FROM YOUR VENDOR:
Denver, CO Help us help your neighbors We're Right Here. Donate at Denvervoice.org/donate
From the Executive Director W Giles Clasen is a writer and photographer driven to tell Denver’s often overlooked stories with dignity and care. He serves as executive director of Denver VOICE and has worked with the organization since 2008 as a contributor, board member, and board president. DENVERVOICE. CE. MANAGING EDITOR Introducing Andrew Fraieli E ARE EXCITED TO ANNOUNCE that Andrew Fraieli is stepping into the role of interim managing editor at the Denver VOICE. Fraieli already knows this organization well, putting his touch on the look of the Denver VOICE as our art director for the last two years. He has updated the design and feel of our publication while retaining a style that honors the publication’s 30-year history. Fraieli brings with him strong experience in watchdog journalism as the founder and executive director of Blue Surveillance, a nonprofit that supports accountability of police misconduct. The nonprofit does cutting edge reporting and research to bring public awareness to information that can be difficult to access and uncover. He has also served as editor of the Homeless Voice — a Florida-based street paper — for almost a decade, using that dedication to help those experiencing homelessness share their stories. An exceptionally intelligent person, Fraieli brings empathy to our vendors, knows our journalistic standards and mission and is committed to treating those living on the streets with compassion. This is a good moment for the Denver VOICE: Fraieli puts us in a strong position to grow, and he will lead our editorial team with not only his design background but his investigative experience as well. Please join us in congratulating him on his new role. We’re looking forward to seeing where he takes our editorial work next. - Giles Clasen Executive Director EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT VENDOR PROGRAM ADVERTISING MAILING ADDRESS VENDOR OFFICE OFFICE HOURS BOARD OF DIRECTORS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ART DIRECTOR ADMIN. ASSISTANT ARTISTS/PHOTOGRAPHERS CONTRIBUTORS Andrew Fraieli Giles Clasen Andrew Fraieli Madeline Egerton Giles Clasen Joshua Abeyta Donald Burns Robert Davis Sondra Jeffries Raelene Johnson Madeline Egerton Albert Bland Jerry Rosen Liz Hubbard David Gorden Jennifer Forker, President Donald Burnes, Vice President Edwin Rapp, Treasurer Ande Sailer Linda Shapley Lisa Schlichtman editor@denvervoice.org program@denvervoice.org editor@denvervoice.org PO Box 1931, Denver CO 80201 989 Santa Fe Drive Denver CO 80204 10 a.m. -1 p.m., Wednesdays DONATE NOW THROUGH THE Since 1996, the Denver VOICE has served individuals experiencing housing or financial instability by providing lowbarrier income opportunities. In the time since our inception, we have put more than 4,600 vendors to work, selling the paper throughout the Denver metro area. By focusing on poverty, housing, social justice, local arts and entertainment, and the human experience behind the headlines, we tell the stories that Denver media often overlook. An award-winning publication, the Denver VOICE is a member of the International Network of Street Papers and the Colorado Press Association, and we adhere to the Society of Professional Journalists’ code of ethics. TO HELP, YOU CAN: GET THE WORD OUT: NA THE WORD O VOLUNTEER: DONATE @ DVERTISE: OUT: OUT denvervoice. org org@denverVOICE SUBSCRIBE @ UBSCRIBE @ THE COVER: A photo illustration representing voting while homeless. PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ANDREW FRAIELI DENVER VOICE OCTOBER 2026 3 ABOUT US
Vendor Profile ALBERT BLAND By Madeline Egerton he ability to T turn limited resources into opportunity, persevere through challenges, and plan ahead are the defi ning characteristics of a good hustler. Albert Bland, a Denver VOICE vendor since 2005, has learned the skills and hardships of hustling since he began working in early childhood. Experiences both positive and negative have helped him become successful, and well respected in his community. “What transformed me into that way of thinking was turning nothing into something, in a respectable manner though,” Bland said. “Without, you know, doing the wrong thing, such as stealing, shoplifting.” Bland has long understood the importance of having money. He was 5 years old when he started working – raking leaves for a neighbor in Detroit – in 1975. “When I did my fi rst job on my own independently, I enjoyed it. The customer that I worked for, he was tired for me,” Bland recalled, laughing. “I had the energy just to keep going until the job was done right.” That work earned him $5 — just over $30 today calculating for infl ation. After spending a sweltering afternoon cleaning the unkempt yard and accompanied by his neighbor’s praise, Bland discovered his desire and talent for hard work. Through his teen years into adulthood, Bland struggled to avoid the illegal means of hustling that give the term its negative associations. He realized the inconsistent income wasn’t sustainable, so he got a job selling newspapers for the Detroit Free Press. It was diffi cult making ends meet, so Bland 4 returned to hustling, and it wasn’t always positive. “I’m not saying that hustling bad is wrong, but there’s consequences,” Bland said. “I was falling back into that trap again.” The hustle eventually landed Bland in prison: a time he doesn’t like to talk about and he’s put behind him. Then, in 1999, he was transferred to a Colorado penitentiary to serve the remainder of a 12-year prison sentence, and was soon discharged. Now living in a new state, Bland relied on his hustling skills to earn an income. “If you know you can do it, don’t think, don’t talk. Do it. Don’t talk it, walk it,” Bland said. Bland learned about the Denver VOICE in the early 2000s, seeing the paper in newsstands next to Westword and The Onion. “They were in these blue boxes at the old Blake Street bus station. I’ll never forget it,” Bland said. With previous newspaper-selling experience, he became a vendor for the Denver VOICE. This time, he was in control of his own income and how much he could earn. “I’m selling papers with The VOICE,” Bland said. “I was like, ‘Man, you are good at selling papers!’ I’m thinking to myself, ‘All you need is transportation.’” Bland did the math, and if he could sell 100 papers a day, over the course of 50 days, he’d have $5,000 for a used truck. “I knew 50 days was a little extreme, so I gave myself three months,” Bland said. “50 out of 90 days, you should have $5,000, there’s no excuse.” With realistic goals and a strategy to achieve them, Bland was already becoming a small COMMUNITY PROFILE business owner. It was his initial goal to get back to his roots and start a landscaping business. The Denver VOICE was his means of accomplishing it. “The beautiful thing, [why] I’m so grateful for The VOICE, The VOICE has always been here. And I have always been able to fall back on it,” he said. Since joining the Vendor Program more than 20 years ago, Albert has been a top salesman. He earns an income for himself, while drawing attention and donations to the Denver VOICE. Bland’s landscaping business has prospered and he takes pride in his work and client rapport. “[If someone] wants to throw a party at their house and they want their yard taken care of right instantly, they know they can count on me,” Bland said. “I’m at a point in my life now, I gained so much prestige throughout this metro area.” For Bland, hustling has led to responsibilities, including taking care of others. “If I lose responsibility, I lose everything,” Bland said. “You start touching people, and I touched a lot of good people. They rely on me now. Because I’m a good hustler. I hustle for the right reasons.” Bland knew life would offer him nothing if he wasn’t willing to work for it. When wallowing, there’s already a good picture of what’s in store, he says. But he never gave up on himself and understands a good mindset is critical for success. “People [have] to realize that everywhere you go, no matter what you do, you always gotta take you with you,” Bland said. “Every day ain’t gonna be peaches ‘n’ cream. Everyday is not perfect. You gotta take the bitter with the sweet.”
