Denver, CO
Denver's temporary 24/7 cold weather shelter served hundreds experiencing homelessness
DENVER — Hundreds of people experiencing homelessness stayed in Denver’s temporary 24/7 cold weather shelter located at the Denver Coliseum from February 9 until the shelter closed on February 17.
The shelter permitted guests to stay inside 24 hours a day.
“A lot of times, cold weather shelters end up telling people that they have to leave early in the morning, when it’s still freezing,” V Reeves, Housekeys Action Network Denver (HAND) organizer said. “It was incredibly successful while it existed. It’s a shame that it was as short as it was. It allowed for couples specifically to shelter together, which was a novel thing.”
Denver City Councilwoman Sarah Parady helped implement the pilot shelter.
“There were about 430 people, different people that took advantage of it during the eight days and nights that it was open and about over 200 people per night,” Parady said.
Parady said city leaders are still collecting data and conducting cost analysts for the shelter.
“So, I think part of what we were looking to find out was, ‘will people use shelter when it’s cold but warmer than 20?’ Clearly, the answer to that is yes,” she said. “But also, is it meaningful to people to be able to be in the same space throughout the period of a cold snap, instead of having to pack up and leave early in the morning? And I think, again, the fact that that many people were able to access the space, and with a couple 100 people every single night that it was activated, that appears to be, ‘yes,’”
Parady said city leaders are exploring options for creating a permanent 24/7 cold weather shelter.
“I think everyone is absolutely hoping that we can make features of this permanent for next year,” Parady said. “There are factors to do with leaving the same space available as much as possible, which can be really hard with city buildings, because if they’re not dedicated shelters, they often have other uses.“
Reeves and other HAND organizers helped people experiencing homelessness find other options when the 24/7 cold weather shelter closed. Reeves said they appreciated Parady and other city council members’ willingness to explore shelter options.
“Parady has been a huge voice for the people on this front. She’s definitely been advocating for these ‘under 32 degrees’ protections,” Reeves said. “We really need to hold the mayor accountable to what he said, in terms of being able to make up for cutting down programs, which would have opened warming centers regularly when temperatures were under 32 degrees.”
Reeves said HAND plans to advocate for the mayor to implement programs like the 24/7 cold weather shelter.
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Denver, CO
Pedestrian fatally hit by Frontier airplane departing Denver for Los Angeles, flight canceled after
Posted:
Updated:
DENVER (AP) — A Frontier Airlines plane hit a pedestrian on the runway of the Denver International Airport during takeoff, airport authorities said, sparking an engine fire and forcing passengers to evacuate.
The plane, on route from Denver to Los Angeles International Airport, “reported striking a pedestrian during takeoff at DEN at approximately 11:19 p.m. on Friday,” the airport’s official X account wrote.
Neither the airport nor the airline has disclosed the pedestrian’s condition.
“We’re stopping on the runway,” the pilot tells the control tower according to the site ATC.com. “We just hit somebody. We have an engine fire.”
The pilot tells the air traffic controller they have “231 souls” on board and that and “individual was walking across the runway.”
The air traffic controller responds that they are “rolling the trucks now” before the pilot tells the tower they “have smoke in the aircraft. We are going to evacuate on the runway.”
Frontier Airlines said in a statement flight 4345 was the one involved in the collision and that “smoke was reported in the cabin and the pilots aborted takeoff.” It was not clear whether the smoke was linked to the crash with the pedestrian.
“The Airbus A321 was carrying 224 passengers and seven crew members,” the airline said. “We are investigating this incident and gathering more information in coordination with the airport and other safety authorities.”
Passengers were then evacuated via slides and the emergency crew bused them to the terminal.
Denver Airport said the National Transportation Safety Board had been notified and that runway 17L, where the incident took place, will remain closed while an investigation is conducted.
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