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.

Hello and good afternoon.

Welcome to community planning and housing.

That's funny.

I just made up a new name.

I did.

Remember that?

I'm good.

I'm good.

I just looked up and I'm like, I'm good.

Anyway, welcome.

Um glad to see you all here today.

I'm Diana Romero Campbell.

I represent Southeast Denver in District 4, and I will be chairing this committee today.

And let's go ahead and do council introductions.

Do we have anybody online?

No.

Okay, but we will introduce them when they arrive.

And I will start over here to my right.

Good afternoon, Tommy and the Sawyer, District 5.

Chantel Louis, District 8.

Jamie Taurus, West Denver District 3.

She slides.

Just in time.

So Lucky District 7.

Wonderful.

And welcome everyone.

We have a few action items today, but our first presentation will be housing support for residents, correct?

The contracts for intellectual and developmental disabilities.

So I will turn it over to you.

Great.

Good afternoon, Council members.

Thank you so much for having us today.

My name is Jordan Mulholland.

I am from the Denver Human Services Ideas Program.

I am here today on behalf of DHS in partnership with my colleagues from host to request your approval of two contracts which will be managed by host and funded by DHS Ideas Mail Levy.

So I will kick us off and sharing a little bit more about the Ideas program and how this partnership came to be, and then I'll pass it to Midori who will talk more about the contract specifically.

Let's see.

So IDEA stands for intellectual and developmental disabilities, equitable access to services.

We manage dedicated Mill levy funds for services and supports for Denver residents with IDD or developmental delay.

We are guided by a community advisory council, which is comprised of residents with IDD and folks who work in the field.

And we use their feedback along with other stakeholder group work to determine our funding priorities.

Throughout the past several years, housing has been shared to us as a top priority amongst our stakeholders.

So that's kind of the root of how all of this started.

Broadly, folks must have an IDD or a developmental delay in order to access our funded services.

We use the state's definition and process for determining whether someone has an IDD, which is done with state designated case management agencies.

So again, just going back to some of our housing work.

Some of you may recall we came to council back in 2023 to present on a contract for a pilot IDD housing navigation program.

This was previously with Bayad Enterprises, who are now known as Service Source.

So the contracts you'll hear about today represent an expansion of programming with new service providers identified through a competitive solicitation.

So while the program really thrived in supporting individuals in avoiding eviction and moving into more affordable and accessible housing options in stabilizing crises inner situations, I think we've learned that about 20% of folks in their programming were our contracted services were simply not enough.

And these folks were experiencing homelessness.

So they were trapped in this cycle in which they couldn't access housing because they had no income.

And without housing, they couldn't access the IDD services they needed to thrive in daily life.

So living unhoused kept them in this constant state of survival.

And it became clear to us that these barriers were intricately connected.

And so we realized that the only way we could start to disrupt this cycle is if we created an immediate housing option from which they could stabilize first and then work on their longer term goals.

So this is when we started to engage with host, hoping to identify ways in which we could disrupt this cycle.

Hosts using their expertise recommended creating a rapid rehousing program for this subset of navigation households in which they could receive this type of housing.

And DHS was very energized by this idea, but we also knew it was something that was a bit out of scope for what we do as an agency.

And so it was through many strategic conversations between both agencies where we all ultimately agreed it made the most sense for host to lead on any new initiatives given their expertise and their proximity to the housing system.

And this is what led to a memorandum of understanding on MOU.

The MOU was signed last fall, and it details the roles and responsibilities of both agencies.

It's very much a collaborative partnership, though, in that it leverages the expertise of both DHS and host in order to successfully roll out this innovative project.

So in this partnership, DHS will provide up to six million dollars to host to fund the next iteration of the navigation program, as well as an IDD pilot rapid rehousing program.

And then hosts will use the funds to execute and manage these contracts with awarded providers, the same ones you're here you'll hear about momentarily.

And then they will ultimately host will be ultimately be responsible for contract management and for approving invoices with our funds.

DHS will support in providing subject matter expertise related to IDD and IDD service systems, and we'll also support and ensuring compliance with our eligibility.

And then host will ensure providers are adhering to evidence-based program standards and supporting them in meeting their contracted outcomes.

And then DHS will get access to contractor reports and will attend site visits alongside host.

So that is a little bit about how we came here today and got here today.

Good afternoon, Midori Higoshi, her pronouns and the director of homelessness resolution programs at host.

So can I do a little bit more of our time?

I'll take it.

Okay.

Okay, so today we are requesting action for two contracts, 260464 with Rocky Mountain Human Services for 2.58 million.

These are three-year contracts, so they look large, but three years to provide stability navigation services to at least 300 people and families with intellectual or developmental disabilities or developmental delays.

And then 260463 with Jewish family service for 3.42 million to provide rapid rehousing support to at least 55 households coming from the Rocky Mountain Human Services stability navigation contract.

So Rocky Mountain will serve as the referral source for Jewish family service.

Cool.

So with all of our host contracts, we've been trying to sort of situate how everything works in our continuum of support.

These contracts fall into two places.

The Rocky Mountain Human Services contract stored falls in the top area for more stability and prevention, right?

The goal is to connect with households who are experiencing that housing instability, help navigate that circumstance and move on.

And then the rapid rehousing, of course, which is fully situated in our housing programs.

So again, both contracts have three-year terms.

The contracts start May 1st, so a little bit atypical of our traditional contracts with the stability navigation contract working with Rocky Mountain Human Services again for that stability navigation for households that are living with IDD or developmental delays.

And their goals are to reduce homelessness, increase housing stability, connect households with long-term support services, improve access to benefits, income, and housing resources, and to support that self sufficiency and independent living.

And then for Jewish family service, right?

Again, survey to being at least 55 households through rapid rehousing with the goals of quickly moving households from homelessness to permanent housing, providing that supportive service that they need in order to create stability, closing those affordability gaps because sometimes that's one of our biggest challenges.

Connecting participants to long-term community resources through the different IDD programming that's available both through Rocky Mountain Human Services and other community partners, and that assistance would last up to 24 months.

So I want to explain to you all an overview of how the programming will work.

Rocky Mountain Human Services already has a number number of internal and external connections for referral sources, in addition to those referral sources that they already have to connect to folks that are experiencing housing instability and living with IDD hosts and DHS will help direct some outreach activities with Rocky Mountain Human Services so that they're connecting to other folks experiencing housing instability or homelessness.

So that would be like working within our shelters to meet folks where they're at and connect with them and add to their caseload.

Once working with Rocky Mountain, they'll sort of assess that person's stability and where they're at.

And if they are experiencing literal homelessness and would benefit from rapid rehousing, they can be referred over to the JFS program.

And then appropriate housing options are not just, I just want to be clear, right?

Housing means a lot of things to different people in different stages of life and with different abilities.

And so this doesn't necessarily mean your apartment for yourself market rate forever, but it could include independent housing, host homes, assisted living, or vouchered resources as well.

Okay.

Digging deeper into each contract, so program goals listed here again.

Um Rocky Mountain will have a team of eight, a director, four care managers, an outreach person, an administrative specialist, and a program manager, and then they'll also have client support costs that are flexible in nature, largely to support eviction prevention needs, but anything that might help a person obtain that stability.

It's important to have those flexible funds for different circumstances.

And then Jewish Family Service, again, the program goals are outlined here that we've discussed.

They are working to rapidly house folks with IDD, remove those financial barriers to housing, provide intensive stabilization services, and connect participants to long-term supports that sustain housing stability.

They'll have a team of nine folks, including an IDD rapid rehousing manager, four case managers, case managers would assume a caseload of about 15 households, a director of employment services, director of disability services, director of community resources for stability, and an accounts payable specialist.

And just a reminder that rapid rehousing is up to 24 months of support.

Last, just to go over some program outcomes, I just want to note that these are annual outcomes.

Three are contracts, but the outcomes are broken down annually in that 12-month cycle.

For Rocky Mountain and the Stability Navigation Program, we're looking to have 80% of the households that work with them are prevented from being evicted if they are currently in that state with the housing instability.