2MX2 + LOLITA A BRIDGE FROM OUR ANCESTORS AT THE CENTER of the logo for Denver-based Latin rock and hip-hop band 2MX2 is its version of Ollin, the Mexica symbol that loosely translates to movement, motion or transformation. When Europeans colonized what is Americas, now known they as the called Mexica people “Aztecs” and the land, which was and is still recognized JOSHUA ABEYTA DENVER VOICE MUSIC REPORTER by indigenous people as Aztlan, “Mexico.” Mexica people Nahuatl, which blended with Spanish to create the current version of “Mexican Spanish,” with Nahuatl words woven in like cholo (xolo), chocolate (xocolātl) and aguacate (āhuacatl), which shapeshifted to become the English word avocado. For all the ways things can get lost in translation, 2MX2’s music transcends borders, language and time. Founded in 2012, the band was originally a rap duo featuring cousins Owen Trujillo, aka O1, and Juice E Hugo. The band took its name from the much debated panic around the end of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar in 2012, which many speculated would lead to apocalyptic and cataclysmic events. “We just wanted to flip the perspective that it’s not the end, it’s the beginning,” O1 said. Lolita Mendoza Castañeda, who became the band’s third member in 2017, said, “it feels like a bridge from our ancestors to where we are now.” “Sometimes it feels like maybe in those moments when the speak name and the logo [were] chosen for the band, it almost felt like maybe we didn’t even know how deep that significance was,” she said. “It’s like remembering and reintroducing it, and popularizing it to the public, getting other people to remember too, you know?” Hugo added. “We were drawn to this, then other people will be too, but maybe they just haven’t been exposed to it.” The band set out on its own path of discovery, eventually recruiting enough musicians to fill out a seven-piece band and round out its sound. The current roster includes DMDTheProducer, the group’s bassist, drummer Kenny O, also of the Flobots, guitarist and arranger Adrian Garay, and Eastlin, a multi-instrumentalist and “computer guy.” With a deep history of intersectionality, the band naturally blends its various musical influences and inspiration with its members’ lived experience. The group delivers club hits alongside modern takes on time-honored protest songs through a Latin/rap/rock lens. The title track from their 2025 full-length record “Si Se Puede” is a tribal-sounding roll call blending rock and reggaeton, with O1, Juice and Castañeda’s rapid Spanglish rap verses alternating in an anthemic call to action over DMD’s infectiously progressive beats. Over time, the group naturally found there were two different projects underway with Castañeda creating her own sound and solo project. More of a parallel project than a side-piece, this vehicle allows her to fully curate her own artistic vision while still being musically supported by her SMX2 bandmates, especially DMDTheProducer. Even with the overlap, figuring out which songs should go with which project happens intuitively, according to Castañeda. “It’s a complex feeling, and I’ve always told myself I’m going to honor the expressions that need to come through me because 2MX2 and Lolita perform at Denver’s Underground Music Showcase. Photo by Jordan Altergott it is alchemy, and it is doing something for me, and it is very important for my soul,” she explained. “I know when a song resonates with me and feels like me. I also know when a song feels more like a 2MX2 track. It’s almost just like this feeling that happens.” 2MX2’s music is mostly community-centered and it has been translated into interactive curriculum for kids, community members, elders and everyone in between. Castañeda’s music is almost exclusively for more mature audiences and is guaranteed to get your back up off the wall at the club, like her pop/ reggaeton single and video for “Chi-Chi Suelta,” a tantalizing ode to the sexiness of femininity. The community-centered component of 2MX2’s music shows up in a variety of ways. Their first foray was a performance with the Voco Coalition. The partnership was a success, and doors in the educational realm started opening. “They would just see the impact we had on the kids, and we enjoyed it because we just saw ourselves on the other side,” O1 said. “We’re the guys that come to the schools and talk about music now. Those people that went to our schools [when we were young] were the reason that we kept wanting to be musicians.” Since then, the two groups have branched out beyond Denver, making lasting connections in the San Luis Valley and Mexico City. They continue to spread their message of unity, while finding the spaces where they can be whole and complete humans, showcasing all the beauty and wonder that is possible beyond any human-made border. Keep up to date with the group at www.2mx2.com. DENVER VOICE OCTOBER 2026 5
Danielle Connor Is Still Drawing Herself How a Denver native became a best-selling comic artist, and found acceptance in the community Story and Photos by Giles Clasen DANIELLE CONNOR’S FIRST PAIR OF WOMEN’S JEANS came from Walmart. One might not notice they had smaller pockets, hugged her frame a little tighter and were cut a little lower. It would be easy to mistake them for tight-fitting men’s pants during the skinny jean era. But for Connor, they were special: They affirmed her true and hidden identity as a woman. What wasn’t hidden was her rising career. Conner first drew and wrote independent comics while working as a special education teacher at Denver Public Schools in 2008. Her first printed comics were adaptations of “A Mid Summer Night’s Dream” and “Dracula,” published by Abdo and released to schools and libraries nationally and translated into multiple languages. By 2018, Connor had published works for titles as big as “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” “My Gal, The Zombie,” “Archie” and “Casper.” Then, in 2018, she reached a new milestone: writing the manga series “Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas – The Battle for Pumpkin King” published by Tokyo Pop in partnership with Disney and Tim Burton. The book eventually became a New York Times bestseller. “It was amazing to get ‘Nightmare.’ I love the series and the movie,” Connor said. “It was a long shot, and I just really kept at it, like, getting the work, and I couldn’t believe I got it. It literally changed my life.” Back then, all her comics were signed “Dan Connor.” “I got to work on all these things and get my name on it: Danielle Connor wearing her feminine jeans and shirt in 2022. ‘Dan.’ But I felt I knew I wasn’t Dan,” she said. “I started signing everything as Connor. I was leaving Dan off because I didn’t know where I wanted to go. It was a long time before I started signing my work Danielle.” Connor had known since she was a small child that something about her didn’t match the boy she was born as. She came out to her Southern Baptist parents as gay at 11 years old — she didn’t have the language for transgender identity yet, so gay was the closest fit. “Their response was, ‘Let’s talk about it,’ but they definitely were trying to push me to be who I am not,” Connor said. “They didn’t hate me, they didn’t say, ‘We’re getting rid of you,’ but they did remind me where they feel the Bible stands on being gay.” Connor’s faith was deep then and now. She has always struggled with bringing her understanding of the Bible in line with her identity as a woman. Raised by a Southern Baptist pastor, Connor can quote a lot of Scripture. But Connor’s journey to go from Dan to Danielle in her 30s coincided with her world falling apart. Connor’s wife left her in 2020, taking care of their two children as, not long after, doctors found leukemia in Connor’s blood that ultimately landed her in a coma and nearly killed her. It was her father who carried her to every doctor’s appointment. “My dad gave up his retirement years to go carry me by my belt while I tried to walk upstairs, and drive me to chemo every day in 2-degree weather of Denver instead of sunny Florida,” Connor said. “I had no one else to do it and that is real love.” The cancer and chemotherapy left Connor permanently 6 COMMUNITY PROFILE
