In late 2023 and early 2024, Mayor Mike Johnston's administration opened micro-communities in the Central Park, Golden Triangle and Overland neighborhoods, allowing handfuls of homeless residents to live in small, shed-like units while they look for work and more permanent housing, like subsidized apartments. Nearly a year in, the three sites have moved 75 homeless residents into permanent housing, according to data from the Denver Department of Housing Stability, or HOST.
According to December 17 numbers from a city housing dashboard, nearly 860 formerly homeless residents are now living in permanent housing after going through All In Mile High, the mayor's program to get housing for all of Denver's homeless. The dashboard, which hasn't been updated in a month, claims that about 450 people moved into permanent housing straight from street homelessness, and about 400 people moved from city-funded hotel sites or micro-communities to permanent housing.
The La Paz micro-community site, at 2301 South Santa Fe Drive in Overland, has seen the most residents return to unsheltered homelessness, or living on the streets again. It's also the slowest micro-community at moving residents out of the site since it opened in March 2024.
Despite the site's staff reporting early success in June, Overland residents in the area have reported increased crime, such as trespassing, theft and littering, since La Paz's opening. On December 1, Overland community leader Joanne Weiss was shot in her home on the 500 block of West Jewell Avenue, about three blocks north of La Paz, and the incident has left her paralyzed from the sternum down.
The Denver Police Department is still looking for the person who shot Weiss and has not linked the incident to the micro-community. However, many residents have already connected the incident with the site, according to Overland Park Neighborhood Association president Jenn Grieving.
The Denver Police Department is still looking for the person who shot Weiss and has not linked the incident to the micro-community. However, many residents have already connected the incident with the site, according to Overland Park Neighborhood Association president Jenn Grieving.
"Because of the recent shooting in Overland, a lot of people are drawing a line between La Paz and increased activities in Overland," she says. "There's just still that association based on the feelings of neighbors about La Paz opening in the first place."
The La Paz site can house sixty residents at a time, but it has only managed to get sixteen residents into permanent housing in ten months. Fourteen residents have returned to unsheltered homelessness, and the average amount of time each person spends living at the site is 125 days, or more than four months, says HOST.
According to Johnston's All In Mile High plan, the typical length of stay at micro-communities or hotel shelters for an individual is six months to a year, and the average length of stay at all city-funded homeless sites is 173 days.
The Central Park, site at 12033 East 38th Avenue — known as the Stay Inn because of the vacant city-owned motel next to it — has seen the most success, with 44 people moving into permanent housing since it opened in December 2023. However, ten people from the site returned to unsheltered homelessness, and residents at the site stayed there for an average of 103 days, according to HOST. The site can house 54 residents at a time. According to Johnston's All In Mile High plan, the typical length of stay at micro-communities or hotel shelters for an individual is six months to a year, and the average length of stay at all city-funded homeless sites is 173 days.
The site in the Golden Triangle — Elati Village, at 1375 Elati Street — is only for nonbinary, transgender and female homeless residents. Since opening in March 2024, fifteen residents have moved into permanent housing, while eight have returned to unsheltered homelessness, and the average length of stay at the site is 115 days. The site can host 44 residents at a time.
All three sites have city permits that expire in 2028. Johnston said in August 2023 that he planned to open ten micro-communities, but plans for the other sites fell apart during negotiations with property owners.
Johnston originally envisioned micro-communities as key pillars in his plan to tackle Denver homelessness during his first term. But with only 75 people moved into permanent housing so far, the sites have hardly made a dent in that promise. The most recent Point In Time Count, a federally funded tally of how many people are homeless during one night in January, found that Denver County had 6,500 homeless residents on the streets and in shelters on January 22, 2024. About 3,000 of those residents were living on the streets.
However, Johnston was successful in his pledge to move 1,000 people indoors before 2023 ended, which he did largely with the help of hotels purchased by the city, according to city data. When the mayor announced his 2024 goals last February, they included plans to house another 1,000 people. On January 6, Johnston said the city met that goal, too.

A woman waves at an Overland resident's security camera while stealing water jugs. Residents who live near the La Paz site have been vocal about their concern that theft, trespassing and littering have increased since the site opened in March.
Elias Egozi
Pressing Pause on Denver Micro-Communities?
The La Paz site was originally planned to be five times larger in occupancy and house two people per unit. However, Johnston whittled down the site's size and the unit capacity to one person in 2023 while trying to get support from Denver City Council for a $3.8 million one-year contract with the Colorado Village Collaborative, a nonprofit that operates similar transitional housing sites in Denver. That contract will need to be renewed in March.
The mayor's office revealed plans to open the site in the Overland neighborhood in October 2023. Overland residents pushed back at the idea, which was also a factor in the site's occupancy reduction. The opening of the La Paz site was also delayed by more than three months, in part by the negotiations.
A January 10 statement from the mayor's office doesn't definitively state whether micro-community expansion plans are shelved for good, but it does say Johnston will shift his attention to improving permanent housing options.
According to a statement from the CVC, the nonprofit is following the city's lead on micro-community expansion plans and doesn't have additional information to share.
The lack of clarity is bothering Overland residents. During a virtual meeting in mid-December between Johnston and representatives of the neighborhood, residents demanded reassurances from the mayor that he would not expand the site, according to neighborhood association president Grieving.The mayor's office revealed plans to open the site in the Overland neighborhood in October 2023. Overland residents pushed back at the idea, which was also a factor in the site's occupancy reduction. The opening of the La Paz site was also delayed by more than three months, in part by the negotiations.
Cole Chandler, the mayor's senior advisor on homelessness resolution and deputy director of the All In Mile High plan, told the City Council Safety and Housing Committee in October that plans to pursue additional units at micro-communities or to buy more hotels were off. (Chandler is the founder and former executive director of the Colorado Village Collaborative.)
A January 10 statement from the mayor's office doesn't definitively state whether micro-community expansion plans are shelved for good, but it does say Johnston will shift his attention to improving permanent housing options.
"House1000 and All In Mile High were launched with an initial goal of bringing people inside and ending the cycle of large encampments across the city," according to the mayor's office. "With those initial goals achieved, we’re focused on improving outcomes for individuals by increasing access and connection to permanent housing. This is part of a broader overall strategy that aligns to our efforts to end street homelessness in Denver."
According to a statement from the CVC, the nonprofit is following the city's lead on micro-community expansion plans and doesn't have additional information to share.
"In light of the shooting, the neighbors were asking the mayor to not ever expand La Paz," she says. "The mayor responded by saying there were no plans to expand at this time. ... He did not go into details."
Grieving says that Johnston told her and other residents that his staff is addressing safety concerns by installing four cameras around the site. District 7 City Councilwoman Flor Alvidrez, who represents that area, says Overland residents are also asking for background checks for everyone who moves into the site.
Alvidrez thinks the site "is getting better," but she would "like to see people moving out and moving into housing."
The mayor's staff will provide updates on the micro-community sites during a City Council Safety and Housing Committee meeting on Wednesday, January 15.
The mayor's office says Johnston will unveil his goals for 2025 on January 29, and Alvidrez says that for homelessness, she expects the mayor to say that "the goal will be to get people out of the Mile High sites into actual housing."
The mayor also promised Overland residents that he would return to talk about La Paz's impact on the neighborhood, Grieving says, though he hasn't set a date.