The goal is also to have them work with at least 50 new households that have not previously been engaged with Rocky Mountain Human Services with the intention to try to like spread our wings a little bit further and find more folks to support throughout the city.

And then we're asking that they do at least eight outreach touch points a year.

So again, connecting to other folks living with IDD, hopefully through shelters.

There was a lot of discussion through the procurement process about how do we reach out to other special populations that are also living with IDD, such as youth or folks that are older or folks that maybe just hadn't thought that might be an option for them as far as IDD services go.

And then for JFS for rapid rehousing, we want to make sure that 100% of the households are engaged in case management and ongoing support.

85% of the households are housed within 60 days of enrollment.

80% of the households have an increase or of maintain income through benefit acquisition or employment annually or at exit.

90% of the households are placed into permanent housing, and that 85% at the end of their term or time with JFS do exit into permanent housing.

So that is all of the stuff I have for you.

And Jordan and I are able to answer any questions you might have.

Great.

Thank you very much for the presentation.

We have a number of council members in the queue, and we will get started with council member Al Vitris.

Thank you.

Sounds like definitely interested in how many families were helping our individuals that were helping.

But I'm curious if you can contextualize that against the population of people that you imagine have IDD or that we have data are experiencing this and experiencing homelessness.

Yeah, great question.

Thank you.

They served approximately 7,000 individuals with IDD and developmental delay.

And then in terms of experiencing homelessness, this is data reflective of our current our previous programming with service source, but also through point in time.

And I think we'll get better data through this program.

But that data shows about one in five folks experiencing homelessness have an IDD, so 20%.

And so we know that it's pretty prevalent, and we also know that we haven't been reaching those folks as well as we should be, which is why we've really prioritized incorporating outreach and Rocky Mountain attending shelters on a monthly basis, doing IDD screenings, collaborating with the service providers and doing trainings around what does IDD look like?

How do I get someone connected to the IDD system?

And so that is a main focus of these contracts is really trying to not only bring in more people but understand the prevalence of it as well.

That's great.

And I didn't realize it was that high either, and sounds like a much needed solution.

With that, I also am wondering with about half the participants earning under 10,000 annually, what is the long-term strategy?

You know, I appreciate the 24 months we've done this before with other programs, but question is what happens after those 24 months, or how do we continue to support individuals?

I'll go for it.

Um in a prior life I worked at a community-centered board uh enrolling folks into these types of services, and so specifically for more so for individual adults.

Um, once they qualify for services, um, they are also eligible for different sort of sorts of housing options that the general population wouldn't have access to.

Um that can look like a host home, right?

So someone living with IDD being able to stay in someone else's home just so that someone has eyes on them and can support them with their different activities of daily living, whether which could include like cognitive or behavioral issues as well.

Um there's in some cases there's group homes for folks if that's of of some of interest, and there's also different types of vouchers, especially at the state level for folks that are living with IDD.

Uh so there is a little bit more resource option in that space uh for families, right?

They may not know or understand um what types of options they have to earn income by caring for someone in their household that's living with IDD.

So if um which we've encountered in shelter spaces where maybe a child um has some pretty significant challenges, and so they do need more care, and so a parent can be paid through um waiver services to give that care to their child, which is above and beyond what we would typically see.

So there's different options and ways to sort of think about what uh stability looks like.

That's great to know, and I guess while we talk about that, and you're having like a 24-month program is our ability to figure that out, you know, six months to a year in and give those resources to somebody that may not qualify for additional programs.

Is that part of what you're working on?

That's entirely the uh intention, right?

So Rocky Mountain Human Services gets a referral for a household, they connect with the household, they're screening them for intellectual or developmental disabilities, they already do the main determination process.

They already do the main determination process.

Um that's part of their job in the city, and that's for primary but bread and butter of what they do in the city.

So they're able to connect in-house uh to do to complete that IDD or developmental delay determination.

Um so that helps uh um open those doors for other types of resources.

Great, thank you.

Thank you so much for this.

And did you want to?

Yeah, I'll just add also that um what we've also seen in the service source programming is that a lot of these folks still need access to SSI and SSDI, so that's a big part of the programming that both agencies will be working on, and um I think JFS thrives really well in supporting people and getting employment, and we do know folks with IDD have the desire and can work.

So again, just adding to the options here.

I think we're really excited about um getting creative and exploring um what we can do to support these folks.

Beautiful.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, committee chair.

That's all I have.

Thank you.

Um and I'd also like to welcome council uh President Sandoval, who's been listening in as well.

So just let me know if you want to get in the queue.

Um next we'll go to Councilmember Torres.

Thank you.

Um Thanks for the update.

Um so I was looking back at um the budget book uh for AD Ideas Fund, and you had um about 21.8 million rollover from 2024 to 2025.

What was your rollover from 25 to 26?

Sure.

Let me pull up some numbers here.

Um let's see.

So beginning 2026, our fund balance was 17.7 million.

Um, but by the end of 2026, we're gonna see that drop down to 10.7 million, and we've actually seen a reduction in our revenue from last year to this year, and so we do anticipate that by 2027 and beyond our fund balance will drop um and we'll be at trying to remain at 10% of our um annual revenue for our fund balance.

Okay, and yours your revenue is based on property taxes, not sales taxes.

Um, so one of the things that I'm I'm wondering um placement for rapid rehousing is just general housing that's available um throughout the community.

Has there been any discussion of um uh like a housing uh development or project that's specific to this population?

Yeah, that that's a really great question.

Um there has, and in some other projects we've engaged with the um development team over at host.

Um I think there's a lot of movement happening regionally in this space and creating more inclusive housing, and we have explored it as well.

I think with our um revenue starting to decline, um, we've had to consider um priorities, and and I think that's been put on pause for now, but um certainly we know how much of a priority it is, and it's been a recommendation by our stakeholders, so it's still top of mind if and when we can find the right investments for it.

Yeah, it seems like something that is kind of niche, right?

Yeah, um, and then uh uh this is for three years, but uh are you anticipating this becomes like a routine uh investment from the ideas fund?

Yeah, I think it's still very much a pilot in terms of the rapid rehousing, but the goal is depending on the data and how successful folks are, and again, understanding our investments and um our revenue.

I we certainly plan to uh um if it's working, continue to do it.

Okay, all right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um I thought you were giving me the I definitely had a question.

Go ahead.

Council members you were kind of doing the question.

I just I I was curious.

Um you mentioned the eight points of contact, and I was curious as to what um counts as a contact.

I I don't know what slide that was.

Maybe look up to that.

Yeah, I got you.

Go for it.

Oh the the contacts were related to shelter sites, and so um any host funded shelter would be considered a point of contact.

And I think we've described it as monthly.

Um and then it's a little bit more fluid in that sense of like okay, I'm gonna come here on this day, maybe do IDD screenings, maybe do case consultation, maybe do a training.

Um, but all of that has yet to kind of be worked out with the provider.

Got it.

Okay, thank you.

That's it.

We've definitely done stuff like that in our shelters before, it just hasn't been as consistent as of late.

Um, and so it is a benefit, it really does help um the frontline staff understand people's experiences a little bit better and identify folks that they can refer to other places that they just didn't know they had a place to refer them to.

Do you normally put that as a metric in your contracts?

Not for our regular shelter contracts because that's yeah, this is very specific.

And it's unique, I like it.

The stability navigation piece.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um, I do have a question around um micro nuance.

It's a word of the day.

Um the age group of um when you say 50 new, it's households.

Um, so that could be the uh parent, it could be an individual, but also you know, um a child within the household.

What are some of the partnerships that are put together to be able to um identify and make sure that that you have a pipeline of folks that are coming in?

Like who are the partners that you're working with?

Sure, I I I can touch on this.

I think certainly the shelters are the biggest priority.

Um, particularly we know in the service source programming, a lot of the pipeline came from Denver Rescue Mission, um, it came from Salvation Army, the what's that shelter called?

Salvation Army Crossroads.

Yeah, crossroads, forgive me.

Um, and then schools, hospitals, and so um, I think it would look very similar, and then Rocky also has their own um community funded initiatives.

Um, so like El Groppo Vida is a big partner in this space.

