Denver's Department of Housing Stability is advancing a 400-bed cold-weather shelter on Monroe Street and a 20-family shelter on Columbine Street in Elyria-Swansea, with neighbors raising equity concerns during the zoning process.
Denver's Department of Housing Stability submitted plans August 18 to build two 20,000-square-foot cold-weather shelter buildings holding around 200 guests each at 4001 and 4121 N. Monroe St. in Elyria-Swansea, the former site of the Monroe Tiny Home Village, whose contract the city declined to renew in the 2026 budget as part of a set of non-renewals of non-congregate shelter sites that saved $12.4 million. HOST executive director Cole Chandler said the goal is not to add capacity but to protect against buildings going offline or emergencies; if approved, the buildings would be the city's second-largest homeless facility.
The nearby 48th Avenue Men's Shelter is currently the city's largest homeless facility.
At a community meeting required during the zoning process, Denver's Department of Housing Stability presented plans for a 20-family homeless shelter near Columbine Street and 43rd Avenue in Elyria-Swansea. Residents said the area lacks grocery stores, childcare and green space, and questioned whether shelters are being distributed equitably across the city; neighbors also cited the proposed 400-bed cold-weather shelter about a mile away on Monroe Street, which has its own community meeting October 8.
The city filed site plans August 18 for the separate 400-bed Monroe Street cold-weather shelter about a mile away.