Overview:
Denver scaled back a proposed Clayton homeless shelter after residents raised concerns about the project and public process.
Clayton neighborhood residents’ pushback for a 400-bed shelter has changed Denver’s plans for the project.
The city now proposes building a single shelter for 150 to 200 people at the former Monroe Village tiny-home site at 4121 Monroe St., down from the original plan for two structures serving up to 400 people. Construction is expected to begin in early 2027, and the city has not set an opening date.
Janine Irving has lived in Denver’s District 9 Clayton neighborhood since 1963. When she heard about Denver’s plans from a neighbor’s Facebook post, Irving began handing out fliers to other residents to inform them of the proposal.
Irving and many other Clayton residents felt blindsided by the proposal and claim the city did next to nothing to communicate the planning process for the shelter.
“We didn’t know that they were trying to build a 400-bed shelter in our neighborhood,” Irving said. “They didn’t tell us about it. They planned it, and they just dropped it on us … I’m animated right now because of the way they did it — their process. They made it a private process instead of a public process. Why were we not part of the initial planning?”
On Thursday, Oct. 8, Denver’s Department of Housing Stability, or HOST, hosted a community information meeting at Geotech Environmental Equipment to hear residents’ concerns and address claims about the shelter.
“We’re here to listen to the community, and we listened tonight,” said HOST Executive Director Cole Chandler. “We’re taking notes. We’re taking their feedback. That will modify our plan, modify our proposal.
The proposal called for a 400-bed cold-weather shelter in two structures at the former Monroe Village tiny home site, which shut down in July. The city initially hoped to open the shelter for the cold-weather season, which runs from November through April.
Those plans changed after neighborhood pushback. Denver City Councilmember Darrell Watson, who represents District 9, said he does not support the original proposal.
“I want folks in the room to be clear where I stand on the question of the Monroe site,” Watson said. “I shared in the last (city council) meeting that I did not support a 400-room shelter being built on the Monroe site.”
Residents at the meeting said they don’t trust the city to keep its promises about the site, including trash pickup and safety patrols.
“I found your template kind of comical — basically lip service,” one vocal resident said. “Anybody that drives down 40th knows nobody is patrolling that. It’s not safe. The train station? That’s already a sketchy area.”
Others have issues with the location itself.
“We don’t want the shelter in a residential neighborhood,” Irving said. “We don’t want the shelter three blocks from an elementary school and four blocks from a secondary school. We don’t want a shelter five blocks from a park where kids play.”
Residents said they care about their unhoused neighbors but feel their neighborhood is always the one asked to sacrifice.
“[The city] dumps what you need to in the neighborhood but without putting anything else in the neighborhood,” one resident said.
Chandler acknowledged this criticism as fair.
“We have 3,000 shelter beds across 25 different sites across seven different city council districts,” he said. “There’s definitely opportunities for more neighborhoods, more council districts to do their part, and that was a point that came through loud and clear for me tonight.”
As for why the process felt secretive, Chandler said HOST followed its typical protocol. The department filed its site development plan over the summer because that is the longest part of a proposal like this, he said. HOST began talking with community members, including schools, in late August and started holding public meetings in September.
According to HOST, the quick progression came from the push to open a shelter for cold weather, not from an effort to avoid public scrutiny. HOST says it will use residents’ feedback as planning continues, though Chandler acknowledged that opposition to shelters is common.
“The community doesn’t typically show up and vote ‘yeah, we want to put a homeless shelter in our neighborhood,’” he said. “So we have to take that with a grain of salt. Take the community feedback and think how can we do what’s best for our neighbors on the streets and for the broader Denver community as well.”
HOST has not scheduled any more community meetings as it revises the proposal.
“There is no timeline on that at this point,” Chandler said.