Um, and so we'll lean on both housing partners as well as IDD service partners.

Great.

Um, do you think that our maybe you do this currently, but is there screening at the shelters like the family shelter for ID IDD?

So currently part of which we'll get to hear about next week with our Metro Denver Homeless Initiative presentation, but part of the HMIS intake does include the disclosure of an intellectual or developmental disability or develop developmental delay, so it is um but self-uh reported data, right?

So some folks may not know or understand that.

Um, and that would be right the demographics for both the parents and the children in the household.

And so there will be the opportunity for uh Rocky Mountain to offer this sort of outreach service to the family shelter spaces and do a little bit more screening and support in those spaces that they may not have had previously.

Um so I think that's very much an option.

Um, and when folks do identify we have definitely had situations in the family shelter where we know that's truly the case for that household and have worked to provide additional supports um last year, even providing uh some training to the shelter system on IDD and can getting connected to those resources, specifically Rocky Mountain in our community.

Okay, great, thank you.

Um I appreciate that.

Are there any other council members with questions?

Okay, I think we're good.

This is an action item, so we need move second.

Do we need to just a thumbs up?

We're good.

All right.

We are moving on to the floor.

Thank you.

All right.

Our next one is a briefing for the housing needs assessment.

Yeah, it's like it's famous.

I think a lot of your top look hangers.

Whenever you're ready.

Good afternoon, council members.

Um, I'm Laya Mitchell, the director of development and catalytic partnerships for the Department of Housing Stability, and I'm joined today.

Right and Heidi Heidi Agler with root policy research, and we're a consultant to the city.

And we're gonna be covering today um a first briefing about our housing needs assessment and anti-displacement and reinvestment strategy.

Um we can go to the next yep.

So today uh the agenda we're gonna go over um just an overview of the project.

We'll dig in a little bit on the scope of work, um, talk more specifically about the anti-displacement and reinvestment strategy components specifically, go over some timelines and deliverables, and then have an opportunity for your insights and questions and feedback as we move forward with this project.

So the housing needs assessment um was a requirement that was put into place through some state legislation in 2024.

Um Denver applied for and received a competitive grant from DOLA last year from the Colorado Department of Um Local Affairs to cover um the 75% of the cost of a housing needs assessment for the city and county of Denver.

We were thrilled to receive that.

We went through a competitive RFP process last year and selected route policy research to conduct the housing needs assessment for us.

So we're excited to have them started.

We had a contract go into effect at the beginning of the year and it'll go through 2026.

Host has put together an advisory team of our staff to help work to work with Root and help guide the policy and analysis.

We have representation for our homelessness resolution services team, housing stability and housing opportunity, and then also have colleagues who are actively working with us from Dito and CPD, particularly on the housing reinvestment, the anti-displacement and reinvestment strategy components.

So that can be really a sort of cross agency citywide initiative.

We'll dig in a little bit more on that.

And I did want to note that the housing needs assessment will form the basis of host strategic plan.

And also forms the basis of the housing action plan, which is required by the state.

So I'm going to give you an overview of the main components of the housing needs assessment, and there's six main components.

These are areas of analysis that the city has conducted regularly when it's done housing needs assessment, but also are building upon what the state requirement is.

So most of what the city's done in the past has gone above and beyond what the state now requires.

So when you're really you're in really good shape when you're starting this, you've got a lot of historical analysis.

We start with a demographic analysis, and that looks at projected household growth and population growth.

We look really specifically at age.

Age, I think is under represented as a really influential category in determining housing needs, and it's really affecting housing needs and housing gaps right now.

We look at tenure, which is rentership and ownership, the mix of units that are that people occupy, not only by tenure, but also by cost burden and by their levels of affordability.

We look at size, we look at household type, income distribution for renters and owners, and also shifts in income over time.

And then we put all that together and we look at how that impacts housing demand.

Housing market is specific to price trends, affordability trends.

We also, my colleague Abelia Bueno, who is here with me today, is putting together a projection model that will look at housing needs by income, by tenure, by age, by household formation rates was a very sophisticated look into the future of housing needs.

We also take a look at accessible and visitable unit needs for people with disabilities, preservation needs, and we compare that against development trends and what's known in the future, what's projected for development, and that's how we come up with gaps.

There's a special economic analysis that informs this.

We'll take a special look at jobs, whose occupation what jobs people have, job growth, what wages those jobs command, and then what they can afford both for rent and for ownership.

For displacement, Laia talked about a special uh piece to this, which is an anti-displacement and reinvestment strategy, the data that will inform that.

We'll look at race and ethnicity shifts over time, geographic areas with elevated risk of displacement, uh, Denver's history of anti-displacement strategies, uh, where there are best practices where those could be improved, and then we're really focusing on policies for the future.

Housing needs are a little different than the market analysis, in that those look like look at some of the populations that you all just heard about.

So people who have outsized needs, they may be experiencing repeated evictions, be at risk of foreclosure.

We look at those needs very specifically.

So that's the perspective of the household, and then last but not least, we come up with recommended policies and programs that will inform the strategic plan.

Dr.

Cog did a regional study about two years ago, and this informed a lot of the housing needs assessments that some of our peer communities are doing.

I just wanted to touch on that a little bit if you have specific questions about that needs assessment.

Uh, Avilia can help answer those.

But a couple of nuances with how Dr.

Cog looked at the data.

They looked back at households at households and then and household formation rates years ago when Denver's market was more affordable.

So they tried to counter the doubling up with people living with their parents longer because they can find affordable housing and correct for that.

They also assumed certain vacation vacancy rate, which is what we will do too, and also assumed increasing rental affordability over time, largely attributable to people aging.

They use state demographer, projected household growth, which is our starting point as well.

And the other unique piece is they looked at, we have to look at an income distribution.

Um, so the people who will be residents of the city over time, we have to assume what income they will have.

They looked back to 2013 for that income distribution.

So I just wanted to acknowledge their methodology is a bit different than what we will do.

We'll have a more tailored methodology for Denver.

Their needed units by AMI level or area median income level are there on the right, and that's as of 2050.

One unique aspect of their projections is they do look regionally at which communities will be accommodating both transit growth, density, and employment growth.

And Denver's really the big uh game for that.

And so a lot of the future growth is driven into Denver.

So residential growth is driven into Denver by their model.

Also wanted to talk on touch on the anti-displacement and reinvestment strategy.

The goal is to develop a citywide strategy in all and looking at displacement in all of its forms residential, commercial, industrial, as well as cultural.

So we'll be doing a detailed analysis of what contributes to displacement, not only residential, but also displacement of small businesses and minority women-owned businesses.

We want to acknowledge that the risk looks different depending on the neighborhood context.

And so we're thinking really hard about displacement in one neighborhood or a neighborhood cluster, may look very different for residents in another neighborhood, and doing the analysis to reflect that.

So we've already got some ideas, which we talked to Lai and her team about yesterday, and how to construct a model that's really looking at the unique aspects of the neighborhood and risks of neighborhood.

At the end of the day, this will lead to cross-agency collaboration, recommendations of how to bring all the good work that the city's been doing into a concerted anti-displacement and reinvestment strategy.

These examples show you what we're really focusing on is where people have disproportionate housing needs.

So recognizing the market doesn't work for everyone at the same level, and how we're starting to look at how that might differ.

So the first is looking at uh industry, so the jobs that people work by race and ethnicity, as well as the wages or the incomes that they command from working in those industries.

Just a couple things that I would note.

If you look at black Denverites or Hispanic Denver rights and the jobs that they that were the jobs that they cluster in relative to to non-hispanic white or all Denverites, you can see they're more likely to be working in education, in health care in moderate to lower paying wages, construction, which is a really vulnerable industry, and also more likely to be unemployed or underemployed.

So that matters because the market needs to make sure that it's providing affordable housing for all of the wages and workforce types that Denver depends on, and that can disproportionately affect certain people of races and ethnicities.

We'll also take a closer look.

We did this a couple years ago at the experience of homelessness by race and ethnicity and household type.

In this case here, we looked at how many months people spent in homelessness by race and ethnicity, and their experience was really different.

