Stay Away! continued from page 12 during her stay in the motel, advocating for those who were experiencing homelessness. And one day, after receiving an Amber Alert on her phone, she saw a car in the park- ing lot that matched the description of the vehicle cited. She notifi ed authorities, and police came to rescue the kids who had been kidnapped. Although Sanders had trouble helping herself, she liked to help others. But then in April, day 29 hit, and she had to leave. “I feel like it’s an attack on somebody that doesn’t make a lot of money,” said Sanders at the time; she’d only just learned of the Greenwood Village ordinance that limited stays to 29 days. “I can’t help it that my dis- ability is only $1,000 a month. I like to live in a city that’s safe as well as they do. I feel like I’m being attacked for it.” Sanders emailed John Jackson — the city manager of Greenwood Village, who’d previously served as its police chief — to ask for “short-term as well as long-term housing THE INN CROWD In May 2021, Mayor Michael Hancock, Con- gresswoman Diana DeGette and other gov- ernment offi cials gathered outside the Stay Inn at 12033 East 38th Avenue to share a big announcement: The City of Denver would be buying the motel and transform- ing it into a shelter for people experiencing homelessness. “This building here behind us represents hope, the transformation that can take place on this property and the transformation that is possible for the people who will call it home. That transformation is foundational to the future of our city and is a pillar for our economic recovery and sustainability going forward,” Hancock said. For decades, the City of Denver has worked with homeless service providers that have purchased motels and converted them to supportive housing. At the start of the pandemic, the city and service providers contracted with private motels to provide shelter for people experiencing homeless- ness who could become seriously ill or die if they contracted COVID. But this move toward actually purchasing a motel itself for homelessness relief was a fi rst for the city. “Over the past sixteen years, we have not purchased any motels for housing/shelter. I’m fairly certain that historically, no such purchase has been made, but I’m having trouble confi rming,” says Derek Woodbury, a spokesperson for the Department of Hous- ing Stability. A key element of making the fi nances work for the purchase — which Denver originally predicted would run $7.8 mil- lion — was getting money from the federal government. The city planned on using a big chunk of COVID emergency relief money for the project, but also worked with DeGette to secure an additional $2 million through an annual congressional spending bill. Those plans went awry, however. While 14 the U.S. House of Representatives approved the $2 million last year, the package stalled options in Greenwood Village.” Jackson responded that he’d be glad to help connect Sanders to other motels in the area and that she could simply “rent these rooms nightly, for 29 days, and then move over to a different location.” He added that housing wasn’t cheap in Greenwood Village, and even he didn’t live in the town. “The good news is that there are safe communities all around Greenwood Village that offer much more affordable long-term and 29 days later you have to upend your life and drag all of your stuff out, you don’t have a car, and you’ve got to move somewhere else when you don’t want to...you’ve got a whole new load of stress.” Jackson responded that he was sorry Sanders had sent a “negative attack” when he felt he “could have provided you some help and/or guidance. ... I wish you well, please stay safe and healthy.” At the time, Jackson offered this explana- “We kind of all have to hang out and hope that they don’t die before they change their mind and are willing to accept help.” housing options,” Jackson wrote. Sanders sent an angry reply: “When you fi nd a place that welcomes you no matter who you are, that doesn’t demand that you have a credit card, put up a deposit, and pay more than you can afford to pay (as only the Greenwood Village Motel 6 does), where you start to feel safe, comfortable, and relaxed, in the Senate, kicking any decision on the funding into 2022. DeGette was fi nally able to secure the $2 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and on November 2, Denver City Council’s Safety, Housing, Educa- tion and Homelessness Committee approved accepting the HUD grant, sending the plan to the full council for a fi nal vote later this month. tion to Westword: “We’re of the belief and our ordinance exists because that’s a safety and public-health issue. If a hotel is not fi tted for an extended stay, it’s not conducive to long- term living; we can argue with that all day. But I think we have absolutely prevented some serious issues with what we’ve done.” According to Naus, who connected with ing; the plan initially called for turning the building into a shelter. But over the past year, the Hancock administration has started fo- cusing on a housing-fi rst approach to home- lessness, advocating moving individuals off the streets and into housing before they need to engage in drug rehab work or fi nd a job. “We know more about the property, and this particular opportunity works best as Sanders through her NextDoor posts, the Motel 6 wasn’t exactly luxury living. “There were a lot of police sirens and cop cars in the parking lot every single night,” he says. But things didn’t get better when Sanders moved. She ended up in a “horrible motel down in Aurora” after she had to leave the Motel 6, says Tawnya Hauer, another person who’d seen Sanders’s NextDoor post and chipped in money. “Half of the motel had COVID people trying to recover, and the other half had homeless people, and Sue was scared to death going out her door because she had an autoimmune disorder,” Hauer adds. “I would take her groceries and different things down to that hotel, and it was a scary place.” Sanders liked to keep to herself, especially since she was afraid of contracting COVID. But she had a “big heart” and “would give you the shirt off her back,” according to Hauer. “She had nothing, and she would give you everything. Sue absolutely loved horses. Every dog that walked by, she had to pet it. That was just the kind of heart that she had.” continued on page 16 amplifying the impact of this acquisition,” the Department of Housing Stability wrote in the explanation of the $2 million grant it sent to council. But the city’s plans to purchase motels don’t end with the Stay Inn. It’s looking at buying four more buildings, likely to be ho- tels, using $43.25 million in federal COVID relief money. Two of these buildings will be turned into supportive housing, while the other two will become navigation centers where people leaving encampments can be placed temporarily and get connected with housing. “These are likely to be hotels, but other This is the fi rst motel the city plans to buy. It may not be the last. “We anticipate that a separate purchase and sale agreement to acquire the property will be presented to the City Council Finance and Governance Committee for consideration in the coming weeks,” Woodbury says. He declines to provide the exact amount the city estimates it will spend on the motel project, but says that information will be public soon. The Stay Inn has 96 rooms, which the Department of Housing Stability plans to transform into permanent supportive hous- supportive or long-term housing,” Wood- bury says. “Ultimately, housing is the founda- tion for resolving homelessness.” The transformation won’t be massive. “Unlike new construction on a vacant site, this project will require minimal renova- tion to immediately deliver homes to at least 96 individuals currently experienc- ing homelessness. The additional vacant property on this site will provide options for additional housing or services in the future, places like Seattle have found newly con- structed housing that was available for pur- chase, so we don’t want to limit ourselves from such possibilities,” Woodbury says. While the city works on deals for ad- ditional properties, the lease for a motel that had been housing homeless individu- als during much of the pandemic lapsed in September. The City of Denver had been providing money to the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless to rent the Quality Inn/ Rodeway Inn complex at 2601 Zuni Street, which holds 174 rooms. Advocates pushed the city hard to get the lease extended and ensure that those staying in the motel, many of whom were immunocompromised or older, didn’t get kicked to the streets or congregate shelters. And in mid-October, Housekeys Action Net- work Denver, an advocacy group, announced that the city had agreed to pay for extended stays at other hotels for ten individuals that HAND had been keeping afl oat after they had to leave the complex. “We will continue to work with these resi- dents to ensure this extension until they get the housing they need,” HAND pronounced. “We and these residents are extremely glad and grateful for this additional time paid for at the hotel so none of these folks land on the streets!” And maybe one day, they could land in the city-owned Stay Inn. — MCCORMICK-CAVANAGH NOVEMBER 17-23, 2022 WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | LETTERS | CONTENTS | westword.com CONOR MCCORMICK-CAVANAGH
