A dorm-style house for 50 people who were living on the streets opens this week in Englewood, part of a “ready-to-work” program that provides not only housing but gives residents jobs in landscaping and therapy to stay sober.
On West Colfax Avenue in Denver, another nonprofit on Monday will open the 60-room “Theodora Family Hotel,” built with “trauma-informed” architecture for homeless families with children.
And on the southwestern side of the city, residents of the new Warren Village at Alameda are using first-ever city-funded housing vouchers to pay rent at a new apartment complex for single-parent families who have been homeless.
Combined, the three projects have enough beds to rescue more than 500 people from homelessness, only a dent in the problem but a signal that some of the COVID-era investments in solutions are becoming real.
“There is a renewed sense of energy to really try to help and make an impact,” said Faustine Curry, vice president of VOA Colorado, which is opening the Theodora Hotel to its first residents Monday. “It feels like there is some energy and some positivity.”
The annual homeless population count, which occurs nationwide in January, found that the number of people living in shelters, transitional housing, tents and on the streets in the seven-county Denver metro area rose 10% to 9,977 people. Colorado saw one of the biggest increases in the nation in the number of families who were homeless in 2024 — a 134% jump from the previous year, according to a federal report.
“Work first” housing
For about two decades, the buzz words in the homelessness outreach world were “Housing First,” meaning that people first need a roof over their heads before they can focus on sobriety or mental health struggles. At Bridge House, they use a newer term: “Work First.”
The nonprofit is opening its third “ready-to-work” housing project in the Denver metro area this week, a 50-bed dorm-style house in Englewood. Bridge House, which began its work 12 years ago, has a house in Boulder where residents work in a commercial kitchen and another house in Aurora.
Residents are paid for working about 20-30 hours per week, either in the kitchen or on landscaping crews hired by cities. They receive housing, three meals a day and help from a case manager. They live at Bridge House for about a year, then move out when they’re ready for their own jobs and housing. So far, about 500 people have graduated from the Bridge House program.
“When they have been in a traumatic situation, such as homelessness, it takes them awhile to get back on their feet,” said Scott Medina, Bridge House director of community relations. “This is all about getting folks off the street and permanently out of the cycle of homelessness.”
Residents, also called interns or trainees, are required to get sober and stay sober after they are housed, though they are not necessarily kicked out for slipping up. If they fail a drug test, counselors step in with increased treatment and attention. “It’s not one and done,” Medina said. “That’s where we really build trust with people. They see that if they messed up, we still have their back. We want them to succeed at the long game here.”
About 40% of Bridge House’s $6 million annual budget is covered by the program’s culinary and landscape enterprises, and the rest from grants and donations.
The new location in Englewood also holds the Tri-Cities’ Navigation Center, a joint project of Englewood, Littleton and Sheridan. The center has a day services program and 20 short-term beds for people who need somewhere to sleep while they are attempting to move back in with family or waiting on housing lists. People can sleep on a cot at the center for up to three weeks.
The navigation center, which is not a typical homeless shelter where people can drop in if they need a bed for the night, is part of the three cities’ joint plan to deal with increased homelessness in the south suburbs.
Their own porch lights, door mats
At the Theodora Family Hotel, each family has their own doormat and a porch light on their balcony overlooking an open-air courtyard.
“It’s the small things that make someone feel comfortable when their world is upheaval and constantly changing,” said Curry with VOA Colorado, which built the five-story, 60-room hotel for families with children. The mat outside each door is a reminder to residents that they “can start thinking about what it will feel like when they transition to their own home.”
The hotel has a playground, and each room has bunk beds for kids and a full-size bed for adults, plus a kitchenette and a small dining room. Every room’s front door is visible from the courtyard, part of the hotel’s “trauma-informed” design that helps people who have lived outside or in shelters feel comfortable in the space.
Families can stay up to 90 days as staff from Volunteers of America help them with career guidance, parenting and permanent housing. The hotel is named after the daughter of the English immigrants who came to the United States 129 years ago and started the VOA, an offshoot of the Salvation Army.
The property was an old Motor Lodge, which the VOA used as a 30-room family shelter until temporarily relocating to a different old motel on Colfax Avenue. The old Motor Lodge was torn down to make way for a hotel twice the size. Families at the temporary hotel location will be the first to move into the Theodora next week.
The VOA manages 27 affordable housing properties across Colorado in addition to a handful of temporary shelters like the new hotel. It also contracts with the city of Denver to run a “connection center,” where people in need of housing can sign up for help.
The Theodora began as a request from city officials for the VOA to expand housing for families and veterans. Five of the 60 rooms are for veteran families, Curry said.
About 75% of families in VOA hotels end up moving into their own housing within about three months. The $28 million project was funded with a mix of private and public money, including from the city of Denver and the state.
Denver projects to prevent, end street homelessness
The Warren Village at Alameda, the latest complex from the nonprofit that focuses on “two-generation” housing, is for single parents and their children. The complex, which recently celebrated its grand opening, has 89 apartments, mostly filled with mothers and their children.
The project is the first in Denver to receive city-funded housing vouchers, according to city officials. The city is providing 29 vouchers over 20 years, funded with $22.7 million from Denver’s homelessness resolution fund, which is a combination of donations and city and federal tax dollars. Residents pay no more than 30% of their income in rent. Other residents are receiving vouchers through the Denver Housing Authority, funded in part by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Warren Village has three other apartment complexes centered around families, including First Step in northwestern Denver, which is for single mothers ages 18-24. The nonprofit works to break the generational cycle of homelessness by including child care and pre-school programs on site, along with work force training and mental health services for parents.
“It’s transformative,” said Ethan Hemming, president and CEO of Warren Village. “It’s a safe place to rebuild their lives and create a different future than they had.”
The city of Denver is also working on plans this week for a $9.8 million affordable housing project in the Globeville-Elyria-Swansea neighborhood on the north end of the city. The plan is to build 170 units, ranging from one to four bedrooms. The proposed development on Washington Street includes plans for a cafe and a new branch of the Denver Public Library.
The projects are part of the city’s goal to “end street homelessness.” More than 6,700 people who were homeless have moved into city-funded shelter programs in the past two years, according to Mayor Mike Johnston’s new online progress tracker. An additional 5,300 people moved into housing through city-funded programs, according to the city’s count.