We see that in some cases cultural norms will tolerate overcrowding or coping mechanisms differently and bring people out of homelessness more quickly than maybe some others.

And so we'll take a look at what solutions work for different types of people working very closely with hosts team.

Shifting to talk about homeownership.

This is a pretty stark graphic.

This looks at the share of homes that were affordable by neighborhood to households earning or wanting renter households wanting to buy and earning uh incomes of 81 to 120% AMI, shows a really dramatic shift after the pandemic as interest rates reached record record lows.

Um there was certainly some concentration of affordability for this income group in 2020 and 2021 really has been erased since 2023, and you see that the share of affordable units is you know lower than 20% in most of Denver neighborhoods.

Um also wanted to talk about eviction filings.

This is some analysis that we did as of 2023.

Typically, some of the anti-displacement models that people create focus on uh where there are renters, where there are low-income people, that isn't always where evictions are concentrated.

We see movement oftentimes into where there are new multifamily developments, maybe there are favorable rates that people, when they move into their rental units, they can afford it, but something changes, rent goes up, or they have uh an income loss and they can't afford those rent anymore.

And so the eviction patterns are a little bit different than low-income household patterns, and so we look at that separate from concentration of demographic groups as well.

So that's just a little bit of a teaser of what you can expect out of the study, some of the work that we've done in the past that will build upon.

In terms of timeline and deliverables, we are currently collecting data, actively collecting data, starting to outline the report sections and planning the community engagement.

A note on that, we are not duplicating any of the good engagement that's being uh taken that's taken place right now, associated with neighborhood plans, other planning initiatives, a lot of the work that host is doing with targeted groups.

We're going to supplement that with focus groups and engagement with targeted targeted resident groups that typically their voices are not reflected in the data.

They may have unique needs, and we want to make sure that we cover that.

We're also looking at the displacement risk assessment as I talked about.

Um we will start delivering the preliminary housing needs and projections in late July, displacement risk assessment in August.

Um, as Laya talked about, our contract goes through the end of the year, but we'll start to put out recommendations and draft uh materials in the fall.

And with that, I am happy to take questions.

Thank you.

Um we have a lot of questions and a number of everybody in the queue.

So let's go ahead and get started with Council Member Alvidris.

Thank you so much, uh committee chair.

Thank you for this briefing.

You know, it's been something I've been looking forward to a long time.

I really appreciate outlining a lot of the methodology is addressing a lot of the issues that we've been seeing.

I think one of my biggest concerns, especially coming out of the uh state of homelessness report from 2024, which is the latest, is the huge uptick in families experiencing homelessness.

And I do, you know, believe that it is a result of the types of housing that we are building.

Um, and so I'm curious.

Are you, you know, you said you're collecting data.

Is that part of the data that you're looking at?

And how are you planning on analyzing the types of housing as far as like are we building the housing that families need?

So we'll do a couple of um and the the first question of um uh is that is a type of housing that's been developed or that exists, is that actually accommodating needs?

So we can look at that a couple of different ways.

We can look at cost burden by the type of housing that people are occupying by renter or owner status.

So is a senior household more likely to experience high levels of cost burden if they are a renter or they're living in a multifamily or if they're living in a duplex or if they're living in a single family detached home.

We also then can look at that by household size and and the type and number of bedrooms to understand where people fitting within not only their affordability but the size that's appropriate for them.

Um, in terms of what's being developed and and the rents that are commanded by those those new developments, we use um commercial data set called CoStar, and so we're able to see what rents are asked when units are coming online, what vacancy rents they have, the size of those units, so we can do a pretty deep dive analysis on the multifamily side.

On the uh for sale side, we have a lot of data out of assessor data and also the MLS, so we can understand if a family of, let's say um family of four with a certain income level, if they're wanting to buy what's on the market or if anything for them, and where is that located, and whether or not that's a deed restricted property.

I appreciate that.

I think what you all what all that said is where are we at right now?

And I think part of my question is how did we get to to having these families be homeless?

So, what led to them becoming homeless?

And also, I think part of my concern when I look at the data that's out there currently is that vacancy rates are high for apartments for rental units.

Um, and so how do you put that those two figures next to each other?

We have a lot of vacant apartments across the city, which you have 4.7, it's definitely more than 4.7% vacancy rate.

Um, but yet we have homelessness.

So, where is that disconnect where maybe the people that are homeless, aka families that are homeless, don't want a studio one bedroom on South Broadway and one of the new high rises that we built.

So, how are you going to look at that question?

We'll look at both um vacancy rates by um by the age, so when the unit came on uh and the types of units.

So, typically what what you're describing is there is a pretty severe mismatch between the families who are experiencing homelessness and their income levels and what the the rents that are being asked, um, particularly for the housing.

It's not just the rents, it's the actual units.

Right?

Exactly.

Yeah, we can look at it by uh unicomposition, location, and size too.

Okay.

Um I think that's just one of the biggest concerns that I have is that how are we saying that we need all this housing when we have a huge amount of vacancy rates?

I do agree we need housing, but where is that disconnect and how, and I guess this is for you is like how are we going to use this data as we invest those host dollars to make sure that we're investing in the areas of greatest need, especially looking at the data, which is the other the Dr.

Cog study has the vast majority and 50% or less AMI, and so that's not anything that a developer is going to be able to develop as well.

So, how are you going to think about that?

Yeah, thank you.

That's a great question.

And I think what you're identifying is that gap between what's available and built in the market and what our community really needs.

And there is, we know there's a mismatch there, and I think the housing needs assessment is going to help us identify exactly where it is, you know, what exactly what part of our community, what demographics, um, so that we can.

I mean, the really the the aim of the housing needs assessment is to help us make the best choices we can, the best data-driven and community-driven choices about how we use our resources, our limited resources as city to build and support the kind of programs and housing that are needed by our community that are most needed.

Um, and we'll do that by taking the housing needs assessment.

We'll have a policy recommendation section.

Um, and then we're gonna use that to inform our strategic plan so that we're really taking this data-driven and community-driven approach to informing our our tactical decisions of the coming years so that we are best meeting the needs of our community.

That's great.

I think another thing that I would just raise up as far as the data is looking at the strategic plan for the last five years and where it has really failed.

There's some areas where we've done well on those five-year goals, and there's, you know, one of the highlights that our office has been focused on is black homeownership rates and those homeownership rates across the city.

So, what where are these individuals going and why are they leaving our city?

Um, coupled with who's owning these houses now, if we if the home home ownership rate in general amongst anybody in Denver is down.

That's all I have for the moment.

I'll get back at the end of the queue if there's a lot of people.

Wait, may I have a point of clarification on the vacancy rate?

The the 4.7% was the target rate that in the Dr.

Cog study, so it's not a reflection of the current rate that the consultant team used for looking forward.

Right, and I'm aware of that, and that's why I'm concerned that our actual vacancy rate is higher than the healthy rate.

So 4.7, yes.

Thank you.

Great, thank you.

Um, Councilmember Sawyer.

Thank you.

Thanks, you guys.

This is super interesting.

I'm I can't wait for the results.

Um, so really looking forward to finding that information.

I am a little concerned about the 2025 Dr.

Cog study.

Um, because it does not seem like the metrics that they used as our the basis are really good metrics in the first place.

Um, right, like Denver's future share is based on 25% of job and 26% of developable land.

That's wrong.

We know that rate right off the bat.

I don't have to be a Denver city council member living in this world to know that that is wrong.

So um, and all of the data that we have for current information, right, backs that up.

So things like, for example, there are more pullments permits being pulled for developments outside of Denver than inside of Denver.

Um, rents are higher outside of Denver than they are inside of Denver.

And right, all of those different metrics do not add up to the basis that the Dr.

Cog study started from.

So I think that's really concerning.

Um, so I just want you to clarify for me, because you put it in here, but you're not using the Dr.

Cog study as a basis for where you are starting, are you?

We are not.

No, we are designing uh uh a more tailored model.

Um we are required, uh the state requires when regional studies are done that those numbers are acknowledged in the needs assessment, actually in the action plan.

