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Five Points weighed for homeless housing

28 apartments would be built where homes, shops are now

By Berny Morson, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published December 5, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Ron Lee says a proposed homeless housing project would be a welcome service for his neighborhood. "The worst feeling a human being can feel is the sense of being invisible to others," he said.

Photo by Javier Manzano / The Rocky

Ron Lee says a proposed homeless housing project would be a welcome service for his neighborhood. "The worst feeling a human being can feel is the sense of being invisible to others," he said.

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Denver wants to raze a group of aging, dun-colored homes and shops at Downing Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard to make way for 28 apartments for the homeless.

The proposal has the support of some area residents.

But others worry that catering to the homeless will discourage development on nearby properties that could help the Five Points neighborhood.

"Everybody is concerned for the welfare of these (homeless) people," said Linda Dowlen, president of the nearby Whittier Neighborhood Association. But "we want to be supportive in a way that helps them and helps the community."

The apartments would become part of Denver's Road Home - Mayor John Hickenlooper's plan to put homeless people into apartments where they can receive services such as job training and substance-abuse counseling.

The project is being eyed warily by members of the Cole, Curtis Park and Whittier neighborhood associations. They note that their communities already include most of the city's shelters and homeless facilities, which are clustered on Broadway between Curtis Street and Park Avenue.

But at least some community leaders say they would accept the facility for the homeless if it were offered as part of a larger community plan that included middle-class housing and shops.

"I'm against it being concentrated poverty," said City Councilwoman Carla Madison, who represents the area. "If we can't get this to be a larger project, I don't know if I can support it. But if we can get it to be a larger project, then I think the 28 is not a bad (idea)."

The site being eyed for homeless facility 28 is within walking distance of the 30th Avenue and Downing Street light-rail station, Madison said. It is an ideal site for "transit-oriented development," a mixture of housing and shops convenient for people who use the rail line, she said.

City officials have said they favor such development at light-rail stations as a way to boost ridership.

Madison said she would like to see between 75 and 100 dwelling units in the area. The 28 apartments for the homeless would be included, she said.

A major neighborhood-planning project is scheduled for 2009, Dowlen noted. The future of the Downing and Martin Luther King site should reflect the larger plan, she said.

The city has 1,243 apartments for people who previously were homeless. The goal is 3,000 over the next few years.

The city would be unlikely to impose the northeast Denver project on a community that is adamantly opposed, Madison said. Developers would have to reach a "good neighbor" agreement with the community groups, setting forth standards the facility would have to meet.

The 28 new units would be built by the private Matthews Center LLC, named for former University of Colorado football star and businessman Bo Matthews, who lives in Adams County but owns several parcels in northeast Denver.

The Matthews Center already runs programs in the area for troubled people.

Management of the building would be turned over to a property management firm, said Claudie Minor, Matthews' project manager. Denver's Road Home would arrange services for the people who move.

Integrating the 28 units into a larger development scheme could delay the project, which is scheduled to open in 2010, said Pat Coyle, Denver's Road Home housing coordinator. That could jeopardize state funding for the project, Coyle said.

Former addict turns focus on others

Ron Lee, 53, has lived in the Whittier neighborhood since 1993. He is a substance abuse counselor but is between jobs. At a recent community meeting, he shared the following with Rocky Mountain News.

"I have a very diverse background, one that endears me to the plight of the homeless, the plight of the addict, the plight of the lawbreaker - I've been all of that at one point in my life.

"Today, I'm a respected father, husband, aspiring substance abuse counselor, motivational speaker.

"I've been in recovery for seven years. (But) my addiction went unchecked for almost 30 years.

"I come from a very abusive background. My mother made some bad choices as far as husbands. One thing led to another. I was kind of a child observing all this and suffering the consequences, mentally and otherwise.

"I had a breakdown around the age of 14, and Zebulon Pike Detention Center (in El Paso County) got me. . . . I was literally a loner, I had nobody. I just had very severe emotional problems from what I had been through. I asked to be sent to the Colorado Boys Ranch. . . . I went from there to the Air Force.

"When you're coming out of prison, when they say, 'We'll see you again' - and that's what the guards tell you when you pick up your little outfit and you're headed out the gate - you think they're crazy. But more often than we like to see, people do end up right back there because they're not equipped emotionally to deal with life.

"I'm not making excuses for what I did or for what others do. I'm just saying the reasons are much more complicated than the casual person sitting on the couch with his clicker wants to get involved with."

What residents say about plan

Residents near a proposed 28-unit apartment for the homeless at Downing Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard packed a community meeting last month. About half sympathized with the homeless; about half wanted them gone.

"We do go out on cleanup days and clean up the alleys. The homeless? They defecate in the alleys. . . . I have them sitting in back of my garage sometimes drinking whiskey or whatever."

Shane Evans, metal sculptor, resident for four years

"So many times we look at the face of homelessness, and we see people just laying around and dirty, and the sight of them isn't very pleasing. But they don't want to live on the street. They're not trying not to pay their bills. It's just because they need a hand up."

