Families facing homelessness often face a lack of stability in their living arrangements. Providing them with a dedicated shelter where they can stay together offers a degree of stability and consistency, which is essential for children's educational, social and emotional development. This family shelter will be a safe, healing community where they can access the support they need to get back on their feet and more toward stable housing.
12/16/23 - The Tamarac - Embassy Suites Family Shelter Recording
Hampden (The Tamarac) Family Shelter FAQ's
Who is the Service Provider?
The Salvation Army, one of the largest and most experienced service providers in Denver, will be operating this site and will have staff in person on site 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
Does property value go down with a hotel being used to shelter the homeless community?
No. We have not seen any data that supports this concern.
Is there enough staff and service providers to staff these hotels?
The City and County of Denver sourced service providers through a Request for Proposals (RFP). Service providers that have applied and been selected through this process have indicated they have or can hire staff to support this work.
How does Denver define a family?
The City and County of Denver does not discriminate on what defines a family.
In a family shelter setting, a family must include at least one adult and one child (under the age of 18).
How does Denver define gender non-conforming?
This site will serve families based upon the definitions shared above.
The community at Hampden will not be an explicit LGBTQ+ community but will focus on families as defined above.
Are there enough homeless families to fill this hotel?
Yes, Denver currently has more than 100 families on the waitlist for family shelter. This site will allow us to serve dozens more families than we currently have the capacity to serve.
Who owns the hotel?
Pending City Council approval, the City of Denver is in the process of purchasing the hotel.
Who is financially responsible for damage to the hotel?
The City and County of Denver is responsible for damage and repairs to the facility.
Who will be operating the “shelter”?
What “strings attached” come with free room and board?
Non-compulsory services like case management, mental/behavioral health, and job training are available to members of the community
In addition, this is a family shelter so all guests must be a member of the family units describe above
What level of oversight and transparency to the occupants will there be?
Guests must abide by the rules of the community, set out by the service provider, whose aim is to maintain safety of their guests and the surrounding community
Each site will also have 24-7 staff and security to ensure safety for community members and residents.
What is the length of the “lease” for the families and what quantifiable results will be measured to reevaluate their occupancy and at what intervals?
Guests are asked to participate in case management to find a long- term, housing option
The aim of the shelter is to stabilize and support families in need and then get them into a long term option
Department of Housing Stability (HOST) receives quarterly updates from providers on inflow/outflow among other data points
Who will be held directly liable for the inevitable property crime increase?
Police data shows that these sites do not lead to an increase in crime in their neighborhoods and in fact these sites report fewer police calls per year than encampments.
What is the level of staffing security at this site?
Each site will also have 24-7 security to provide for the safety of community members and residents.
Case Management support, physical and behavioral health care support on site
Support from Denver Police Department and Department of Safety
The site is very near the open space in which the Highline canal runs through. There is persistent drug use in this open space. Is it possible to also get additional police presence in that area to address that?
Sheltering and housing options reduce the need for police to respond to encampments due to safety concerns.
With increasing staff, which provides additional capacity, police will have a strong ability to patrol and enforce the law in the City and County of Denver.
Why was this not included in the original list of potential sites as a homeless shelter? When did it become a viable alternative site?
This property became available and viable after the initial list of sites was released.
In addition, as a real estate deal, the property owner asked to not be listed until a Purchase and Sale Agreement is signed
The original parcels/properties listed were either public spaces or CCD had received approval from the property owners to list those sites.
Is this process different than the previous hotel or micro-community location conversations? This process is not different from other locations.
Mayor Johnston hosted over 50 town halls across the city, in every council district providing an overview of his plan.
As sites have been determined viable and moved forward, there have been both required community information meetings and optional town halls to inform the community about the operations of the site and answer questions.
There were some sites that we explored moving forward by hosting an optional town hall but did not host a formal community information meeting. Due to the lack of viability on a few of those sites, the city decided not to move forward with them and continues to evaluate additional sites.
Community is asked to continue engaging in the process through the Good Neighbor Agreements that will be outlined in more detail during the upcoming town halls and community information meetings.
How many rooms are being converted? Is it short term or long-term housing? How does the size compare to what other districts are doing?
The hotel has approximately 205 rooms, most of which will be converted to housing.
The initial use is for a shelter site, the contemplated long-term use is for permanent housing.
The goal of guests in this community will be to transition them to long-term, permanent housing.
The goal of House1000 is to distribute these communities across the city so we all take part in supporting our unhoused neighbors. A good number of these initial sites are in D8. This is the first shelter that will open in D4.
Are there some examples of similar sized and formatted shelters with similar proximity to similarly high value residential real estate that we can use as case studies? What’s been the experience?
We have not seen evidence of these communities decreasing home/property values.
Is this different than the hotel conversion on Quebec?
The difference here is population.
Those communities are individuals or couples experiencing homelessness
This community is focused on families with children who are seeking stability and safety.
Embassy-Suites-CIM-Presentation.-Final-2.pdf(PDF, 749KB)
7525 E. Hampden Avenue, Denver 80231 View Map
7525 E. Hampden Avenue , Denver 80231