Denver Community Planning and Housing Committee Meeting - December 2, 2025
Denver Community Planning and Housing Committee Meeting - December 2, 2025
The Community Planning and Housing Committee of the Denver City Council met on Tuesday, December 2, 2025, at 12:00 PM. The meeting covered three main agenda items: approval of 2026 contracts for housing stability programs from the Department of Housing Stability (HOST), approval of miscellaneous shelter contracts, and a presentation and vote on a landmark designation for 1555 Grant Street. The committee voted to send all action items to the full council, including the landmark designation, which passed on a 5-1 vote despite significant concerns about designating a parking lot as historic.
Consent Calendar
- Approved eight HOST contracts for the Temporary Rental and Utility Assistance (TRUA) program, property tax relief, foreclosure financial assistance, and housing resource navigation. These included amendments to existing contracts with providers such as Brothers Redevelopment, Community Economic Defense Project, Jewish Family Service, and East Colfax Community Collective. The total funding amounts and households served were detailed in the presentation.
- Approved one miscellaneous shelter contract for Work Options for Women, which provides meals at micro-communities. The contract is for six months at $9.97 per meal for breakfast/lunch and $11.47 for dinner. The motion was made by Councilmember Alvidrez and seconded by Councilmember Sawyer; all committee members voted in favor.
Discussion Items
- TRUA and Property Tax Relief Program Updates: Melissa Tati, Director of Stability and Prevention, presented an overview of the 2026 contracts. Key statistics: TRUA has $16.1 million available in 2025 and $15.1 million in 2026; as of November 24, 2025, over 1,500 households have been served with an average assistance of $7,600 over 4.9 months. The property tax relief program served over 1,200 households (59% renters, 41% homeowners) with average rebates of $1,400 for homeowners and under $1,000 for renters. Councilmembers discussed the historical underspend, outreach efforts, and the DPS pilot program which enrolled 89 families. Councilmember Torres requested district-level data for property tax relief. Councilmember Sawyer noted the eviction clinic on the first floor of the City and County Building provides TRUA case management and legal services. Council President Sandoval asked about school-level data for the DPS pilot. Councilmember Romero Campbell inquired about demographic data for property tax relief. Chair Perity requested month-over-month data for TRUA spending and updated eligibility criteria. The committee also discussed upcoming changes to property tax relief, including phasing out renters by 2030.
- Miscellaneous Shelter Contracts: Jeff Kozitsky, Deputy Director of HOST, presented several contracts: Colorado Coalition for the Homeless Bridge Housing (175 clients in 2024, 72% exit to permanent housing), St. Francis Day Shelter (served 8,398 households in 2024), off-site storage (1,194 households), and SafeHouse Denver (domestic violence shelter, 123 clients). Councilmember Torres inquired about ownership of the storage building. Council President Sandoval raised concerns about meal container waste at micro-communities and the need for a second day shelter. Councilmember Sawyer discussed the importance of mail services at St. Francis and a recent meeting with DHS about benefits mail. Council President Sandoval also noted zoning challenges for a new day shelter and suggested a mapping exercise.
- Landmark Designation for 1555 Grant Street: Kara Hahn, Landmark Planning Supervisor, presented the application from the Knights of Columbus to designate the entire parcel, including a parking lot, as a historic landmark. The property includes a 1928 event hall and a 1963 mid-century modern structure designed by architect John F. Milan, which features pre-stressed concrete double T members (a significant innovation). The property meets four of ten criteria: association with the Knights of Columbus (significant for hosting half a million service members during WWII), architecture, work of a recognized architect, and innovation in materials. Landmark staff and the commission recommended approval. Councilmembers expressed strong reservations about designating the parking lot as historic. Councilmember Sawyer questioned the rationale and noted it would freeze the parking lot in perpetuity. Council President Sandoval argued it sets a bad precedent, especially during a housing crisis, and questioned its impact on assessed value. Councilmember Torres asked about alternative options like rezoning, which the applicants said were not pursued. Councilmember Alvidrez noted other cities have landmarked parking areas like Chicago's Motor Club building. Councilmember Romero Campbell suggested checking for deed restrictions. Chair Perity rejected the idea that car culture deserves landmark protection and noted the parking lot only meets one of ten criteria. Despite these concerns, the committee voted 5-1 to send the designation to the full council, with Councilmember Lewis voting nay. The vote was not a statement on merits but on procedural readiness.
