Denver, CO
City of Denver, mayor announce opening of newest tiny home village despite ongoing neighborhood objections
DENVER — The City of Denver will open its newest and largest micro-community on Tuesday, with the capacity to house nearly 60 individuals who are facing homelessness.
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston announced the opening at a media walk-through on Monday.
The site, which sits just off Santa Fe Boulevard and Evans Avenue, is called La Paz, and is completely fenced off and enclosed.
Despite that, there are still very vocal neighborhood objections to the site.
Denver mayor announces opening of new tiny home village, neighbors still object
“The zoning meeting was a fiasco,” said neighbor Douglas Danger. “The way they handled it was terrible. They treated the neighbors like we were third-class citizens. You’ve dumped this in our neighborhood — what are you going to do for the neighbors for taking this on?”
In his more than three decades living in the Overland neighborhood, Danger has witnessed a lot of change. But the city’s new micro-community is a change he and his neighbors have struggled to accept.
“There is no real plan for safety, and the city does not listen,” he said.
The mayor and his team are undeterred by those neighborhood objections, ready to open up Tuesday.
“If you’re looking at the beautiful tiny homes you see all around you, those were designed through our partnership with Oakwood Homes,” Mayor Johnston said at the site on Monday. “A huge thank you to Oakwood Homes, who’s been our local partner and provider.”
The 60 tiny homes were built in Colorado, all part of the mayor’s House1000 initiative now called All In Mile High.
All of the tiny homes are outfitted with a bed, a floor heater and a desk. The village also has two community rooms on-site.
“They feature showers, bathrooms, kitchen, laundry,” said Jose Salas, spokesperson for the city of Denver.
The village is low barrier, which means there are no requirements — including drug tests — needed to move in. This is consistent with Johnston’s housing first initiative.
“That means we do not screen up front to say, ‘Have you already gone through a drug rehab program? Have you already gone through a workforce training program? Have you already completed mental health services?’” Johnston said. “What we know is that it’s very hard to receive those services if you’re living in a tent every night and not sure if you’re going to freeze to death or get attacked in the middle of the night.”
“We have a no-drugs-and-alcohol policy,” said Dede de Percin, CEO of the Colorado Village Collaborative. “But we’re also not one strike you’re out.”
The Colorado Village Collaborative will operate the site, which features multiple security cameras and 24-hour staffing.
“We will do intakes tomorrow when people arrive here and start connecting people with services right away,” de Percin said. “We also will have on-site peer counselors, case managers, resource navigators — I mean all those services will be here from the get-go. We find that every neighborhood we go into — it starts a little stressful and then it chills out.”
Danger isn’t so convinced, especially after recently visiting the encampment at W. Colfax Avenue and Umatilla Street that will be shut down by the city on Tuesday and relocated to the new tiny home village.
“This is what you’re going to dump in my neighborhood?” Danger said. “I’m a sprinkler guy now by trade, and I’m not afraid of nothing. I go into crawl spaces full of spiders and snakes. I went to that site, and I’ve never been more fearful in my life of anything. I openly saw three people shooting up. I watched a guy defecate right in the middle of the road.”
The micro-community will start out with 60 tiny homes with the ability to double in size depending on how things go.
In terms of the costs, Johnston and his team estimate each tiny home costs the city about $25,000 per unit. That does not include infrastructure improvements to the site like Xcel Energy service and concrete pads. But it’s much less than the estimated $100,000 it costs the city per hotel room they are opening up to the homeless.
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Denver, CO
Suspects sought in Denver shooting that killed teen, wounded 3 others
Denver police are searching for suspects in a Saturday night parking lot shooting that killed a 16-year-old and wounded three men, at least one of whom is not expected to survive, according to the agency.
Officers responded to the shooting in the 10100 block of East Hampden Avenue about 10:30 p.m. Saturday, near where East Hampden intersects South Galena Street, according to an alert from the Denver Police Department.
Police said a group of people had gathered in a parking lot on the edge of the city’s Kennedy neighborhood to celebrate the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro when the shooting happened.
Paramedics took one victim to a hospital, and two others were taken to the hospital in private vehicles, police said. A fourth victim, identified by police as 16-year-old William Rodriguez Salas, was dropped off near Iliff Avenue and South Havana Street, where he died from his wounds.
At least one of the three victims taken to hospitals — a 26-year-old man, a 29-year-old man and a 33-year-old man — is not expected to survive, police said Tuesday. One man was in critical condition Sunday night, one was in serious condition and one was treated for a graze wound and released.
No suspects had been identified publicly or arrested as of Tuesday afternoon.
Anyone with information on the shooting is asked to contact Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867. Tipsters can remain anonymous and may be eligible for a cash reward.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
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Denver, CO
Denver’s flavored vape ban sends customers across city lines
The new year in Colorado brought new restrictions for people who vape in Denver. As of January 1, a voter-approved ban on flavored nicotine products is now in effect in Denver, prohibiting the sale of flavored e-cigarettes and vaping products within city limits.
Just outside the Denver border, vape shops say they’re already feeling the ripple effects.