And so there is a recognition that a regional study was done, the city uh, and these were the findings of that, and and the city updated those projections, and these are the city, the city of Denver's findings.

So these will be actually newer, newer data that were used too.

That study was done a couple of years ago.

Okay, I really appreciate that because I think it's really concerning, and I just wanted to make sure that this wasn't like where the base of where we're starting from.

Right, yeah, we just need to we're required by the state legislation to acknowledge um that a regional study was done and that Denver was part of that.

So that you you will see those numbers and that reflection in in the needs assessment.

Um we are uh designing uh a unique model for Denver.

A tailored model for Denver.

Okay, that's fantastic.

Yeah, go ahead.

And that's part of why, so Denver um by with within the state legislation, we have the option to opt into the regional housing needs assessment and accept it as our our uh as our own.

Um, and we did make the decision to do a tailored localized one because of the kind of unique needs of the city and wanting to dig deeper on sort of neighborhood level data.

Um, and so we're we still work collaboratively with Dr.

Cog and participate in like the regional um discussions, but we did and do want to have a very are localized with a kind of unique um data set that's updated and pertinent to us.

I really appreciate that.

Thanks for doing that, um, because I agree with you that that is very important for us.

We we like anecdotally know right what is going on with the mismatch between what is affordable for developers to build, which is studios in one bedrooms and the needs of our community, which is two and three or maybe even four bedrooms.

And so we like we know that that that exists, but it would be good to have the the data to kind of back that up.

Um my question for you is how are we going to use this data once we get it?

Because we know that's what it's gonna show, right?

Um glad we'll finally have the numbers to prove it, but like we know that's what it's gonna show.

And if it doesn't show that, I will be very concerned.

Um but how are we then going to like what is the end game for host in terms of how we take that data and um and transition that into action?

Because most of that is private development that we don't invest in is the the way the market is working.

Right.

No, I do think we have to acknowledge what we have control over as a city, but you know, even outside of host with CPD permitting, you know, we do have sort of a pulse on the market and some some level of um interaction with with market rate development as well.

But I think within host, we're really we'll be looking at policy decisions, programmatic decisions, and funding decisions that we would reflect in a strategic plan and a and a housing action plan that really build on this data and say, given constrained resources, how do we make tough decisions that you know really support our community?

So for housing opportunity for development teams, it might be we already have some prioritization of larger bedroom counts when we're making decisions, like a per unit investment that we make in affordable housing is increased for like a three or a four-bedroom.

Is it increased enough?

Is it the right amount?

Should we actually only be funding large units versus small units?

You know, those are um ways that at sort of a tactical level, we could take this data and then apply it to both existing programs and policy, and then really think about if there are things that we need to change about what we're doing investing in.

And so that would that would go then through sort of strategic planning alignment process um and then into action.

Okay, yeah.

Appreciate that.

Yeah, that's fantastic.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Um, Councilmember Torres.

Thank you.

Um, just a quick, super excited to see this when it comes back, and thank you for um uh for digging in on the data.

Um just a random clarification question.

Um back when pre-host there was hope, right?

The housing and opportunity for people everywhere.

Um there was a conversation that I was part of.

You have to do the hand thing, you do it every time.

Um there was a conversation that I was um part of where they talked about how the vacancy rate is arrived at, and it did not include brand new never-rented units who were rented for the first time units.

Is that the case?

It depends.

You can look at it two ways.

So you can um, and what we'll typically do is we'll look at um vacancy rates by um the by characteristics of the development, the unit type, unit size, scale.

Um so we can look at it, we can we can adjust take out the units that have just come online um to account for that lease up period because the lease up period is gonna raise the vacancy, and so you can look at it both ways.

Um so you can see by this is what the co-star data get us.

You can see by um when I say uh development type, I mean um you know, a large multifamily luxury development with like a very nice fitness room and decks, or um one that's maybe more tailored for middle income households so we can look at that type of property, look at how when they were built when they can't when the units came online and what the vacancy rate was and the fluctuation of that.

Okay.

I guess I'm just really interested in like that whole picture because I think I hear um anecdotally stories that um uh units are just being held vacant and uh uh they're just kind of sitting on them, and others uh and those might be kind of higher-end uh units, um, and others where um even like the Sun Valley developments, some of the leaseups were kind of slow to uh fully get filled.

Um so we're we're where are gaps and just want to make sure that we're seeing that whole picture as opposed to um kind of when people are leaving.

But um I appreciate the work and um can't wait to see this, and I'm always kind of looking back also at um what's being built and comparing kind of what we need to what's being built.

Um we had a great visual in the host um budget presentation in 2023 that showed like a gap uh or actually overproduction of I think it was over 120 percent AMI housing compared to the need, but a vast underproduction of pretty much anything else under that, and I'd be interested to see kind of where we're at now.

Yeah, thank you.

Yeah, thanks.

Great, thank you.

Uh Councilmember Lewis, great.

I just have one quick single question.

You gave the examples of the analysis, and one of the things that I've been thinking about is our growing population in terms of like 65 plus and housing for those folks, and um and seeing more of those folks experiencing homelessness.

And so I'm I'm curious as to, and I see in the presentation you all do have this uh wind out, it says age distribution of current and projected population.

So I'm just curious are you if you all are thinking about that demographic of folks and and having that as a piece of the analysis to make sure we have a specific targeted to Councilwoman Sawyer's point um strategy for addressing what we might learn there?

Yeah, absolutely.

We we um we often look at senior households.

The tri the tricky part of looking at senior households is for low-income owners who are who are occupying a home that's probably bigger than what they need, what choice will they make?

Um, and typically people do choose to age in place because they can't afford to downsize downsize.

Um so in a Belius model in the model that we build, um, we have to make some assumptions about what a low-income senior owner will choose to do and whether or not that creates demand for a studio or a one-bedroom unit at a what affordability level.

Um so that's kind of the and the technical side, that's what we're looking at.

We also we we can't we do have a lot of data on um uh uh the cost burden level of of senior households, poverty, um, whether or not they own their homes, and and then we also can look at who becomes a homeowner at which age, and there's a lot of differentiation among races and ethnicities as well.

Okay, so you'll see all of that.

Lovely.

And and the um last question, I know I said I had one, but you reminded me I actually had two, was you mentioned eviction filings.

Do you also use foreclosures as well?

Yes, we look at evictions and foreclosures.

Thanks.

That's it.

Great, great, thank you.

Um, I actually have a few questions as well.

Are you okay?

Yep, yeah, of course.

Yes, yes, yes.

Um, we have so I think again, just the type of housing that's available, and most of what we're talking about is for rent.

Um, and I think that it's also incredibly difficult for us to, it's like we need to have the conversation about ownership as well.

And I think that the the rent prices and what's being invested there is just um it just I would just like to be able to broaden the conversation so that we can include homeownership because there's significant dollars that are going into our rents and not going towards a mortgage and not allowing people to build that equity over time.

Um I had a question on one of your slides on slide nine.

Uh and this is more of and maybe you you can you have some analysis of it, but when you look at it, the months experiencing homelessness by race and ethnicity.

Is there some what's happening between 10 and 12 months?

Like that's such a significantly small number there, and I'm just wondering, is that is there some narrative that goes with that?

You know, I I don't know.

Um I think and this is coming out of the HMIS data, so the data on the experience of people in the continuum of care system.

It may be that that's just such a um it may be that that's a really narrow window that the data are um these are are are data that are um they fluctuate a lot, uh especially with people whose experience with homelessness is very fluid, and so it may it may be that there's we call a margin of error, just a lot of noise or margin of error in the data, but we can certainly ask when we're updating this.

But I I'm not sure.

That would be great.

I was just I was just wondering, is there like something magic that happens between 10 and 12 months and we're just missing that gap?

Um, and then also on slide 12 um eviction filings, and I think this definitely tracks with the experience in 23.

Bless you.

Um but also continuing to hear um from folks that are you know facing evictions and the locations where they are.

Um is this something that is in the county courts and route policy?

Do we have any more recent data?

We're in the process of collecting that now.

Um, part of the the data that I brought in to to show you are based on analyses that we did prior to this contract that we've done for host over periods of time.

