Denver eyes former tiny village site for cold-weather shelter

Why it matters: City officials say the plan shouldn't be interpreted as a pivot away from Denver's focus on permanent housing.

• But the proposal underscores the practical limits facing some of the city's homelessness solutions.

The latest: The proposal calls for two 20,400-square-foot shelters, documents reviewed by Axios Denver show. The plans were first reported by Developing Denver.

• People experiencing homelessness and advocates told the city that northeast Denver needed a cold-weather site, Denver's chief housing officer, Cole Chandler, tells us.

Flashback: The city announced Monroe Village's closure last year, initially calling for workforce housing on the site.

• Managed by the Colorado Village Collaborative (CVC), the community's permit was set to expire in September, CVC CEO Jessica Ehinger tells us.

Between the lines: Chandler says his office would support changing city law to let tiny home villages remain longer than the four-year limit, but City Council would have to act.

• In Monroe Village's case, altering the law wasn't "something that we had the power to change in this time frame," Chandler tells us.

Friction point: He pushes back on the idea that Denver was closing one form of temporary housing to make way for another, saying the two plans were on separate timelines.

• The proposed shelters could operate year-round and accommodate nearly 10 times as many people as Monroe Village did, he says.

Zoom out: The village served as a site for Mayor Mike Johnston's signature housing program starting in January 2025.

• Its residents lamented the June closing. They were moved to other shelters or permanent housing, Chandler says.

What's next: The submitted plans for the shelters were approved, so a formal site development plan can be submitted, city planning department spokesperson Alex Foster tells us.

• Meanwhile, the CVC is putting the Monroe Village tiny homes into storage, with no new location identified, Ehinger says.