Danielle Connor’s makeup sets are often branded with comics she’s drawn or written for, like ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.’ disabled with nerve damage in her hands and feet – ending her professional drawing days. But the side effects also changed her body — she looked more feminine and was more in line with who she had always seen herself as. “I noticed the breast development after my chemotherapy and it was kind of like a big moment because I was like, well, if my body is changing then there is no more hiding,” she said. But her new body faced the same old bad luck: Connor lost her house when the divorce was finalized. Her first experience in homelessness included renting a hotel room in Denver for a few months in 2021. She then made a desperate choice when she ran out of options: she moved into her uncle’s old RV, a free home on wheels. Her original plan was to park the RV on the streets of Denver at night to sleep, but safety and the police made her look eastward. In 2022 Connor drove her RV to Chadron, Nebraska, where she thought it would be more affordable. She also started wearing women’s clothes and makeup full time. She carried her Ninja Turtles makeup kits with her everywhere, proud that she had contributed to the series and was now shading her eyes in the brand’s palette. “My family tried to talk me out of it. My daughter would be like, that’s a woman’s jacket,” Connor said. “I was like, ‘That’s punk rock. I’m different, and it’s punk rock to be different.’” Connor quickly found acceptance in the world, though, when she began making appearances at comic and pop culture conventions as Danielle at the end of that same year. “I asked [the convention staff], ‘Would you change my badge to Danielle?’ And they said yes. That was a really freaking big thing for me then,” Connor said. “Then it went further. The fans lined up to get my signature or to have me draw something for them and they didn’t care that I was wearing makeup and being a woman. Some even told me I looked cute and it was amazing.” Connor signs books around the country at major conventions like Comic-Con International in San Diego and MegaCon in Orlando, but she makes special trips to Denver as frequently as possible to sign comics and meet fans at Mile High Comics. Chuck Rozanski started Mile High Comics in 1969 when he was 13. He has built his store from his parents’ basement into what he says is the largest comic book store in the country. Rozanski began exploring his gender identity in his 50s after his brain swelled following a bout of West Nile Virus encephalitis and now identifies as gender fluid. He also strongly believes that comics can help make space for people from all backgrounds. “I think the comics are a medium that allows for expression of pretty much any idea or any worldview,” he said. “And I think that sometimes that gets focused a little bit too much on the sort of ‘Iron Man Tony Stark billionaire’ who makes himself into a hero kind of a thing. And it’s not that way in America. In America, there are people in every economic group that have a story to tell and comics can tell those stories too.” Rozanski said comics work differently than other media. Danielle Connor signs comics for fans at Mile High Comics in 2024. DENVER VOICE OCTOBER 2026 7
“Comics are a great way for people to do things inexpensively because it doesn’t take that much to get your own comic going. Getting it to sell, that’s another question,” Rozanski said. “But you can definitely create your art, share different ideas and perspectives, maybe change a mind.” That’s how Rozanski sees Connor’s work. “When Danielle is putting it out there that she’s trans, people need to be aware that this is not some sort of deviant condition. tThis is something that exists as a normality. Every reader is in some way influenced by that,” Rozanski said. “Some of them may connect with Danielle and see everything a little different. Some of them may be repulsed. But in general, the conveying of ideas is much more interactive within the comics community than it would be in almost any other art form. Connor digs into her own history to tell stories today, such as in the independent comics “Ninja High School” and “Tomorrow Girl.” Patricia Krmpotich, a longtime collaborator and friend, has watched Connor’s journey firsthand. The two met in 2015 when Connor was doing a signing at the Barnes & Noble bookstore where Krmpotich worked, and their partnership grew from there — first through video projects, then into comics. “She not only gave me all of the advice, encouragement, and pointers on how to write a comic, but she also allowed me to make my start playing in the ‘My Gal, The Zombie’ playground,” Krmpotich said. “From there, we became a solid team.” Krmpotich has seen Connor’s writing open up since her transition. “I see a tangible joy,” Krmpotich said. “She can finally write about topics that she’s very passionate about with an authentic perspective and voice. There’s nothing holding her back now and you can see the joy in the freedom.” Connor’s move to Nebraska didn’t go as planned. The Midwest was more affordable, but the cold and barren land of Western Nebraska proved brutal. “Nebraska has RV year-round campgrounds, so I thought I could make it,” Connor said. “But I wasn’t ready for the cold. “Everything froze. I couldn't keep water to drink because it froze.” Despite their help, Connor’s parents have never come around to her feminine identity. By the time she moved to Florida, Connor had begun wearing dresses and other women’s clothing, expanding her wardrobe beyond women’s jeans and shirts. She said her father has told her plainly, “You need to dress like a man.” Connor said that her mother has been a little gentler, but no less firm. She’s told Connor to “Just be the man God wants you to be.” Connor said her parents showed her love and support when she had nowhere else to go. “I sacrifice a lot to live as who I am or as the person that I Everything froze. I couldn’t keep water to drink because it froze. I spent the week of Christmas sleeping in my friend’s comic book store.” This was when Connor was at her lowest. “My depression and my gender dysphoria work in correlation with each other. I spent a lot of 2021, 2022, 2023 in bed,” she said. “I’d been through a lot. I couldn’t get out of bed to shave or do anything.” Connor was only able to escape homelessness with the help of her parents, who invited her to stay with them and helped her obtain a mobile home — a stationary one this time — in sunny Florida. like seeing in the mirror,” Connor said. “It puts strain on our relationship when they tell me the Bible says that God detests when women dress like men, and that men shouldn’t dress like women. While they show me great love, anyone that disagrees with how I live hurts. There’s disagreement there, but they still love me.” Her parents refuse to call her anything but Dan. They still ask her not to wear overly feminine clothing and makeup around them. Connor mostly obliges because keeping them in her life matters more to her than winning the argument. “I stopped pushing the envelope with them,” Connor said. “I want to make it more comfortable for them because I know it’s hard, and they’re being very loving to me and supportive of me. But I do wear foundation and light make-up, and sometimes I don’t care and just show up in my women’s clothes.” What really hurts Connor is that her relationship with her children has grown strained since the divorce. To avoid tensions that may arise from her transition, Connor dresses more conservatively around them, drops most of the makeup and wears plain shirts if that’s what they ask for. She said it wasn’t the depression, the cancer or the homelessness that has been the hardest. “Being without my kids is the greatest loss of my life,” Connor said. “I would do anything to be with my kids again. I would detransition to live with my kids. Well, to the most that I could. I would go back to wearing just the jeans, and plain shirts.” Connor is determined to find a life where she can keep building her relationships without leaving behind her identity. Danielle Connor signs comics at Comic-Con International in 2024 at the Tokyopop booth. 8
