"It's just a really innovative campus," says Christina Carlson, the CEO of Urban Peak. "Having space that has lots of light and visibility and is welcoming and not just big, massive dorms, I think will make such a big difference."
The shelter, which will be constructed at the site of the soon-to-be-demolished old Urban Peak building, at 1630 South Acoma Street, will increase the facility's bed count from 40 to 136 beds. Right now, Urban Peak is using its drop-in center at 2100 Stout Street as a temporary shelter with just 36 beds.
"The thing that'll be very cool," Carlson says, is [that] at the mothership" — her nickname for the shelter project — "we'll be able to provide daytime and overnight services to our full age range."
From July 2020 through June 2021, the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative tracked 954 people under the age of 25 accessing services related to homelessness.
Carlson describes the new shelter as one that will have "smaller dorms," with the "most number of beds that'll be in one dorm at eight."
The shelter will serve youth between the ages of 15 and 24, which will mark a major difference from the age range that Urban Peak, which was founded in 1988, currently serves in shelter settings.
"At the shelter, because we had minors in shared space, we could only shelter somebody up to their 21st birthday, so to be able to have the older youth stay with us 24/7 or overnight is a big deal," Carlson says. "We have lots of 21- to 24-year-olds that we see at our drop-in center who want to stay with us [but] end up going to an adult shelter or, honestly, end up camping because they don't want to go to an adult shelter."
Youth under the age of 18 will stay in a separate area in the new shelter, which will also have shared community space, laundry, living and dining areas, a medical clinic, a classroom, a visual arts center and a tech lab. There will also be case management on site.
"So it's much more comprehensive and full wraparound services at one site," notes Carlson. "It's very exciting. Very, very exciting."
The new shelter will expand Urban Peak's youth shelter capacity.
Courtesy of Christina Carlson
With construction for the project set to start in January, Urban Peak predicts the shelter will be ready to go by the end of 2024.
The 60,000-square-foot building costs $38.6 million, and its construction involves a complex array of funding mechanisms. Urban Peak has raised about $4 million in private philanthropy for the project. The organization also expects about $11 million in New Market Tax Credits. The State of Colorado is putting in over $3.7 million, while Congresswoman Diana DeGette, a Democrat who represents Denver, secured $3 million in funding for the project.
"This is a big day for our community," DeGette said in March after the funding had been secured.
"All of our private and government partners are really stepping up by being like, 'We need to do something really innovative and interesting and meet the needs,'" Carlson says.
Additionally, on December 20, the Denver City Council Finance and Governance Committee will vote on providing over $16.7 million in bond money to the project, thanks to a series of bond measures that Denver voters approved in 2021 known as RISE Denver. The full city council will vote on the item in January.
"Housing and homelessness are top issues facing our community, which is why we’re leveraging RISE Denver bond revenue to provide social infrastructure for residents," says Derek Woodbury, a spokesperson for the Denver Department of Housing Stability. "This project will significantly increase shelter capacity for youth experiencing homelessness, transforming the lives of many with stabilizing services and connections to housing."