At Tokerz Head Shop in Aurora, located about a block and a half from the Denver city line, owner Gordon McMillon says customers are beginning to trickle in from Denver.
“I was in shock it passed, to be honest,” McMillon said. “Just because of how many people vape in Denver. But we’re hoping to take care of everybody that doesn’t get their needs met over there anymore.”
One of those customers is Justin Morrison, who lives in the Denver area and vapes daily. He stopped by the Aurora shop a day after the ban went into place.
Morrison says the ban won’t stop him from vaping. It will just change where he buys his products.
“I’m going to have to come all the way to Aurora to get them,” he said. “It’s pretty inconvenient. I smoke flavored vapes every day.”
The goal of the ban, according to public health advocates, is to reduce youth vaping.
Morrison said flavored vapes helped him quit smoking cigarettes, an argument frequently raised by adult users and vape retailers who oppose flavor bans.
“It helped tremendously,” he said. “I stopped liking the flavor of cigarettes. The taste was nasty, the smell was nasty. I switched all the way over to vapes, and it helped me stop smoking cigarettes completely.”
McMillon worries bans like Denver’s could push some former smokers back to cigarettes.
“If they can’t get their vapes, some will go back to cigarettes, for sure,” he said. “I’ve asked people myself, and it’s about 50-50.”
While McMillon acknowledges it will bring more business to shops outside Denver, he says the ban wasn’t something he wanted.
“Even if it helps me over here in Aurora, I’m against it,” he said. “I feel like adults should have the rights if they want to vape or not.”
More than 500 retailers in Denver removed their flavored products. For many, they accounted for the majority of their sales. Denver’s Department of Public Health and Environment says it will begin issuing fines and suspensions to retailers found selling flavored tobacco products.
Both McMillan and Morrison say they’re concerned the ban could spread to other cities. For now, Aurora vape shops remain legal alternatives for Denver customers.
Despite the added drive, Morrison says quitting isn’t on the table.
“It’s an addiction. You’re going to find a way to get it. That’s why I don’t see the point of banning it here,” Morrison said.
Denver, CO
Planning to begin in Denver for American Indian Cultural Embassy
Denver will be the site of the United States’ first-ever American Indian Cultural Embassy.
Funding for the project was approved by Denver voters in the Vibrant Denver Bond measure.
The vision is for the embassy to welcome Native people back home to Colorado.
On the snowy day of CBS News Colorado’s visit, Rick Williams observed the buffalo herd at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge.
“These animals are sacred to us,” said Williams, who is Oglala Lakota and Cheyenne. “This was our economy. They provided everything we needed to live a wonderful lifestyle.”
Williams is president of People of the Sacred Land and a leader in the effort to build an American Indian Cultural Embassy.
“‘Homeland’ is a special term for everybody, right?” Williams asked. “But for people who were alienated, for American Indians who were alienated from Colorado, they don’t have a home, they don’t have a home community that you can go to, this is it. And I think that’s sad.”
The First Creek Open Space — near 56th and Peña, near the southeast corner of the Arsenal — is owned by the City and County of Denver and is being considered for development of the embassy.
“To have a space that’s an embassy that would be government-to-government relations on neutral space,” said Denver City Councilmember Stacie Gilmore, who represents northeast Denver District 11. “But then also supporting the community’s economic development and their cultural preservation.”
Gilmore said $20 million from the Vibrant Denver Bond will support the design and construction of the center to support Indigenous trade, arts, and education.
“That sense of connection and that sense of place and having a site is so important if you’re going to welcome people back home,” added Gilmore.
“What a great treasure for people in Colorado,” Williams said as he read the interpretive sign at the wildlife refuge.
He said the proposed location makes perfect sense: “Near the metropolitan area, but not necessarily in the metropolitan area, we would love to be near buffalo. We would love to be in an area where there’s opportunities for access to the airport.”
The Denver March Powwow could one day be held at the embassy.
Williams dreams of expanding the buffalo herd nearby and having the embassy teach future generations Indigenous skills and culture.
The concept for the embassy is one of the recommendations emerging from the Truth, Restoration, and Education Commission, a group of American Indian leaders in Colorado who began to organize four years ago to study the history of Native Americans in our state.
And the work is just beginning.
“We have to think about, ‘how do we maintain sustainability and perpetuity of a facility like this?’” Williams said. “So there’s lots of issues that are going to be worked on over the next year or so.”
Williams added, “One day our dreams are going to come true, and those tribes are going to come, and we’re going to have a big celebration out here. We’re going to have a drum, and we’re going to sing honor songs, and we’re going to have just the best time ever welcoming these people back to their homeland.”
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston’s staff sent the following statement:
“We are excited about the passing of the Vibrant Denver Bond and the opportunity it creates to invest in our city’s first American Indian Cultural Embassy. We are committed to working hand-in-hand with the Indigenous community to plan and develop the future embassy, and city staff have already been invited to listen and engage with some of our local American Indian groups, like the People of the Sacred Land. We are not yet at the stage of formal plans, but we are excited to see the momentum of this project continue.”
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