership between the City and County of Denver,” Marquez said. “The location was a former strip club site that the City and County of Denver had the foresight to acquire and really think about, ‘How do we redevelop a community by bringing housing and the other much-needed services required here in the community,’” Marquez said.
Mile High Early Learning has classrooms and a play area, in the same building.
“It’s giving individuals hope,” Marquez said. “It’s really allowing them to go into a place that they have not only hope, but this is an opportunity for them to break generation cycles of poverty.”
The sense of security allows Romo to focus on her own needs living with cystic fibrosis, which in turn, helps her build a better life for her family.
“My oxygen right here, you sleep with that almost nightly,” Romo said. “I have the support system that I need, like when you guys were thinking about building this community like this building, this is, you built it for me. My life has been such a rollercoaster in the last five years and it has been so hard. I’m here with my family. I have a beautiful home. Having the liberty that my daughter is going to school downstairs is huge.”
This is Romo's place to live, make memories and grow, like a rose from concrete. “It's still surreal to think that I have this beautiful home and all of this going for me,” she said.
“Not only are we giving them a key to their new place, but we are able to provide them with welcome baskets, with doing a full assessment of what are their needs and how do we connect them to resources in the community to help meet those needs,” Marquez said.
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