Tatia Dokes, assistant director for program that helps former prisoners, resident since 1989

"That whole area is people who have been around a lot of homelessness, and I think because of that proximity are sort of sympathetic to their plight. They understand it's not a horrible thing. It's just . . . sometimes a twist of fate."

Carla Madison, city councilwoman

"(My grandchildren) were here all summer, and they weren't able to utilize the backyard unless one of us (adults) was here. I wasn't comfortable with them being out there because I knew those people were in my backyard."

Martha Rachel, five-year resident, who worries sex offenders will live at the homeless facility. Sex offenders are among clients of other social programs in the neighborhood.

Comments

  • December 5, 2008

    8:31 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    rkymntpdlr writes:

    If you're trying to clean up an area (such as Five Points) and bring in new busineses and families, then you do NOT bring in homeless people, period. Its a sure way to NOT have new busineses and families want to locate in that area.

    Lets face it, most of the homeless people can't hold a job ( they don't want to), most do drugs or are alcoholics, and are basically non-responsible citizens, that DO NOT respect other people's property. The solution is not to give them apartments but rather, begin a program that requires them to work and clean up thier act if they are to receive any type of assistance. By that, I mean, they have to pay for it by working.

    This country used to have poor farms to help people like the homeless, but those are now gone because it's not politically correct to do so. In my opinion, you (the state or city) are NOT going to change the attitude and behavior of most homeless people, so give it up. I for one, do not want tax payer's money spent giving homeless people apartments, cut my taxes first. All other people have to work to pay for their food and shelter, and so should the homeless.

    Just because Five Points is in a depressed area (which is rapidly changing for the better) it doesn't give the city the right to dump the homeless there. Try putting them in the Sloan's Lake area and see what kind of response you receive from the citizens that live there. You can bet they will put up a fight to keep them out. So will we.

  • December 5, 2008

    9:11 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    wow writes:

    I think the homless in Colorado are about due for the types of action that our Mayor has initiated. The vitrol directed at this population, this most vulnerable group of Coloradoans, is unwarranted. Promoting understanding and dispelling ignorance is difficult, but for any one who cares there is a ton of information out there about homelessness, compiled by people who have taken it upon themselves to be a part of the solution.
    http://mdhi.org/homeless_info.html
    Among the information you can find on just this one web site, are a couple of points that I feel should post to dispell some of the previous poster's misconceptions.

    Fact: Many homeless people are among the working poor, and a relatively small percentage of them receive government assistance. A nationwide study in 1987 found that only 20% of 1,704 homeless people received public assistance. A study done in Chicago found that 39% of the homeless people interviewed had worked for some time during the previous month.

    Fact: The homeless population is quite diverse relative to their length of homelessness and the number of times they cycle in and out of homelessness. Research indicates that 40% of homeless people have been homeless less than six months, and that 70% of homeless people have been homeless less than two years.

    Fact: Families constitute a large and growing percentage of the homeless population. A recent study found that families comprise 38% of the urban homeless population. Other research has found that homeless families comprise the majority of homeless people in rural areas.

    More than a half million jobs were lost last month. Any of those people could become homeless. They don't have to be addicts, criminals, lazy, or mentally damaged. It's enough that they are unemployed. It could be you, or me.
    So if you must judge, try to at least get the facts and be fair.

  • December 5, 2008

    9:28 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Rio5 writes:

    It is a very bad idea to put low income or "homeless people" a s into such type of housing. One these places usually are not build well and if they have the aura of poverty and are with out parking then they become a way station rather than a choice. Housing codes need to address all the concerns. Jobs are much harder to obtain and Denver's street parking regulations just make it worse. Those jobs that are on bus lines and are served at times of job start and finish help if a person has off street parking. Yes it makes it more expensive but it becomes more livable and the car can stay for those errands where it becomes handy. It also means wiring for cable. Housing that is for everybody.Helps neighborhoods as the percentage of poor is relatively small.
    Yes some need halfway houses before they are ready and other just need housing that they can afford. The state does need to get involved in better planning to insure high density office and job sites as to aid in reducing commute traffic and increasing the oppurtunity to obtain "starter" jobs. Intervention before it gets to being homeless for landlord and mortagage companies to be required to inform authorities before and eviction as well as fairer laws and ability to break leases when dire circumstances arise: which would save the land lord the court and lawyer costs as well as allowing transfer to a better living arraingement. Federal tax laws could help in a big way by allowing tax deductions and credits for landlords who would allow those unable to pay full or any rent to stay in the apt but get 120% deduction or credit for doing so. The reason is to hurry the rehabilitation by elimination of one of the most stressful barriers as a person so affected could afford to take part time or low pay jobs while being retrained for today's workplace. The aim is to restore the person to profitability in their labor. Not to pigeon hole them and forget. Long term we do not need a underclass that has given up!!