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 (KDVR) — With the mild winter and warm start to spring, beekeepers are seeing swarms earlier in the year and expect the season to be longer than usual.
Gregg McMahan is a dispatcher for the Colorado Swarm Hotline. It’s usually his job to send a beekeeper to collect a swarm when someone calls, but on Sunday afternoon, he decided to handle one himself.
“Nice little swarm,” McMahan said. “It’s tricky, though, because it’s hanging on a fence.”
A warm winter and spring mean swarm season has begun four weeks early.
“Never seen it like this ever,” McMahan said.
This call is to a house on Denver’s east side. When McMahan arrived, he saw a swarm had taken up residence on the fence.
“Absolutely typical, it is on the small side,” McMahan said.
He got to work, first luring them into a box when he spotted a good sign.
“See all these girls, they got their butts up, they’re fanning their wings. That’s telling us the queens in here,” McMahan said.
With the queen in hand, the rest began to follow her into the box.
McMahan said two years ago, he had 400 calls like this. Last year, only 100, the Swarm Hotline was as unpredictable as the weather, which has caused bee activity earlier in the year than ever.
“It makes it hard on the bees, you know? Two days ago, I’m collecting swarms in the snow,” McMahan said.
Rescuing them is integral to Colorado’s ecosystem. McMahan hopes people give a beekeeper a call instead of spraying them or harming them in any other way.
“They do a phenomenal amount of pollination within this state. Not only our native flowers but all the other flowers that people bring in,” McMahan said.
Slowly but surely, the swarm left the fence and moved into the box. McMahan loaded them into his truck to deliver them to their new home.
“Westminster to the Stanley Lake Wildlife Refuge, so these girls will have lakefront property tonight,” he said.
As he wrapped up, McMahan’s phone was buzzing more than the bees. Just another call to start a swarm season, he thinks, could be a long one.
“This year I’m already 20 swarms deep, so I’m expecting way more than 100 this year,” McMahan said.
To have a bee swarm removed for free from your property anywhere statewide, the Swarm Hotline number is 1-844-SPY-BEES.
For the first time in the team’s history, Altitude Sports is broadcasting Denver Nuggets home games in Spanish. Kroenke Sports and Entertainment announced it has contracted a team to broadcast its games in Spanish for the playoffs.
“I think that is what the public wanted,” said Ivan De La Garza, producer for the broadcast team.
A team of three people, two commentators and a producer, sit in a press box at the top of Ball Arena. Their commentary is then synced with the traditional Altitude broadcast video and shared on the Altitude Plus application.
“With the Nuggets winning in the last five years, there is a tremendous amount of following from Latino people trying to listen to and watch the games in Spanish,” said Andres Casas, color commentator for the broadcast.
Casas said he strives to bring the same energy fans get during soccer broadcasts into the basketball broadcasts.
“That excitement that gets you. We want people to feel they are at the game,” Casas said.
“It has been so amazing to be a part of the Spanish broadcast for the Nuggets. I have been a fan of the Nuggets for my whole life,” said Jena Garcia, play-by-play commentator.
Garcia said it has been a dream come true to help bring this broadcast to her community.
“I’ve always desired to hear a Spanish broadcast, just as a fan. To be a part of it is just incredible,” Garcia said.
Those working in the broadcast said they are honored to help expand the reach of the Nuggets and sports in accessing diverse communities.
“We love sports. We are passionate, we are loud. We like to get together and enjoy sports,” De La Garza said.
“The Nuggets have a huge following, especially on the Spanish side. So, it is great for them to be able to listen to what is going on, game by game, especially into the playoffs,” Casas said.
“It is just another step of access that they are getting to be a fan of basketball,” Garcia said.
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