Denver to get 100 new supportive units for homeless veterans
By Robert Davis
Photos Courtesy of Community Solutions.
Kaiser Permanente and Community Solutions, a national homeless advocacy nonprofit, are teaming up to convert 100 apartments into supportive housing units for Denver’s homeless veterans.
The Avon South Apartments located at 2880 S. Federal Blvd. in Southwest Denver. Photo Credit: Community Solutions
Overall, the two entities spent $19.8 million through a creative financing initiative to acquire the Avon North and Avon South apartments located at 2850 and 2880 S. Federal Blvd. in southeast Denver. The buildings will be converted into supportive housing within the next two years, and residents will be allowed to move in on a rolling basis as units become available.
“Housing is the foundation to any lasting solution for homelessness,” Mayor Michael Hancock said in a statement. “These acquisitions are a welcome addition to our community’s inventory of income-restricted units.”
The acquisition is part of the Built for Zero (BFZ) campaign that is championed by Community Solutions. BFZ requires participating cities to adopt a data-driven approach to ending homelessness for specific groups such as veterans, or those experiencing chronic homelessness.
Denver has been a part of the BFZ network since 2015., which includes more than 100 communities across the country. According to Denver’s Five-Year Strategic Housing Plan, the City wants to achieve “functional zero” veteran homelessness by 2025, a metric that means Denver would have enough shelter space to house its homeless veterans and systems in place to make future homelessness brief and one-time for this group.
“Through our [BFZ] initiative, we work with communities that are proving it is possible to reduce homelessness when they harness a data-driven, systems-focused approach,” said David Foster, who manages Community Solutions’ Large Cities Housing Fund, which focuses on investments in the country’s largest housing markets.
The Avon properties were also purchased using a social impact financing model, which measures success based on both social and financial metrics, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
OECD adds that this financing model is a way to “more efficiently and effectively” deploy public and private capital toward affordable housing goals than traditional tax-credit financing allows. This is because social impact investments flow to the areas of greatest need first whereas tax-credit financing makes no such distinction.
To Foster, this financing model can help quickly close the affordable housing supply gap and provide permanent services for individuals who would otherwise be homeless.
“In the course of working toward zero, many communities — particularly large cities with tight housing markets — need the means to create permanently affordable housing in a way that is faster and more adaptable than many traditional approaches allow,” Foster said.
The initiative comes as the number of homeless veterans in Denver continues to decline. As of June 1, there were 395 veterans experiencing homelessness compared to the 627 that were counted in 2020, according to the latest one-night count.
Both properties will also be modeled after the Abrigo Apartments in Aurora, a supportive housing complex adjacent to the city’s Veterans Affairs hospital. The buildings will be a 50/50 mix of people exiting homelessness and middle-income folks who need affordable housing. As tenants turn over, veterans will be selected from Denver’s tracking system and matched with available units.
The Avon apartments will also be managed using Community Solution’s enhanced property management model, which includes additional coordinated services to help residents stay housed once they are placed in a unit.
“Ending veteran homelessness and increasing permanent housing placements are efforts that depend on close coordination between VA and community organizations,” said Missy Mish, acting chief of the VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System Homeless Program.