‹‹ Colorado Matters

Housing people who were homeless doesn’t resolve neighborhood tensions

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11min 26sec
The Aloft hotel at 800 15th St. May 25, 2022.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
The Aloft hotel at 800 15th St. May 25, 2022. The hotel has provided temporary housing for people experiencing homelessness during the pandemic.

Colorado’s in the midst of a housing crunch, a pandemic, and an opioid crisis – all of which add to and complicate homelessness. Look no further than downtown Denver, where residents have tried to stop people from sleeping on the streets around Union Station and on the 16th Street Mall. The city has housed some of those folks in hotels. But not everybody likes that solution. Denverite’s Kyle Harris found some downtown residents want people experiencing homelessness to be moved out of the city center, even if they’ve found temporary shelter.