And so I just wanted to give you a picture of when we think about uh disproportionate housing needs and how people experiencing the housing market differently, what kind of analysis we do to inform that.

Okay.

Um because the areas that are shown is where we have naturally occurring affordability, um, it's where I have very large um you know, 300, 400, 500 unit um apartments, and so this is I'm just saying this this map very much tracks with what what I'm seeing and hearing in in Southeast Denver.

Um I don't have any other did you want to pop back in?

Yeah, please.

Um yeah, thanks for bringing up the eviction map.

I think one of the things we've been looking at too in our office is just eviction filings is one thing, and then talking to the sheriff's office of who actually is getting evicted and what resources are helping the sheriffs could be actually a really great resource in that whole conversation around eviction, um, which I didn't know until I talked to them, so I just want to uplift that.

But another concern that I have looking, you know, we're looking into the future, right?

Climate change is very real, it's affecting insurance costs, and it's affecting the types of housing that people need and want and how they're able to not be displaced.

So I'm curious where does the climate change part of this conversation fit and insurance costs and when you're looking at housing costs, how are you going to put that into your analysis of what the future needs of the city are?

Because my understanding is this is not just like what do we need in this moment, but looking into how far into the future are we looking into that?

Uh, Vili and I just did a statewide study for the state of New Mexico, um, and they asked the same question about homeowners' insurance, and so we did a bit of a some some research looking at data that are out there to help understand um how insurance costs fluctuates and whether or not that is a predictor of foreclosure.

And so we can certainly build that into this as well, and and include I'm thinking as you're talking through this in looking at uh price inflation and and sort of and housing costs in the future, particularly for uh homeowners, that is that that should be a factor.

And what is the most resilient types of housing looking into the future?

You know, I think about part of my district is historic neighborhoods, these houses are very inefficient.

What does that look going into the future?

Is there something to um that conversation?

And I think about one of the things that I think about when I think about affordable housing is that it's hard to create affordable housing when the price of housing is going up, and I think about insurance costs, building code, all of these labor costs to both housing, and so how are we going to be looking at not just because you mentioned homeowners and insurance, and that's who we think of when we talk about insurance, but landlords have to pay insurance on their buildings as well, and that cost is gonna get paid passed down to the renter, and so making sure that we're thinking about that as a whole, not just homeowners that pay homeowner insurance, also anybody, you know, like and I really really want to uh commend, I didn't even think about a housing needs assessment looking at small businesses, and I think that's an important aspect that you brought up that I didn't um necessarily think about, but they are also talking to us about insurance costs, and part of affording housing is your utility bill, which is also connected to climate change, and so I would say yeah, please.

Oh, just I would say um I don't have data on it, so anecdotally at this point, but our for our affordable housing developers and um and providers who provide affordable housing, the cost of insurance has gone up significantly and is a is a huge um burden.

So we're really watching that already at host, and I do think we can bring it into this, and then quality of housing stock is a component as well, and I think as temperatures rise and sort of air conditioning or cooling becomes more important for sort of the health and safety of residents, you know, that's a factor as well.

Um yeah, thank you.

Great.

Um, I'm grateful for that.

And then I recently was able to tour an affordable housing, a newer affordable housing uh development in my district, 100% affordable, and they're not able to rent the units, and the math is not mathing.

So when I say the math is not mathing, it's the rent for affordable unit is like for that one of their units was like 16 or 1800, depending on studio or one bedroom, and that was at 60% AMI, and that wasn't 30% of the people's income that they're trying to target for their affordable target.

And that was at 60% AMI, and that wasn't 30% of the people's income that they're trying to target for their affordable target.

And so as much as we have these targets, not only that, but that's about what rent is 16 or 1800 for a studio or one bedroom, at least in the west side.

I appreciate that you brought up neighborhoods in my district.

We don't find different rents on different areas of the district, but in this same neighborhood where you have an affordable unit for 16, 1800, you could get a market rate unit for 16 or 1800.

And so I don't know if projecting into the future there will be a real disparity there where market rate again is a lot higher than what you find in an affordable unit, but also two issues is the affordable unit isn't necessarily the 30% of the income of the person.

And second of all, it's what market rate is in that neighborhood also adding to the struggle there, and so hoping that thinking about that as we create these affordable units is important as well.

Um I think if you talk to anybody that's recently built affordable housing, they are struggling to fill those units.

Um and then last my last question is how are you going to talk to people who have been already displaced out of the city?

Because I think that's an important group of people that I want to know.

Why did you move out?

What would make you consider living in the city of Denver again?

That's a great question.

We can um we can do that as part of uh targeted focus groups.

The probably the best way to get that information is to do focus groups.

Um we do we have in the past worked with a firm um that does that helps us do sampling and they're multilingual firm.

They're in Southern California, but we do a lot, they do a lot of our statistically significant survey work, and they can recruit.

Um, and I've done this in the city of Austin actually.

We did uh focus groups with people who had relocated to outside of the city, and we did three focus groups asking them why.

We typically will convene people in a place that's um comfortable for them.

Um we we pay them for their time, and so it's like a professional focus group like you do if you were participating in a product uh discussion.

So we could certainly build that in.

I think that's probably the most strategic way of doing that.

Um we had talked about uh with with the host team or the broader the collaborative team about doing a survey and decided not to because people are pretty over surveyed right now, and there's a lot of engagement happening in the city.

That would be another avenue, but it is a little hard to get um uh that target group um through a survey if you don't do a statistically significant survey and those are expensive.

So that might be there's some you know, there's quite a bit of data showing that people in certain parts, particularly on the west side, will move to Aurora, um, whether or not they're buying a home, if they're moving because they can't afford Denver, I think would be the types of questions we would ask.

Yeah, and I think they can't afford what they need in Denver, but they can't afford maybe something that they don't need in Denver, and so continuing that, and I think when we talk about people that have been displaced, and even just looking at you know, host has the great data on um home ownership rates, is that it it making sure that you're demographically also looking at, you know, it is mostly people of color that are leaving the city, and the city is for lack of any better term, becoming whiter and whiter.

And um, I don't think that's the goal of anyone.

I think that we want to have a diverse city where everyone can stay, feel welcome and afford to live.

And so really thinking about how when you look at those people that have been displaced, are you looking at the demographics of those individuals proportionate to the people that have left the city as well?

That's all.

Thank you so much, committee chair, and thank you all for this work.

I'm really like Housewoman Sawyer said, I'm ready to see the results any day now, right?

Just that um great quick time check.

Uh we have one more council member in the queue.

Quick question, and then we will go to our final presentation.

Thank you.

Super fast question.

Um my colleagues um reminded me I had a question about your eviction filings graphic.

Um, the one bright red neighborhood in my district is a rare.

Why is Auraria on here for eviction filings?

Students.

Can look at the data.

It might just be that it's um I don't know, we can look.

Okay, it's not a lot of other than student housing.

There's a couple loss, but that's it.

Yeah, we can take it.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank you for the presentation.

Thank you, thank you.

I appreciate it.

Next up we have the cool bit corridor study.

Member Lewis.

Yeah.

Do you want to work the slide?

Yeah, please.

I can do it while you're talking.

It's fine.

I got you.

All right.

Hello.

All right, we are here.

So you all know me.

I'm Councilwoman Lewis.

I represent District 8.

And Hi, I'm David Kugler.

I live in Central Park.

I was part of the Quebec Corridor Task Force.

I also live in income restricted housing, the four-purchase housing.

So if you ever want to talk, let me know.

I've got lots of thoughts.

I'm also the Secretary of Central Park United Neighbors.

I'm on the mayor's good neighbor committee of a small business owner in the city.

So thanks for having me here.

I also host a podcast called Call Me Limbo where we talk about local politics.

Councilwoman is Councilwoman has been a guest as well.

Councilwoman parody if you ever want to check it out.

So yeah, I'm very excited to have this conversation about the Quebec Corridor Task Force.

Um with a member of the uh Quebec Corridor Task Force to discuss their experiences over the summer.

Um before we begin, I wanted to set the table with a few things first.

I wanted to take Bree, who is on my staff who led this work.

