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- Hey everybody, I am here with Stephanie and we are?
- Arroyo village, the Dolores Park Project Shelter.
- And this is a permanent supportive housing facility,
but there is something a little different about it.
- So this is Arroyo village and it combines shelter
with supportive housing, with workforce housing
all under one roof.
And that is, - Workforce housing,
what's workforce housing?
- Affordable housing for those who make up to 50% AMI.
- Oh my gosh, let's go on a tour.
- Okay, perfect.
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- This is an entire block which comprises of Arroyo village,
it is roughly almost 300,000 square feet.
We really want to create a space
with trauma informed design in mind, what does that mean?
That means everybody who walks in here, even me,
we all have bring in to the space,
backgrounds experience of some level of component of trauma.
And so really creating a space that is dignified,
that is safe, that is secure and open.
We asked residents actually and guess
what they wanted to see in a shelter,
and supportive housing.
And we decided to make this a 60 bed shelter
for transgender individuals and women
experiencing homelessness,
and we wanted to create more space for programming.
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Some of the spacing that we had in mind
was creating a safe space for guests to use outside,
anytime that they're here, during the time they here,
they have spaces to eat here, smoking spaces,
just inviting and being outside and being able to really
just breathe and feel safe and secure.
And that begins the process of healing
and so that we can move forward so that they can move along
on their path towards stability and housing.
- And why that's so important is taxpayers.
You pay huge money for people out on the street,
so if we can get them inside,
it saves lives and saves money.
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We have two and a half dorms.
We had guest feedback about what they want to
one of the things is storage space.
So during the time that they're here,
they have access to their own storage unit
where they can lock their belongings,
so they're not bringing all their belongings everyday
to wherever they're gonna be.
The difference about Arroyo shelter
apart from many other shelters in Denver
is that we offer week long stays versus one night at a time.
Other shelters offer beds, it's only one night at a time.
So, they have to pack all their belongings
in the next morning and hope to get that bed again.
- Right, right.
- Whereas we provide the bed for, we have emergency beds
for one week at a time.
- What you have that other shelters don't have
is a immediate path from the shelter space
into permanent supportive housing.
- So the fact that we are able to provide housing stability
immediately and also along their path
towards supportive housing,
and eventually for some workforce housing.
So, the housing stability,
the supportive spread around services works,
in getting people empowered
and towards their self sufficiency.
Every guest has chore responsibility.
So when they call in on Monday mornings
to see if we have a bed, we also indicate to them
one of the requirement is that
you must do a evening and a morning chore.
So they're very good about that,
giving them a sense of ownership and responsibility.
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We have an all gender bathroom, restroom area,
where there is an handicap accessible shower, toilet sink,
but it's really can be used for anybody
who wants that extra privacy.
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This is a food cubby space because
we believe in giving our guests options.
And even options in terms of what they say eat.
So if they want to bring food of their own,
they have their cubby spaces,
numbers corresponding to the bed number,
and they can store their food in the cubby,
or in these refrigerators that we're providing
for our guests.
We have a commercial grade kitchen, brand new
that our volunteers love to come here and prepare the food,
and then they serve the food
to the guests directly at this counter.
And also on top of guest chef programs,
we want to be able to offer classes,
so if there's anybody in the community who are chefs,
or who even have what is it, food trucks,
to offer cooking classes for our guests,
and to be able to share that with our guests.
And it's really increasing their skill level
so that they may be able to get jobs, perhaps, right?
- For those of you that follow me, you hear me say
it's okay to feed people in a park,
as long as you're doing something
to get them out of the park.
People want to go out and volunteer,
people want to get food.
That's a good thing, it's okay to feel good.
But what I suggest and recommend there's a homeless service
in your neighborhood like to Delores Project
that offers volunteer opportunities,
like being a guest chef.
So in your local community, find some place
where you can volunteer, go in, cook a meal,
connect with homeless people and feel good.
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- We are going into the supportive unit,
all our units are 502 square feet
fully furnished one bedroom units.
With the trauma informed design in mind,
when one walks into the unit, they can see every room.
There are no closet doors, there are no hanging rods,
we are trying to create a space of safety and security.
It's great to provide housing.
But let's keep in mind that we want to ensure successful
retention and housing stability.
And that preventing evictions,
preventing another incident of homelessness.
And so wraparound care is so important.
- This is amazing, it's wonderful, it provides dignity.
It's going to be a home for a homeless person.
What you need to see here is
how it benefits you as a taxpayer,
permanent supportive housing not only saves lives,
it saves money, your money.
You might be saying, well, I don't want a homeless person
to have a free apartment, I don't want to pay for that.
You're already paying for them to be outside,
you're paying huge money for them to be outside.
So by supporting permanent supportive housing
and getting homeless people inside,
you're actually creating huge benefit
for yourself because you are saving tax dollars,
but more importantly, you're also saving lives.
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Stephanie, - Thank you.
- This has been fun.
- Oh wow, yeah I just want to say
I want people to know what the face of homelessness
looks like and destigmatizing that
and that providing housing is the solution, really.
- It is, so go to invisiblepeople.tv/
get involved where you can contact
your state and federal legislators and tell them come out,
let's get busy, - Advocating,
- let's create some affordable housing,
- Advocates.
- So you got emergency shelters,
- Yes, supportive housing, permanent supportive housing,
and workforce affordable housing.
- And transgender friendly?
- Yes, transgender friendly, very inclusive
and its diversity in the whole gender spectrum,
- Which is really amazing.
- Thank you so much.
- Well, thank you for having me.
If anybody has any questions, how do they'll find you?
- At the deloresproject.org.
- Sure, well, thank you, oh, my gosh, we're doing hugs.
Thank you, everybody.
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