Voting While Homeless GETTING A HOME OF HER OWN meant more than having four walls and a roof to protect Sondra Jeffries from the weather. Jeffries was homeless in Denver for seven years before she The missing time, news and money to cast a ballot while unhoused Story by Robert Davis got a housing voucher from the Denver Department of Housing Stability. She now lives in Croft Apartments in southeast Denver. While she no longer worries about freezing to death on Denver’s streets during the winter, Jeffries now has grander plans in mind — she says she will vote in the November election. That’s a big change for Jeffries, who told Denver VOICE in an interview that voting while experiencing homelessness is excruciatingly difficult. “If there was a voting station by one of the nonprofit shelters or just downtown somewhere and I was brought there, and I had an idea, I would have voted,” Jeffries said. “If I could access it or I had seen it, yes, I would have voted.” Voting is about more than choosing between political candidates. It is a means of participating in a community, and electing representatives who embody a voter’s values. Voting also gives people who are homeless a voice in policy decisions about affordable housing, health care access and social safetynet programs. But voting also presents a Catch-22 for the unhoused. Voting can be a time-consuming activity that requires people who are homeless to divert time away from finding food, work, participating in services and connecting with friends and loved ones. Meeting these basic needs often outweighs the civic duty of voting. Jeffries explained that there were several factors that prevented her from voting while she was homeless, like the burdensome costs of travel to go cast a ballot. Jeffries also said she did not have regular access to information about the candidates to make an informed decision. She also couldn’t get mail or access the voting booth on more than one occasion because she had her identification taken from her while she lived unsheltered. “There were just too many barriers that got in the way of my ability to vote,” Jeffries said. Jeffries’ experience also reveals a truth that has been percolating across the United States. for several years: It’s hard to care about a lofty idea like Democracy when someone has no idea where they’re going to sleep or when they can eat their next meal. Data from the Denver Elections Division supports that claim. About one in five people who are homeless and registered to vote participate in any election. That figure includes people who registered to vote using the address of a local homeless shelter. The economic pinch Denverites are feeling from the rising cost of living correlates with declining voter participation rates more broadly in local elections. More than 186,000 ballots were cast in the 2019 municipal general election, representing about 46% of all possible ballots, compared to 175,515 ballots, representing 39% of the total, cast in the 2023 election. That happened at a time when the cost of living in the Denver metro area increased by roughly 20% between 2019 and 2023, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The federal government has sought to create new barriers that would make it more difficult for people like Jeffries to vote. For instance, President Donald Trump’s administration has sought to eliminate mail-in ballots, which people who are homeless often use. The administration also has sought to implement new rules prohibiting organizations such as homeless shelters and senior living facilities from assisting with mail-in ballots or transporting people to polling locations. Helping people who are homeless access the voting booth could have a significant impact on public policies that address homelessness, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition. “From the ballot box to the halls of Congress, people experiencing homelessness deserve a say in the policies that affect their lives,” NLIHC explains. “Our policies are stronger when they are shaped by directly impacted communities and elected leaders who represent their interests.” Denver VOICE vendor Sondra Jeffries often contributes columns to the Denver VOICE. Photo by Giles Clasen DENVER VOICE FEATURE 9
Julieth Kennedy was planning to leave Eagle when her apartment complex was listed for sale, opening the door for a new owner to more than triple the rents. But a unique partnership with state and local governments and a Denver developer renovated the 120-unit Eagle Villas and kept rents well below market rates. (Betsy Welch, Special to The Colorado Sun) Renters In This Western Colorado Town Were Almost Displaced. Here's How A Public-Private Partnership Kept Them Home. When affordable housing restrictions at Eagle Villas expired, and the complex was put on the market, 120 families were at risk of losing their homes EAGLE — WHEN JULIETH KENNEDY talks about what makes living at Eagle Villas special, her face lights up. “The kids,” she says. “This is a kids’ property. They run this place.” She points to the playground behind the apartment complex’s leasing office, where the bright orange spiral of a slide glistens in the sun. It’s a place her five children, ages 3 to 12, know well. “My kids love being here,” she says. “When it’s warm they bike to school. The bus drops them off out front. They have friends nonstop. They would always say, ‘We don’t wanna go over there!’” “Over there,” in Kennedy’s case, meant Aurora, where she frantically searched for housing in 2023 as the affordability restrictions on Eagle Villas approached expiration and the 120unit complex in Eagle was listed for sale on the open market. Then Ulysses Development Group, a Denver-based affordable-housing developer, stepped in. UDG acquired Eagle Villas in 2024 and, working with the Eagle County Housing and Development Authority and the state, put together a financing package to preserve the property as income-restricted housing and renovate all 120 apartments. The deal highlights a lesser-known challenge of affordable housing: units and complexes that were designated affordable decades ago do not necessarily stay that way forever. As affordability restrictions expire, communities face a difficult choice: let the properties go to the open market, potentially displacing the residents, or find new money to acquire the homes and keep rents low. While cheaper than building new affordable housing, preserving affordability also comes at a price. But Tori Franks, Eagle County’s resiliency director, said the cost of losing those homes can be much higher. “The cost of losing low-income units, especially in our highcost community, is so much more than replacing the units, which is immense,” she said. “There are real community costs to the loss of affordable housing, which include displacement, job loss and employers needing to recruit new employees, children missing school due to relocation and social infrastructure loss.” Kennedy would have suffered many of those losses. She had begun calling around for apartments in Aurora because she knew there was nothing she could afford in Eagle. But having to move would mean more than losing her home. Kennedy’s mother and her children’s paternal grandparents and aunts live nearby and help with childcare. Her kids attend school up the Story by Betsy Welch for The Colorado Sun hill behind the complex. “It would have been depressing for them and definitely hard on them too if we’d had to move,” she said. 10 NEWS
