Denver Churches Enable Sanctioned Encampments

The temporary encampment at Denver Community Church ewill be staffed at all hours and support men, women and couples.

Phot Illustration and Story By Giles Clasen

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Many communities in Denver have been vocal about not wanting to have neighbors who are sleeping in tents on the streets and sidewalks.

Some community leaders and city council members have even fought hard to keep encampments sanctioned by the Denver city government out of their backyard.

Denver Community Church and First Baptist Church, Capitol Hill are taking a different approach.

“We were trying to ask this question, ‘In this public health crisis of COVID-19, what can we do for our unhoused neighbors?’” said Dave Neuhausel Denver Community Church’s pastor of Mobilization.

The two churches, working in partnership with Colorado Village Collaborative and other nonprofits and Denver agencies, will be opening the first city-sanctioned encampments for unhoused individuals in their parking lots in the coming weeks.

The program, called Safe Outdoor Spaces, will include support services, new tents, cots, food, clean water, bathrooms, laundry services, and showers to its residents, said Cole Chandler, the executive director of Colorado Village Collaborative

Colorado Village Collaborative, the nonprofit spearheading the program, began working on the project in March, received City approval in July, and after exploring 100 different properties, decided on these two locations.

Denver Community Church is new to the project, but homelessness isn’t a new issue for the congregation, which is located just North of Colfax Avenue on Pearl Street. “You can’t walk out of the church doors without seeing people living in devastating circumstances,” Neuhausel said.

Denver Community Church has long worked with Capitol Hill Urban Ministries, the Interfaith Alliance, Network Coffee House, and other organizations confronting the issues surrounding homelessness.

The COVID-19 pandemic has amped up the need for greater levels of service and creative solutions to the problem. It has hard not to notice the numbers of Denver’s homeless population jump with the rise of new tents in Denver’s public spaces every day.

“I watched people across the city, other service providers, kind of throw their hands in the air and go, ‘We don’t know. We literally don’t know,’” Neuhausel said. “This is so complex. We’re being pinched in our capacity within shelters. We’re seeing an increase in homelessness. Unemployment’s up. Folks are being evicted. The collision of all these things together - we need to do something. This is us doing something.” 

The First Baptist Church, Capitol Hill site will shelter up to 40 women, including transgender women. The Denver Community Church location will shelter up to 50 men and women including couples.

Before agreeing to participate the Denver Community Church elder board had long discussions on what the impact of the encampment would be to the church, their neighbors and the participants in the program. Ultimately the board decided their faith mandated they give their parking lot to the program.

“We think about how Jesus spoke about the Kingdom of God and the values of Kingdom of God,” Neuhausel said. “We think about what does the Good News look like in our context? In this unprecedented time, when things are particularly difficult, we are seeing how they’re doubly difficult for our unhoused neighbors. We were looking for solutions that would be good news for our unhoused neighbors and our housed neighbors alike. SOS fit that bill.”

Like every endeavor, there were obstacles to overcome, including outdated zoning code for the Denver Community Church property that would have prevented the encampment.

In a major show of support for the project the City Council voted unanimously for a temporary zoning change to the Denver Community Church property and other sites being considered for the project.

The council also approved $450,000 to support the SOS program. This will be in addition to over $300,000 raised from private donations.

There has been some opposition to the SOS sites. A flier with inaccurate and misleading information has even been sent to the neighborhoods around the two sites. The bright red flier falsely says that the encampments will be permanent, increase trash and crime in the neighborhood, and will not have staff or measures to ensure the sites are secure.

According to Chandler, each site will be temporary with at least two staff members present around the clock. The lease for each site requires the encampments to close in six months. The city permit only allows the encampments as long as the public health emergency guidelines are in place to address COVID-19.

“This is an effort that is designed to try and find a more humane, solution-oriented approach to serving people experiencing homelessness,” Chandler said. “It is time for Denver to do something. What we’re currently doing to address unsanctioned encampments is not working for anybody. It’s not working people in camps, and it’s not working for people in neighborhoods. This is one approach for Denver to do better.”

The SOS program is modeled after a similar program in Las Cruces, New Mexico called Camp Hope. That program has shown that sanctioned encampments are not a magnet attracting mass numbers of unhoused individuals to the area. One reason is because the services offered in the encampment are specifically for registered residents. The services in the SOS program will not be available to the general public and no guests are allowed in the encampment.

Chandler believes, like in Las Cruces, the sanctioned encampment will actually prevent unsanctioned camp sites from developing nearby.

“We will discourage camping in the neighborhood by building relationships and communicating that their presence is impacting the success of a project that could benefit more members of their community,” Chandler said. “We will do neighborhood walks, clean up and outreach in the surrounding blocks to make sure that our presence in the neighborhood is as good as possible.”

Each individual staying at the encampments will have to complete an intake to participate and follow all of the rules to remain in the program.

Still, it is natural to fear the worst when someone hears an encampment for unhoused individuals is coming to their neighborhood,” Neuhausel said.

 The staff and elder board at Denver Community Church realized they would have to overcome that fear.

Neuhausel asks individuals living and working near Denver Community Church to understand that this program serves and humanizes individuals living on the street. Many have experienced trauma either before they ended up living in homelessness. The wrap-around services available at the encampment can help address many of the issues that cause homelessness.

“The encampment will benefit the whole Denver community,” Neuhausel said. “This is a housing-first, resource-rich environment – a safety environment. What we can all agree is that the status quo is not good, it’s not tenable. I would just hope that our housed neighbors would have an open posture, a curious posture, and be willing to listen and learn. I think that if they’re willing to do that, we can be far more proactive in helping people experiencing homelessness.”