Local News - May 2020

DCTA Forms Housing Committee to Tackle Affordable Housing

By Robert Davis

Members of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association (DCTA) often find themselves on the frontlines of community development, from educating the city’s students to advocating for better learning conditions in schools. 

But now the organization is taking on another challenge as two of its members organized the DCTA Housing Committee for its members to help resolve the city’s affordable housing crisis.

“Our goal is to help the community and rally with teachers to improve Denver’s affordable housing stock in general,” said Anna DeWitt, a French teacher at North High School. 

DeWitt began advocating for affordable housing after she found herself competing against wealthy real estate investors for housing near North High School. At the time, DeWitt was a single mother and made too much money to qualify for housing assistance. 

She has testified before City Council in favor of several affordable developments, including the Green Flats development in Denver’s Hilltop Neighborhood and a proposed 16-story development that would have turned a parking lot on West Colfax into 322 residences. It was during one such council meeting where she met the second half of DCTA’s Housing Committee, Jessica Dominguez. 

Dominguez is uniquely qualified to help lead DCTA’s Housing Committee. She has more than 18 years of teaching experience, is a licensed real estate agent, and she was the lead housing organizer for Interfaith Alliance in Denver. 

She’s also seen first-hand how Denver’s affordable housing crisis is affecting schools and their students, from knowing teachers who live together to split housing costs to students living with friends to maintain their spot in a school district.  

“Housing is education,” Dominguez said. “It’s a prime example of how all the social determinants of health work together.”

A prime example of this is Denver’s Group Living proposal, which would redefine the city’s zoning code to allow up to eight people living together to be considered a household. It would allow people to share living expenses and could drastically improve the living situation for Denver’s lower-income residents, according to Dominguez.

These goals also align with the needs of many educators in the Denver Public School system. The Colorado Department of Education reports that the average salary for DPS teachers is about $55,000. A teacher making this salary would need approximately five years to save up enough for a 20 percent down payment on a median-priced home in Denver, assuming they can save 20 percent of their annual salary.  

However, research by Zillow found that home values in Denver have risen 67 percent since 2015, making it nearly impossible for teachers to keep up with the city’s real estate market. 

“This isn’t just about affordable housing. This is about promoting affordable living in Denver,” Dominguez said. ■


Petition Asks CDPHE to Provide Housing for Homeless During Pandemic

By Robert Davis

A petition filed in the Denver County Courthouse on behalf of several homeless persons and housing advocacy groups around the state accuses Colorado’s Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) of placing the state’s homeless population at increased risk of exposure and transmission of the deadly novel coronavirus.  

In the petition, civil rights attorney Jason Flores-Williams argued that housing the state’s homeless population is paramount to “control[ing] the causes of epidemic and communicable diseases affecting the public health,” as outlined in CDPHE’s mandate under CRS § 25-1.5-102. 

“Homeless persons are particularly susceptible and exposed to the pandemic due to health issues, lack of sanitation, and the limitations of shelters,” wrote Flores-Williams. “Without intervention and mitigation from the [CDPHE], they will contract, spread, and die from the disease at potentially much higher rates than the rest of society.”

Part of the problem Colorado’s homeless face is the decrepit condition of the state’s shelter system. 

For example, there are no more than 2,000 beds between Denver’s 13 shelters at any given time, according to statistics from the Department of Housing Stability (HOST). However, the latest Point in Time Count found over 3,900 homeless individuals in the city alone. 

Homeless in other cities represented in the petition such as Boulder, Fort Collins, and Grand Junction face similar situations. Boulder’s two shelters are overcrowded, making them hotspots for transmission of the highly infectious disease. 

While Fort Collins has three shelters for its homeless, advocates who work in the area say the city’s homeless population is elderly, immunocompromised, and therefore highly susceptible to the virus. 

Grand Junction has a total of zero shelter beds for its 1,500-person homeless population. 

Denver Homeless Out Loud (DHOL) describes this as a no-win situation for the state’s most vulnerable residents.

“[They] can either sleep in overcrowded shelters in beds inches from people exhibiting classic symptoms of the disease or out on the streets where they are often the victims of abuse and violent crime,” the organization wrote in a press release. 

Furthermore, DHOL argues, these conditions not only affect those living in the shelters; they also increase the likelihood of retransmitting the disease to neighboring towns. 

DHOL points out that Governor Jared Polis has direct authority to “commandeer or utilize any private property if the governor finds this necessary to cope with the disaster emergency” and to “make provision for the availability and use of temporary emergency housing.” However, the governor has yet to utilize these powers. 

Without intervention from CDPHE and other government agencies to mandate housing homeless people during the pandemic, many fear the casualty rate may become excessive.

“Not only is the [CDPHE] tasked with the protection of public health pursuant to statute…but current Colorado shelter conditions — during this crisis — violate basic standards of human dignity as well as all recognized guidelines and orders issued by State and Federal government to mitigate the disease,” Flores-Williams wrote. ■


CNCS Survey Finds Colorado Mediocre in Volunteer Rates

By Robert Davis

Thousands of Coloradans responded to Governor Jared Polis’ call to volunteer with the state’s medical staff to help them deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Many more are volunteering with food banks and a newly-formed phone bank to call senior citizens that are alone during this time. 

Even so, Denver and Colorado are ranked 26th and 27th, respectively, in volunteer rates, according to the latest Volunteering in America Report by the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), which runs nationwide organizations like AmeriCorps and Senior Corps. 

Data for the survey was collected through the Civic Engagement and Volunteering Supplement, a monthly survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau on behalf of the Bureau of Labor Statistics that reaches over 100,000 adults nationwide. To be counted, volunteers have to be over the age of 16 and volunteer at least once through a volunteer organization within the 12-month survey period. 

“My experience is that Coloradans are very willing to volunteer where they’re needed,” said Bradley Gulley, director of volunteer services for Volunteers of America — Colorado (VOA). “We’re seeing an increasing trend of volunteers helping in schools or helping their neighbors. To me, that’s what volunteering is all about.”

CNCS found that half of all volunteer activities in Colorado come from two categories: Education or Youth Services, and Hobbies. Nearly 40 percent of volunteer activities involve fundraising in some capacity as well. 

Overall, more than 1.4 million volunteers contributed over 121 million hours of service worth an estimated $2.9 billion in Colorado, according to CNCSO. Of that total, 30.6 came from the Denver metro area.  The same report also found that Denver is one of the top five AmeriCities — cities with the highest number of AmeriCorps recruits.  

In contrast, the number one state for volunteering in CNCS’s report is Utah, which contributed over 133 million hours of service, worth an estimated $3.3 billion. 

“There are so many different ways to volunteer. It doesn’t have to be organized or include heavy lifting or trail building. It can be as simple as playing bingo with seniors,” Gulley said.

Colorado comprises the largest volunteer pool in the VOA network, according to Gulley. In 2019, over 17,000 volunteers contributed nearly 270,000 hours at a value of approximately $6.8 million. 

VOA is currently working to connect volunteers with opportunities to help underserved communities impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic through The Mission, a daytime shelter program that provides its clients warm meals, clothing, and a safe place to relax.

But, Colorado certainly has room to improve its volunteer statistics. Several organizations are currently in need of services, and volunteering is considered an essential service and is exempt from local shelter-in-place orders. 

“Volunteering is about finding something you love and connecting with organizations or people who offer opportunities,” Gulley said. ■


Denver VOICE