A 60-YEAR AFFORDABILITY PROMISE Eagle Villas is a 120-unit apartment complex on Nogal Road in Eagle, built in two phases in 1994 and 1996. It is the largest income-restricted housing complex in the town of Eagle, with apartments reserved for households earning roughly 45% to 60% of the area median income, or between $62,415 and $83,229 for a family of four. The property was built with the help of the federal LowIncome Housing Tax Credit program, which uses tax incentives to encourage private investment in affordable housing. Investors receive tax benefits in exchange for putting equity into these projects, while properties receiving the credits agree to keep rents affordable for a specified period of time. That allows developers to finance housing that rents for less than the market would otherwise support. A constellation of regulatory agreements determines the affordability time period, which usually isn’t forever. And as the restrictions expire, a new owner can gradually raise rents toward market rates. “At Eagle Villas, that would have been pretty substantial,” said Blaise Rastello, UDG’s vice president of development. “They could charge rents two and a half to three times more than what people were paying. If a buyer isn’t interested in maintaining an affordable property, they can let those regulations expire and displace families.” It was exactly the scenario Eagle County wanted to avoid. The county oversees more than 1,700 units of deed-restricted housing, ranging from apartments for low-income households to deed-restricted homes for higher-income residents. But like Eagle Villas, some of its older affordable housing stock was built in the 1990s and early 2000s, and some of those properties are now approaching the end of their affordability restrictions. The county is currently aware of about 192 units facing that risk within the next six or seven years, Franks said. Eagle Villas became especially urgent because the property was already on the market. UDG initially submitted an offer to buy the complex but lost to a market-rate buyer. When that buyer backed out of the contract, UDG came back to Eagle County with a proposal: Help us acquire Eagle Villas, the company said, and we’ll preserve the property as affordable housing and make the investment needed to keep the aging complex viable. “We want partnerships,” Rastello said. “We wanted the county with us.” The Eagle County Housing and Development Authority had wanted to buy Eagle Villas itself but didn’t have the funds to go it alone, so the agency became a partner in the deal, Rastello said. In 2024, UDG acquired Eagle Villas in 2024 for about $40 million. Over the next 11 months, the company assembled financing for a major renovation. Eagle County’s Housing and Development Authority contributed a $4 million loan and helped secure a $5 million loan from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs. DOLA also helped with a $3.4 million loan through its Affordable Housing Revolving Loans and HOME funds. JPMorgan Chase provided $41.4 million in construction financing and $25.4 million in permanent financing, while the National Equity Fund invested $22.9 million in equity. The complicated financing package was necessary because preserving an aging affordable-housing complex is not simply a matter of buying it and keeping the rents low. “All of the capital to do the renovations was not available when we put in the offer and got contracts,” Rastello said. “We were transparent with the county and state that the property needed renovation if we were going to hold it long term and maintain affordability.” KEEPING EAGLE VILLAS VIABLE According to UDG, the renovation itself cost about $12.6 million. The work went far beyond cosmetic improvements. The property received new siding, windows and roofs, additional insulation, new water heaters and heating systems, remodeled kitchens and bathrooms, new flooring and lighting, solar panels and improvements to the playground. Residents moved into an extended-stay hotel for about four or five days while work was completed in their apartments. The paved Eagle Valley Trail abuts the recently renovated Eagle Villas complex, which offers affordable rents for 120 units along the Eagle River. (Betsy Welch, Special to The Colorado Sun) DENVER VOICE OCTOBER 2026 11 For Kennedy, the renovations were welcome, but came with another fear. “That was the question everyone would ask: Is the rent gonna go up a lot?” she said. Residents were told about the renovation plans at meetings at the property, Kennedy said. They were given moving boxes and tape and told which moving company would help them relocate temporarily. In the end, the apartments came back better without becoming unaffordable. “It looks beautiful,” Kennedy said. “It’s so different.” Kennedy now pays $1,946 a month for a three-bedroom apartment. When she first moved into Eagle Villas seven years ago, the same type of apartment cost $1,399. Her rent has risen gradually over the years, including an increase of roughly $100 after the renovation. That is still a different universe from the market-rate housing she was looking at during the scare. At The Pike, a new apartment complex in Eagle, a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment rents for about $3,500 a month. She has seen what happens when people can’t afford to stay. One family she knows moved to Denver because they could no longer find affordable housing in Eagle. Now, Kennedy said, they are trying to return because their children miss their friends and community here. “They have no life there,” she said. “They have a lot of friends at Eagle Villas.” The county says preserving Eagle Villas was substantially less expensive than replacing the apartments with new construction — and it prevented social disruption to a well-established part of Eagle’s community. “The cost to preserve deed restricted units or preserve existing housing units is only a fraction of the cost to build new units,” Franks said. WHY UDG DOES IT UDG is a for-profit developer, and preserving properties like Eagle Villas is its business. Rastello said affordable housing can be financially viable precisely because of the tax credits and public financing that make it possible to charge rents below the market rate. “The reality is, whether you’re for-profit or nonprofit, you’re running a business,” he said. “You have to cover your costs.” Affordable housing also gives developers a way to build a business around something that has a tangible public benefit, he said. “I think everyone you’ll meet in this industry are professionals making a living and supporting their families,” Rastello said. “They’re also seeing tangible results of the work, which is creating housing that’s affordable for other families in locations that are really high-cost places to live. It’s helping other families.” UDG makes money primarily through development fees rather than the cash flow from rents, Rastello said. The company can earn fees as it puts a project together and gets it operating, while investors receive tax benefits for providing equity. That structure allows a developer to invest in a property where rents are capped by affordability requirements rather than dictated by the market. In Eagle Villas, UDG ultimately invested in a property that will remain affordable for six decades. THE PRESERVATION PROBLEM Rastello grew up in Steamboat Springs and has watched housing costs rise across Colorado’s resort communities. He argues that preserving existing affordable housing can be dramatically cheaper than building new housing from scratch. “To build Eagle Villas new today — to buy the land and build it — would probably cost $700,000-800,000 per unit,” he said. “We were able to do it for about $500,000 per unit and about $325,000 was just the cost to acquire the existing buildings. “It’s really, really important that these communities learn how to preserve existing stock.” Preservation, he said, just requires political will, good policy and dedicated resources. Franks said the Eagle Villas project also showed the importance of flexibility among government agencies and private developers. Funding programs were not designed neatly for a project like Eagle Villas — an existing affordable property whose restrictions were expiring while the property was being marketed as a free-market investment. “To preserve Eagle Villas, all parties — UDG, ECHDA and the State/DOLA — had to be open in negotiating outside their ‘normal’ guidelines,” she said. Eagle County officials say many of their newer deed restrictions are designed to last permanently. But properties developed under older affordable-housing programs can still reach the point where communities must decide whether to invest new money to keep them affordable. “Funding set aside for preservation of units with expiring or threatened affordable restrictions would be very helpful,” Franks said. For all the complexity involved in preserving an affordable housing complex — the tax credits, public loans, private investment and years of regulatory agreements — the result is simple for Kennedy: her family doesn’t have to move.
