Where does the Johnston administration plan to build micro-community sites for homeless people in Denver? 

The short answer is the the city’s new mayor hasn’t decided yet.

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City officials said they are tightening and refining a list of potential micro-community sites.

The list is preliminary, and it simply shows the publicly-owned sites in Denver. It had not gone through any vetting, and it was created prior to the activation of an emergency operations center, according to a city spokesperson.  

Johnston’s homelessness team has since been working to vet the sites, the goal of which is narrow it down based on several criteria:

• Proximity to transit

• Access to utilities

• Meets basic zoning and permitting criteria

• Meets basic Department of Transportation and Infrastructure/Department of Public Health & Environment criteria

• Distance from schools

• Equitable distribution of sites across the city

Staff are in discussions with private landowners who are interested in providing space for micro-communities in addition to considering publicly-owned land, Mayor Mike Johnston said on Wednesday, when he gave an update on his homelessness initiative. 

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The administration is not restricting the number or organizations that can bid on the contracts, only asking that operators be willing to work with communities that serve between 40 and 100 people. The city is aiming to open between seven and 10 micro-communities.

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