Um she was incredible in convening the people of this group for leading with curiosity and empathy over the summer of 2025.

Um and we would not be here without her.

So thank you, Brie, all the way in Australia.

Second, I wanted to talk about the origins of the task force.

Um my first proper day as a council member, I learned that the that my district was going to be asked to bear the brunt of the sheltering services for the program that was then called House 1000.

The city had already acted on the acquisition of the hotels in the district, located at what we refer to now as the Quebec Quebec Corridor.

Perhaps not surprisingly, we hear from folks on the Quebec corridor in shelters and businesses and homes all the time about the conditions of the area since those shelters have opened, in addition to the the shelters, but also the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless also has a um a housing development over over there as well, and so they tend to group that even though it's not a part of the House 1000.

Um so based on those frustrations, I was feeling around the work with the shelters that the shelter providers were doing.

The data, I had a third-party consultant collect data um for both Councilman Watson's um House 1000 shelters as well as mine um as well.

And my desire was to ensure that the system worked as it was originally designed and that we weren't just simply warehousing folks, with which is what we ended up doing.

Um, and so I wanted to try and address these complaints and concerns holistically instead of simply treating the symptom on an individual basis, and so I asked Brie if she would run the task force as a result.

Um and so what is the Quebec corridor?

Oh, I am in charge of that.

Maybe I should let you be.

I can do it.

And just that quickly I failed.

Now you're doing great.

Okay, thank you.

Um, so what is the Quebec Corridor?

If you've ever driven around Quebec Quebec, um driven along the Quebec, the sense is that there's a barrier between the different um parts of my dis district, and so you can see that so distinctively actually with Quebec um from East Colfax to South Park Hill to North Park Hill to Central Park.

Um the zone in question in Quebec is from 23rd Street on the South End to Northfield Boulevard on the north side.

The section is a high speed section of the road with a mix of commercial, residential, and a big concentration of shelters as well.

Um we'll talk about that more in a second, but I wanted to be able to I wanted to let you all know that I was see successfully able to work with CPD um to include the section of the Quebec Corridor in the near Northeast Neighborhood Planning Initiative, or the N E P N N E N N E N Pin I.

In P I, Lord have mercy.

Um, which we'll talk about that more in a second as well.

But just to give you all some historical context.

So Quebec used to be the dividing line between the city of Denver and the Stapleton International Airport, and so the hotels have become shelter the hotels that have become shelters were used for travelers at the airport.

The neighborhood of Central Park is the master plan community that has taken the place of the airport.

And so when we started developing the task force, we got perspective from many folks in the area, including long-term residents of Northeast Park Hill.

The degree to which the airport safe life in that neighborhood cannot be overstated, and the relocation of the airport led to a lack of investment in that community in particular, relative to what had existed before.

So why a task force?

Because we love them.

No, I'm just kidding.

So, as I mentioned before, we wanted to hear from folks in the Quebec corridor and the shelters and the businesses and homes about the about the conditions of the area since the shelters have opened, and regardless if we wanted to hear from them or not, we were hearing from them because they had they had concerns.

And so with that, I was resolved to do something that was inclusive of community input.

And so Brie took charge of this project and organized it to create short, long-term and medium recommendations to improve the quality of life in the Quebec corridor.

And so who was on the task force?

It was made up of three neighborhoods Central Park, South Park, South Park Hill, and Northeast Barque.

A lot of business owners in that area were the main body of the task force.

The city was able to provide agency support and expertise at the meeting.

Anything I miss?

I'm doing great.

All right.

Okay.

So now I'm gonna stop talking and turn it over to the folks who are actually on the panels.

Um the task force, excuse me, to discuss the process and the recommendations.

Yeah, thanks, councilwoman.

So sure.

Yeah, thank you.

So the first meeting was on April 3rd, and it really just set the tone for future meetings, including what problem the Quebec Corridor Task Force should solve for.

So we decided to come up with short, medium, and long-term goals, um, which I'll talk about, but want to talk about first what we did not recommend.

Um here's a quote from one of the folks who participated.

The Quebec Corridor Task Force does not support a ban on camping, an over reliance on policing to respond to poverty and homelessness, or the continuation of isolation for unsheltered residents to necessary services to find stability.

We advocate for the city and the community to invest in quality services for both visible and invisible homeless folks across Denver.

And then on July 23rd, the panelists discussed cold weather sheltering and did not support the continued use of 4040 Quebec, which is called the Aspen now as a cold weather shelter facility.

And I will ask why they weren't we're not a stakeholder or add, excuse me.

Well, they were not a stakeholder on the task force, the fire and police um have seen a lot more calls, um uh a larger volume of calls um because of the concentration of the sheltering on Quebec.

So just wanted to add that piece.

Go ahead.

Yes, thank you.

We have some good news for coming about that later, though, too.

So um, some of the long-term goals that we talked about in our May 21st meeting, uh, we discussed long-term goals for the corridor, which we defined as 2027 and beyond.

So we had three recommendations, one around housing, one around future land use, and one around transportation.

So, first regarding housing costs, the task force recommended that development plans include more housing development to meet the needs of folks who are at 30% to 110% of the area median income level, which I think aligns with some of what we've heard today, too.

This amounts to more housing for folks with income levels between 29,450 to 112,850, and this is from the Department of Housing Stability's 2025 home income limits.

Second, on the issue of future land use, the task force recommended that the corridor on both sides of the street of Quebec be included in the near Northeast area plan, which is an upcoming initiative that will set land use goals for the next 20 years in Northeast Park Hill.

And then third, finally, on transportation, the task force recommended the design and implementation of continuous and accessible pedestrian and cyclist infrastructure to ensure the walkability and prioritize multimodal transit.

It's there's a it train tracks over there and an on-ramp into onto Quebec, which turns into I-70, and so it's and there's not a lot of um pedestrian infrastructure.

So the Quebec Corridor also should facilitate quality alternatives to single occupancy vehicles and traffic while also facilitating slower speeds.

So then in June, we talked about some medium-term goals, which we defined as 2026 and 2027.

So we came up with two recommendations.

The first was that the city set up a city investment fund that could cover the needs of the area.

And this would be a specially dedicated source of funding that could not be used for any other purpose, and would be a means to ensure that the concentration of shelters was backstoped by a plan and the means to invest in our communities.

The other medium-term recommendation for the corridor revolves around the future of the shelters currently, uh, despite how it feels to some Central Park residents in particular, those shelters are not slated for indefinite use as shelters, and so what do we want to do with them?

So some of them, such as the Aspen shelter at 440 Quebec, which was an old double tree hotel, are city-owned assets, and this means that at some point the use of these shelters will change and the city will have a decision to make about what some of the discussion was around permanently affordable income restricted housing.

Um, and then short-term goals.

So that was defined as the end of 2025.

So we came up with two things.

So, first, the task force recommended that there be more open space for the shelter congregants to gather.

And as part of the good neighbor committee for the Quebec Corridor, with the mayor's office, Urban Alchemy is working on opening up a space inside the hotel because right now it's just surrounded by really large parking lots.

So really excited about that.

Yes, lots without shade, no cover, um, no seating.

It's not very hospitable, especially in the summer, at least they increase isolation for the residents.

Correct, humaning.

So trying to find opportunities as well to be able to provide services for the folks who were there.

Yep.

So and then the second recommendation that we had concerned the physical looks of the corridor, um, which had a big impact on how Northeast Park Hill and Central Park neighbors perceive and feel about the shelters.

So trash and landscaping have been frequent concerns for the neighbors, and so recommendation here is to organize trash pickups, which there was one part of the Give Five Mile High initiative that First Lady Johnson has um spearheaded, and it was really well received in the neighborhood.

So like doing more of that would be would be really great.

Um using city services to improve landscaping, other efforts like that.

Um one benefit of this is that the trash cleanups could include both shelter residents and the neighborhoods, um, and it would would help to build trust and engagement between the two groups.