IN YOUR OWN WORDS Words from our vendors on their life and times, what they’re thinking and feeling, for their neighbors to know and share. RAELENE JOHNSON DENVER VOICE VENDOR Stop and Listen THERE ARE A LOT OF THINGS we should stop and listen to: People who are trying to tell you something, your teachers when they’re trying to help you and your parents as they’re just trying to teach you right from wrong because they love you. Sometimes, though, we don’t pay attention to what our bodies are trying to tell us. Your body will tell you when it’s tired, when it’s hungry, and your body will try to tell you when it’s sick. Sometimes, we can hear what our bodies are trying to tell us, at other times we don’t pay attention at all. And sometimes trying to figure out what’s wrong with your body by yourself can end up costing you your life or very close to your life because you think that you can take care of whatever the problem is by yourself. Last month, I came close to death. My lungs were shutting down on me from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and I just kept thinking that I can take care of this. I got the medicine — I didn’t want to go to the emergency room for no reason. Thinking that you can take care of it yourself and you don’t need the doctors to intervene for you can quickly go wrong. When you struggle to breathe, part of a side effect is that your heart gets stressed out with what’s called “broken heart syndrome.” It means your heart has gone into a critical condition from lack of oxygen and it is slowly shutting down. Being overly stressed and worrisome also can lead to broken heart syndrome because your heart never gets a break from stress. When your oxygen levels are chronically low, your brain cannot function and your heart starts struggling to keep you alive. Pumping blood through your system when it’s lacking oxygen can kill you. That’s what happened to me last month. It wasn’t until good friends of mine stepped in and told me I had to go to the hospital that I listened. I have to give a shout out to my friend Karen for taking care of my puppy while I was in the hospital! The hospital stay should have never happened — if I had gone to the emergency room, they could have taken care of my lung issues and I wouldn’t have come that close to death. I know now that I have to listen at the onset of not feeling well. The doctor said, “We would rather have you for a few hours than for days or a week.” I thank God and my higher power, Jesus Christ, I survived that crisis and learned a valuable lesson about paying attention to what’s going on with my body. I’m sharing this story because a lot of people don’t realize that broken heart syndrome is something that will literally kill you. It’s not “Oh, I lost somebody who I love and they don’t love me no more.” Tightness or pain in your chest or the feeling of a vice grip around your heart — if this happens, get help! I share my story to uplift and inspire, give hope to people or share true facts that people are not aware of. I hope sharing my near-death story helps someone. Please take care of yourselves out there. On a Positive Note MASKS ARE A FUN THING TO WEAR at Halloween. But what about the masks we wear in other situations? Are those masks a fraud? Think about the professional mask, the strong mask, the pleasant mask, or the empathetic mask. Do these different faces show who we truly are? Are we being our authentic selves? I can only speak for myself. The mask I wear is the one that SONDRA JEFFRIES DENVER VOICE VENDOR seems most appropriate for the moment. It may not match how I feel that day or what I truly want to show, but it’s the most kind and positive mask I can wear. Sometimes, I may not be in the mood to smile, listen a little longer, or be kind when others are not. Even through the trauma of my past and the daily pain in my body, I tell myself to “Fake it until you make it.” Positive energy out brings positive energy in. I do whatever it takes to get through the day. Of course, there are times when I’m alone and need to call someone and cry. The mask I wear does not always match the feelings I have on the inside. However, positively speaking — and this is my truth — most of the time it does. What I put out into the world is reciprocated, and I begin to realize that this positive person is my authentic self. I hope the mask you wear this season does not make you boo-hoo. Instead, I hope it makes you decide to keep it as a permanent part of your collection. Happy Halloween, my friends! 12 COLUMN
Myth #2: Most People Experiencing Homelessness Abuse Alcohol and Drugs. A TYPICAL MISUNDERSTANDING on the part of many Americans is that most of the unhoused abuse alcohol and drugs. This, as it turns out, is another one of the many myths about homelessness. The image of a publicly inebriated man weaving his way down DONALD BURNES VICE PRESIDENT BOARD OF DIRECTORS DENVER VOICE the street looking totally unkempt or of a badly dressed person shooting up in an alleyway has been ingrained into our psyches through various media; however, according to the most recent Annual Homelessness Assessment Report from January 2025, only 14.96% of the total unhoused population, or about 111,500 out of 745,600 individuals surveyed at that time, indicated having chronic substance abuse. Why do so many of us have these mistaken attitudes about people experiencing homelessness? There have been significant legislative and policy changes that have influenced our thinking, and one of these is the decriminalization of alcoholism and public drunkenness. In the mid-1950s the World Health Organization and the American Medical Association agreed that alcoholism was a physiological disease. Then in 1970 and 1971, Congress enacted two pieces of legislation — the Hughes Act and the Uniform Alcoholism and Intoxication Treatment Act — that funded detoxification centers and shifted responsibility for dealing with public inebriates away from the criminal justice system. Unfortunately, the promise of a huge influx of detox and treatment centers for alcoholism never really materialized, as only a small percentage of such facilities were ever created. Working in the early 1980s as a director of a direct services agency for homelessness, I can remember discussions of a huge public inebriates’ warehouse, a cavernous hall, about 25 miles south of the District of Columbia in a town called Occoquan. On busy nights, the warehouse housed 1,200-1,500 public inebriates on mats and cots. Following the passage of the two federal pieces of legislation, this warehouse closed completely, but without adequate facilities of care, these inebriates had nowhere to go. Many joined the ranks of the unhoused. Starting in the late 1960s and continuing to today, the entrance of various illegal drugs has fueled a national drug culture. With the advent of cocaine and crack, PCP, and meth, the illegal drug culture exploded, leaving some of its users unhoused. In Denver, there has always been an inadequate supply of treatment for alcoholism and drug addiction. This paucity was exacerbated by the closing in 2019 of Arapahoe House, a prominent alcohol and drug treatment center with satellite facilities throughout the metro area. The void has never been adequately filled. With all these influences, it is no wonder many of us think of the homeless population as a large homogeneous group of