Homeless people living near the Governor’s Mansion in a Capitol Hill encampment slated to be cleaned up by the city on Tuesday said Denver officials have offered them shelter at a hotel.   

The encampment residents told The Denver Gazette many are interested in the offer but added they also heard many have already signed up, raising worries they’ll be on a waitlist. 

“We are working to match as many of these residents as possible with housing and shelter,” Joint Information Center spokesman Derek Woodbury told The Denver Gazette on Thursday.

Denver officials last week gave about 70 homeless individuals living at Eighth Avenue and Logan Street near the Boettcher Mansion – Gov. Jared Polis does not actually live there – a seven-day notice for the planned sweep, citing “deteriorating conditions, including trash, human waste and discarded needles, as well as encumbrances blocking the public right of way.” 

On Monday, the day before the planned encampment sweep, the city council plans to vote on officially allocating $15.7 million to help acquire a Best Western hotel in northeast Denver. The Denver Housing Authority board of commissioners earlier approved the hotel’s purchase for $25.95 million, with the funding coming from various sources. 

Under the plan, the housing authority plans to lease the building to the city via the housing department for a nominal annual rate and basic maintenance costs. The department will then contract out with a partner to provide non-congregate shelter with supportive services – until the site is ready for conversion to supportive housing, which authorities said would take a few years.

Denver has increasingly poured resources into reducing homelessness, spending $152 million in 2022 and authorizing $254 million to address the problem in 2023. When then-Mayor Michael Hancock took office a dozen years ago, that spending stood at $8 million. Mike Johnston, the new mayor, is proposing to spend $242 million on homelessness and housing affordability next year. 

The council will also consider a $6.4 million contract for the Department of Housing Stability’s “encampment resolution outreach” services. The contract with The Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, if approved, will last until the end of 2026.

“This is the most I’ve seen people get help in a short amount of time,” Mary, one of the encampment’s residents who did not give her last name, told The Denver Gazette. “Up until now, it didn’t seem like they cared.”

Mary said a fire “took away everything I had” and she’s been homeless for four years now. 

Jeff Yonkers, another encampment resident, noted Johnston’s promise to move 1,000 homeless people off of the city’s streets by year’s end. As of Sunday, Johnston is just a little above 10% through that goal, according to the city’s dashboard.

“I hope he sticks to his word,” Yonkers said.

“They kind of did it unexpectedly on a random day,” Yonkers said on receiving the cleanup notice.

Suffering from an injured leg, Yonkers, who has lived in Denver since 1992 and has been homeless for six years, said he would be happy to get into a hotel shelter. 

Kristine Caudle, who spent two years homeless after moving to Denver from out of state, said she worries about individualized housing.  

“Individualized housing would separate me and my boyfriend,” she said. “I know people who don’t want to be separated from five others living in their tent.”

The city’s outreach staffers will be at the site on Tuesday to help them find shelter, residents said. Residents also received two garbage bags to store belongings. One resident said they have also been offered enough space to transport bikes, for example.

“I’m over this,” Mary said. “It’s rough. We get such a bad look from people walking by.”