Key Outcomes
- All eight HOST contracts and the Work Options for Women contract were approved unanimously by voice vote and will proceed to the full council.
- The landmark designation for 1555 Grant Street was moved out of committee on a 5-1 roll call vote (Councilmember Lewis opposed). The full council will consider the designation at first reading. Council members suggested the applicants might explore rezoning or a planned unit development (PUD) as an alternative to including the parking lot in the landmark.
Meeting Transcript
Welcome back to this weekly meeting of the Community Planning and Housing Committee with Denver City Council. Your community planning and housing committee starts now. Okay. Welcome everybody to our Denver City Council Community Planning and Housing Committee. It is Tuesday, December 2nd, 2025. Somehow. I am Sarah Perity, one of your council members at large, and we will start with Councilmember introductions to my right with Councilmember Torres. Good afternoon, Jimmy Torres West Denver District 3. Good afternoon. Flora Alvidres, lucky to strike seven. Good afternoon, Diana Romero Campbell, Southeast Denver District 4. Good afternoon, Amanda Sorry, District 5. Afternoon, Chantalou is district. Amazing. We have an early start today because we have a packed agenda, which we seem to be having in this committee every day from now till the end of the year. So I will um we'll start with host. We have Melissa here to present on our host stability contracts. How many of them? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight of them in a mere 37 slides. And we will try to keep to around 40 minutes all together with questions. So I'll ping you if I feel like we're if we're slipping too much on time, but otherwise the time is yours. Introduce yourself, take it away. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. Melissa Tati, I am the director of stability and prevention with the Department of Housing Stability. And today I will be talking talking to you about our 2026 new and amended contracts. So as you mentioned, we have several contracts before you today for approval. Several of them are for the temporary rental and utility assistance program, also known as TRUA. There are two for the property tax relief program, one for foreclosure financial assistance, and lastly for housing resource navigation. We will also be having one future action item coming forward next week for another housing resource navigation contract in addition to fair housing education and enforcement. Just a reminder of where stability and prevention falls within host spectrum of work. We'll be talking about several of these programs today and have presented on eviction legal assistance recently as well. So I wanted to just give an update on the temporary rental and utility assistance program. So Trua provides up to six months of rental assistance and one payment per utility for both Denver Water and Excel Energy. We can also provide relocation assistance if we're unable to stabilize a household in their current residence. It is available to households at or below 80% of the area median income in the city and county of Denver who are experiencing a financial hardship and who have a rent demand or in the eviction process. Households who receive trua assistance this year will be ineligible next year. And just wanted to highlight, following the 2026 budget process, we have 16.1 million available this year and 15.1 available next year. As of November 24th, we've served over 1,500 households. The average amount of assistance is a little over 7600 for 4.9 months. Most of the households we're serving are at or below 30% of the area median income and are female headed households, and we do see a higher percentage of BIPOC households served compared to the city's demographics. With this program, the first I'll talk about is with Harvard's The People Lab. Two of our providers, Brothers Redevelopment and Community Economic Defense Project. This is a randomized controlled trial that began in January and is ongoing. The purpose of the study is to examine whether Trua improves housing stability and reduces evictions and engagement with homelessness services. We have several data sources we're using, including the Trua application, court eviction records, homelessness management information system, also known as HMIS, as well as follow-up surveys. So I will say these are non-definitive research is ongoing as we continue to grow our sample size for this research project. But per that uh interim analysis, initial results do suggest that Trua may reduce evictions and homelessness in three months following the household's initial application. Reductions in homelessness uh for recipients appear to persist persist for at least six months. However, we do see the effects on evictions fading over time.
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