substance addicted people even though national data provide strong evidence that such perceptions are untrue. What then are we to do about this myth? First, let’s remember that there are far more housed people who have significant substance abuse issues than there are unhoused people, and many of us, when confronted by a relative or friend with such an addiction, try everything we can to assist the abuser. Why can’t we do that for the unhoused? Furthermore, as Kevin Nye says in his seminal book, Grace Can Lead Us Home, “homelessness causes substance abuse as often as, or more often than, substance use causes homelessness.” Nye, p.125 Nye goes on to say, “The lack of safety, security, and basic necessities afforded by homelessness is, in many ways, a constant trauma. Since people experiencing homelessness are already likely victims of traumatic environments, it is easy to see how substance abuse would become so appealing. People use drugs because they work” to ease the pain, to calm the nerves, to help sleep, to give people confidence and energy to face the day, to keep people awake to protect their belongings. Nye, p. 149 We must put aside our negative attitudes and realize the unhoused deserve help in dealing with their substance use disorders. We need to push for more treatment facilities. We need to come together as a community and argue for better and more humane understanding of substance use disorders among the unhoused. Helping to destroy this myth will make life better for all of us. Donald Burnes has co-authored four books on poverty and homelessness, and has studied poverty and homelessness-related issues and policies for more than 40 years. Burnes joined the Denver VOICE board of directors in June of 2025. He received his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, a master’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis, and a PhD from Columbia University Teachers’ College. EVERYONE CAN VOTE People without a home address, such as those who are unhoused, can still vote in local and federal elections. People who are homeless may register using the address of their “home base,” according to the Colorado Secretary of State’s Offi ce. “Home base” includes, but is not limited to: • A location the voter regularly returns to and intends to remain, like a park, vacant lot, RV park, or homeless shelter. • Any place where a voter can receive personalized mail, including a friend’s house or a post offi ce box. Homeless shelters and service providers are allowed to help people who are homeless register to vote, and people facing an eviction also are allowed to vote: • If someone still lives at their address before an election, even while an eviction case is ongoing, they do not have to update their registration. • People who have been evicted before an election is conducted need to update their address with their local County Clerk to ensure they receive their ballot. DENVER VOICE OCTOBER 2026 13
WHAT DIFFICULTIES HAVE YOU FACED VOTING WHILE EXPERIENCING HOMELESSNESS? This column is a place for Denver VOICE vendors to respond to questions from fellow vendors, our readers, and staff. How do I feel about voting! I feel very priveledge when I vote because it allows me to have a say in our american democracy! Sometimes I feel that ALBERT BLAND DENVER VOICE VENDOR its being persuaded to make people feel that the voting process is being dictated by big dollors which isn’t fair but in a country I haven’t had any difficulties voting — I believe one should vote for the most qualified individual doing a good job. It takes a lot of research to see if the person is qualified for the position. JERRY ROSEN DENVER VOICE VENDOR LIZ HUBBARD DENVER VOICE VENDOR that basically has free interprise people that has money can dictate the average american voter. Bottom line that truth comes to light an when that happens that’s when thing change an that’s by american independent rights through voting. Proud to be an American! DAVID GORDEN DENVER VOICE VENDOR You know I never voted as a homeless person, cause I never knew that I could. But now that I work at this job, The Denver VOICE, I am registered to vote now and ready to vote in the next election. Maddie, the administrative assistant, was determined to make I haven’t found any real differences, it’s still the same. The process of voting, being homeless for a decade, there were some difficulties. Mainly with being aware of what day it is, what day voting is. Keeping up on the issues on ballots, that was the hardest sure I had every opportunity to vote. She sat down and made sure I was registered. I’m very grateful for this job, it’s another manifestation of how this job changed my life. Please be sure to write your vendor’s name in the comments! part. Not the voting process itself. My process is more towards issues, and if it will directly affect my life. I don’t have much room to spare with issues that could devastate me. I’m a one issue person, is it going to affect people who are unhoused? I care more if candidates focus on homelessness. That’s the biggest thing. I don’t want it to be a policy that is going to be detrimental to the unhoused community. If you would like to help out a specific vendor by donating a few extra dollars, scan the QR code to make a payment through Venmo. Thank you! WINTER Wishlist Drop-offs are accepted Wednesdays, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., or by appointment. NEW ITEMS NEEDED: GENTLY-USED ITEMS NEEDED: • Bottled water • Non-perishable snacks (granola bars, peanut butter crackers, trail mix, etc.) • Toiletries (individual or travel-size) • Lip balm, sunscreen, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, toothpaste, deoderant, hand sanitizer • Hand warmers • Baseball caps • Socks • Men’s shoes or boots (sizes 8-12) • Men’s jackets (sizes L, XL, XXL) • Women’s jackets (sizes M, L, XL) • Backpacks, carrier bags • Scarves • Gloves • Winter hats During the winter, Denver VOICE vendors experience increased heating and housing costs. Meanwhile, their income decreases because cold temperatures means less foot traffic and fewer paper sales. Every donation counts. Thank you. @DenverVOICE 14
RESOURCE LIST MEDICAL / MENTAL HEALTH / DENTAL SERVICES ACS COMMUNITY LIFT: 5045 W. 1st Ave., Denver; https:// rentassistance.org DENVER HEALTH MEDICAL CENTER: 777 Bannock St.; https://www. denverhealth.org DETOX LOCAL: Features information including mental health and substance use resources specifically for the AAPI (American Asian and Pacific Islander) community; http://www.detoxlocal.com DRUG REHAB USA: Addiction hotline - 888-479-0446; Organizations that take Medicaid: http://www.drugrehabus.org/rehabs/ treatment/medicaid/united-states/colorado/denver HARM REDUCTION ACTION CENTER: 112 E. 8th Ave.; 303-572-7800; HIV/Hep C/ Gonorrhea/ Chlamydia testing available. Services are restricted to active IV Drug Users. Offers clean syringes to active users, as well as safety training on proper disposal of dirty syringes; M-F — 9am-12pm: http://www.harmreductionactioncenter.org INNER CITY HEALTH CENTER: 3800 York St.; Emergency walk-ins - 303296-1767; Dental — 303-296-4873; M-F - 8am-2pm LIVER HEALTH CONNECTION: 1325 S. Colorado Blvd.; Suite B302; Resources and support for those affected by Hep C. Free Hep C testing offered; 800-522-4372, 800-359-9272; info@hepcconnection.org; https://www.viventhealth.org NATIONAL