Um I also think I also wanted to highlight um one of the pieces of information that we received from Lieutenant Hines in our March 18th Good Neighbor Committee was that since Urban Alchemy took over the shelter, there have been there's been a pretty dramatic reduction in calls for service for police service to especially the Aspen shelter, and Councilwoman Lewis said to me beforehand too that the fire department has also seen a reduction in in calls there too.

So um also they said that the number of overdoses that they've had since they took over, and this was as of March 18th in the Aspen shelter.

There were three, and all of those were reversed.

So I'm I'm and there were significant overdoses, however.

Yes, before.

So I think the new shelter provider is is doing some good work from at least in the last three months from what I've seen.

So that's what I've got.

All right, let's talk about some next steps.

Um so those were the recommendations from the task force, and so let's turn towards what we are doing to implement all of this.

So we did some walk audits.

Um walk audits are one of the short-term recommendations from the Quebec Corridor Task Force.

They're done through the Denver Regional Mobility and Access Council and are designed to collect direct feedback from neighbors and to advocate for safer, more walkable streets for all users.

We have participated in walk audits with Dr.

Mac in other parts of our district as well.

Um and I'm excited about the process and the reports that Dr.

Mack creates.

Um, and I'm working to bring a Dr.

Mack audit to the corridor.

Um, as I mentioned before, we were able to successfully successfully bring the shelter corridor into the N N E P N P I pro Thank you process.

I'm a kid, um, which is keep kicking off in earnest in spring.

Um, and this will ensure that the long-term land use planning will include the corridor and be sensitive to the conditions of that corridor.

Umright it was not included.

And then finally, we're working with the new shelter provider and implementing the recommendations of the task force to develop common space at the shelter, which urban alchemy is in favor of in favor of.

Um, they just need some more money.

Additionally, working to bring other resources, including trust building activities to the shelter via um urban alchemy.

And finally, um, we have meetings with hosts about the development, the true development of a navigation center at 44 to Quebec, which I'm sure you guys are sick of hearing from me saying.

I'm sick of saying it.

Um, which would address the use of the shelter as a cold weather shelter and to achieve the medium-term goals of figuring out shelter distribution.

Um, and I'm pleased with the initial meetings we had, but I'm reserving judgment until I see more details.

And with that, that is all we have.

Happy to take any questions.

Oh well, thank you.

And you did sprint, and really I really appreciate it, but it was great comprehensive information.

Um, we'll start with council member Sawyer.

Thanks.

Um, thank you so much for this information.

Thanks for volunteering your time and energy.

Um participate in this.

I know that you probably get asked to do that a lot, and so I like to do it.

Thank you for our community panels.

Yeah, um, this is really useful information.

Um, I was especially heartened to hear that urban alchemy has turned out to be an excellent um shelter operator.

So far, so good.

Um because we sat through a lot of public comment about that um in opposition to that, and so I'm really thrilled to hear that that is going the way we hoped it had gone it would go and not um the way a lot of our public commenters feared it would go.

So great.

And I visited um uh 4040 Quebec like just on a whim, and the the energy is different um in the shelter when it was operated by the Salvation Army versus um urban alchemy.

So excited for that.

It's it's a hopeful situation for sure.

That's great.

That's fantastic to hear.

Um and in our can I have one more thing, too?

Because like in our January good neighbor committee.

Oh, they come to that also.

Yes, they come.

Yes, they're engaged.

Um they refer to um people experiencing homelessness as unhoused loved ones, which even just the language is different.

But I um forgot what I was gonna say.

Well, if you think about it.

Oh, I remember the Denver there was a Denverite article about Urban Alchemy who had taken away the keys of the residents, and I was one of I was very resistant, and I asked Tyler, who's the representative from Urban Alchemy about like why are you doing this, like taking away dignity from from folks and their independence, and he said it's to ensure touch points, and we're assessing sobriety and we're assessing um just the the health and the care of the folks um who are who are living here, and so again, like I even had to shift a little bit of some of my approach and how I was maybe thinking about um thinking about um providing that service or or or taking that approach, and so and it seems to be working so far.

So yeah.

That's really great.

Um so question really around next steps, right?

I know there are several things on the list that are like budget dollar heavy, right?

And so has the mayor's office or host kind of been responsive to or open to those conversations as we're starting to talk about the 27 budget.

Yeah, so we've had a number of conversations with hosts specifically well, at least start with the cold weather shelter, and we have commitments again that they won't be opening cold weather sheltering at 4040 Quebec for the next um uh winter season.

We'll see.

Uh the second is we've had conversations with hosts about the navigation center, and so they are in the works of putting something similar to that together.

It's not the navigation center that like we talked about and envisioned it's like a navigation center, not even on a like pinto budget, it's really bare bones.

Um but they have been receptive.

Okay, yeah.

We broke.

I guess we'll I guess we'll see what happens.

But that's okay.

And I recognize as I was given the presentation that this probably is a presentation that should be to the administration and his staff and less to council members, but also um I was hoping that Brie was giving this presentation so that she can give it to council members, but you got me.

Good work.

Right, you're doing good.

Okay, doing great, friend.

Um, just in terms of the so the other thing we heard about the Quebec quarter that was really um challenging was the level of upticking crime and petty crime, right?

Petty theft from stores, grocery stores, etc.

Um, so I'm curious whether DPD has any data on that, or sort of whether the changes that the short-term changes that have been implemented already have had an impact on that.

Like where I can take some of that far.

So in the in the most recent meeting as well, in in March, a Lieutenant Hines said that you're correct.

A lot of it's like just shoplifting.

And there's a lot of shoplift, um, the Northfield shopping center in the Quebec Square.

Um, their Walmart was reporting to DPD that the most common shoplifted items were like deodorant, toothpaste, like just consumable, like that you need in order to just basic hygiene items and pet food.

So, what Urban Alchemy DPD and Walmart are now preparing to do.

Like this is very, like very new, as in like the last like few weeks that they're planning on doing this, is Walmart's just going to make a large donation of pet food supplies, hygiene products to the shelter in hopes that the that the shoplifting crime that they were seeing in Walmart will go down.

So we'll see.

Um, but I think that that's that's what that's what Lieutenant Hines was at least saying.

Okay.

Is that the approach that they were going to take, and then they've also kind of entered into a partnership with with Walmart as well.

And they also opened a satellite location in Quebec Square as well.

So DPD did in the last maybe six months or so.

Um yeah, very recent.

And so I'm not sure of the of the way this yeah.

Yeah, but yeah, but most of the crime is shoplifting.

Okay.

Um we're I know we're right at time, so I've just if I could just follow up with one other question, I guess, or comment.

Um I am a little concerned that like the solution to the challenge of shoplifting was to make a donation to the shelter as if we know that the residents of the shelter were the ones participating in the crime.

And like that just it makes me a little concerned because I don't know that we know that.

No, we we and we don't actually.

It was one of the questions that I gave to um Chief Thomas, and he said that there was no correlation between the shoplifting and the existence of the shelters, that there was no way for them to say that that those two were connected.

Okay.

So I don't know how they got there.

But they're there nonetheless.

Okay.

Great.

Yes.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

Um just a real quick comment.

Some of the things and thank you for doing the work and for participating it, um, participating for this um corridor study.

It's interesting because there's a lot of similarities um with the family shelter um that we are seeing as well, and is also coming from community um having safe split safe places um to be outdoors and also indoors, um, having walkable spaces because mostly hotels don't have these, you know, walkable spaces, and then having a you know a good path to be able to get to the park.

Um the I think something that I would like to continue the conversation with you about is a broader conversation as to what is the next step for our sheltering, because um it was also presented like this will be affordable housing someday.

And what is that timeline and how do we start to prepare for that?

Um I think the expectation of maybe not only the people living within the shelter, but also those within the community outside the shelter have an understanding that you know this is gonna be affordable housing at some point.

That's right.

And that's that's a part of the conversations that we were having with hosts to say like how do we think comprehensively about our shelter system from a geographic perspective as well as the cold weather shelter sheltering um shelter as well.

And is there a policy that we might need to start thinking about in terms of like how it we execute on these things because the the plans are lacking in this moment.

Yeah, so we just need to be able to close that loop.

But um if we are good on questions, thank you so much again for your time for the study and we are adjourned.