AIDS HOTLINE: 800-342-AIDS/800-344-7432 NATIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION LIFELINE: Text or call 988; https:// www.988lifeline.org NATIONAL RUNAWAY SAFELINE: 800-RUNAWAY/800-786-2929; https:// www.1800runaway.org RAPE ABUSE AND INCEST NATIONAL NETWORK: 800-656-HOPE; https:// www.rainn.org SALUD CLINIC: 6255 Quebec Pkwy, Commerce City; 303-697-2583, 970-484-0999; https://www.saludclinic.org/commerce-city STOUT STREET CLINIC: 2130 Stout St.; 303-293-2220; Clinic hours for new and established patients - M, T, Th, F - 7am-4pm, W - 9am6pm; https://www.coloradocoalition.org/healthcare SUBSTANCE ABUSE REHAB GUIDE: HELPLINE — 888-493-4670; https://www.detoxrehabs.net/states/colorado/ U.S. DOMESTIC VIOLENCE HOTLINE: 800-799-7233 (English and Spanish); 800-243-7889 (TDD); https://www.thehotline.org EMERGENCY SHELTER INDIVIDUALS IN NEED OF SHELTER ARE ENCOURAGED TO GO TO “FRONT DOOR” SHELTER ACCESS POINTS: • For individual men — Denver Rescue Mission Lawrence Street Community Center, 2222 Lawrence St. • For individual women — Samaritan House, 2301 Lawrence St. • For youth ages 15-20 — Urban Peak, 1630 S. Acoma St. • Families in need of shelter should call the Connection Center at 303-295-3366. ADDITIONALLY, DENVER PARKS AND RECREATION WILL OPEN ALL CURRENTLY OPERATING RECREATION CENTERS AS DAYTIME WARMING CENTERS DURING REGULAR BUSINESS HOURS ON FRIDAY, NOV. 8 AND SATURDAY, NOV. 9, FOR PEOPLE WHO NEED A PLACE TO WARM UP. Denver Public Library locations are also available during regular business hours. Double-check library hours: denverlibrary.org/ locations. For more information about shelter access, visit denvergov.org/ findshelter or text INDOORS to 67283 for updates. DROP-IN DAYTIME CENTERS HAVEN OF HOPE: 1101 W. 7th Ave.; 303-607-0855; Mon.-Fri. 7am1pm. Private showers & bathrooms, laundry, lunch, etc; https:// www.thoh.org THE GATHERING PLACE: 1535 High St.; 303-321-4198; Mon., Wed.-Fri. 8:30am-5pm, Tues. 8:30am-1:30pm; Daytime drop-in center for women, their children, and transgender individuals; Meals, computer lab, phones, food bank, clothing, art programs, GED tutoring, referrals to other services, etc; https://www.tgpdenver.org HARM REDUCTION ACTION CENTER: 231 East Colfax; Mon.-Fri. 9am12pm; 303-572-7800; Provides clean syringes, syringe disposal, harm-reduction counseling, safe materials, Hep C/HIV education, and health education classes; https://www. harmreductionactioncenter.org LAWRENCE STREET COMMUNITY CENTER: 2222 Lawrence St.; 303-2940157; day facility, laundry, showers, restrooms, access to services FOR INDIVIDUALS IN DENVER EXPERIENCING HOMELESSNESS OR FINANCIAL INSTABILITY. DENVERVOICE.ORG/RESOURCE-LIST https://www.homelessassistance.us/li/lawrence-street-communitycenter OPEN DOOR MINISTRIES: 1567 Marion St.; Mon.-Fri. 7am-5:30pm. Drop-in center; bathrooms, coffee/tea, snacks, resources, WIFI https://www.odmdenver.org T. FRANCIS CENTER: 303-297-1576; 2323 Curtis St. 6am-6pm daily. Storage for one bag (when space is available). Satellite Clinic hoursMon., Tues., Thurs, Fri. 7:30am-3:30pm; Wed. 12:30-4:30pm https://www.sfcdenver.org SENIOR SUPPORT SERVICES: 846 E. 18th Ave. For those 60+. TV room, bus tokens, mental/physical health outreach, and more. https:// www.seniorsupportservices.org SOX PLACE (YOUTH SERVICES): 2017 Larimer St. Daytime drop-in shelter for youth 12-30 years old. Meals, socks, clothing bank, personal hygiene supplies, internet access, intentional mentoring and guidance, crisis intervention, referrals to other services. Tues.Fri. 12-4pm & Sat. 11-2pm. https://www.soxplace.com THE SPOT AT URBAN PEAK (YOUTH SERVICES): 2100 Stout St. 303-2910442. Drop-in hours Mon.-Fri. 8-11am. YOUTH AGED 15-20 IN NEED OF IMMEDIATE OVERNIGHT SHELTER SERVICES: 303-974-2928 https://www.urbanpeak.org/denver/programs-andservices/drop-in-center URBAN PEAK (YOUTH SERVICES): Youth 14-24 in Denver and Colorado Springs. Overnight shelter, food, clothing, showers, case workers, job skills and training, ID and birth certificate assistance, GED assistance, counseling and housing. 730 21st St. 303-974-2900 https://www. urbanpeak.org FREE MEALS CAPITOL HEIGHTS PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH: 1100 Fillmore St., Sat. lunch at 11:30am; https://www.capitolheightspresbyterian.org CAPITOL HILL COMMUNITY SERVICES: https://www.mealsforpoor.org CATHEDRAL OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION: 1530 Logan St.; sandwiches & coffee Mon.-Fri. 8:30am; https://www. denvercathedral.org CHRIST’S BODY MINISTRIES: 850 Lincoln; Mon. closed, Tues.-Thurs. 10am-3pm, Fri. 8am-11pm; groceries & hot meal on Sat. at 2pm (at 16th & York); Sun. church service at 6pm, dinner at 7pm; https:// www.christsbody.org CHRIST IN THE CITY: Home-cooked meal, weekly; Lunch in the Park is on Wednesdays from 12-1 at Benedict Fountain Park (Tremont and 22nd); https://www.christinthecity.org CITYSQUARE DENVER: 2575 S. Broadway; 303-783-3777; Food pantry Tues. 10am-6pm; https://www.citysquare.org CAPITOL HILL COMMUNITY SERVICES: 1820 Broadway (in front of Trinity United Methodist Church); Hot meals served M, T, Th., F - 11:45-12:15; https://www.mealsforpoor.org DENVER RESCUE MISSION: 1130 Park Avenue West; 303-294-0157; 3 meals 7 days/week, 5:30am, 12pm, 6pm; https://www. denverrescuemission.org HAVEN OF HOPE: 1101 W. 7th Ave.; 303-607-0855; M-F. 7am-1pm. Not open weekends; Breakfast is at 8am, lunch is served at 11am; https://www.havenofhope.org HARE KRISHNA TEMPLE: 1400 Cherry St., free vegetarian feast on Sun., 6:45-7:30pm; https://www.krishnadenver.com HIS LOVE FELLOWSHIP CHURCH: 910 Kalamath St.; Community dinner on Thurs., 6-6:45pm, Men’s breakfast 1st Sat. of the month, 8-10am, Women’s breakfast 2nd Sat., 9-11am; https://www.hislovefellowship. org HOLY GHOST CATHOLIC CHURCH: 1900 California St.; Sandwiches, M-Sat., 10-10:30am; https://www.holyghostchurch.org OPEN DOOR MINISTRIES: 1567 Marion St.; 303-830-2201; Sat. morning breakfast: 8am, Sun. dinner (required church attendance at 4:30pm); meal served at 6pm; https://www.odmdenver.org/home ST. ELIZABETH’S: Speer Blvd. & Arapahoe St. on Auraria Campus, 7 days/week, 11:00am; Food, coffee; https://www.stelizabethdenver. org ST. FRANCIS CENTER: 2323 Curtis St., Wed. & Fri. 3-4:30pm (except third Wed. of each month); https://www.sfcdenver.org SAME CAFÉ: 2023 E. Colfax Ave; 720-530-6853;Restaurant serving mostly organic food—not free, but pay what you can or work off your meal in the kitchen; Open Mon.-Sat., 11am to 2pm, Closed Sun. & holidays; https://www.soallmayeat.org VOLUNTEERS OF AMERICA: 2877 Lawrence St., breakfast (8am), lunch (11:30am), dinner (5pm) Mon.-Thurs., 12pm on Fri., 1pm on Sun. Food & clothing bank 9:30am-4pm Mon.-Thurs.; https://www. voacolorado.org/gethelp-denvermetro-foodnutrition-themission LGBTQ+ SUPPORT THE TREVOR PROJECT: 866-488-7386: https://www.thetrevorproject. org LGBT NATIONAL YOUTH TALKLINE: 800-246-7743: https://www. lgbthotline.org/youth-talkline PRIDE INSTITUTE: 800-547-7433 TRUE COLORS UNITED: 212-461-4401, https://www.truecolorsunited. org VETERANS & SENIORS DENVER INNER CITY PARISH: 1212 Mariposa St.; 303-322-5733; VOA Dining Center for Seniors, aged 60 and older, W-Sat. 9am-12pm; Food Bank, W-F; Tickets at 9am, food bank open 10am-12pm; dicp. org SENIOR SUPPORT SERVICES: 846 E. 18th Ave.; For those aged 60 or older; TV room, bus tokens, mental/physical health outreach, 3 meals, M-F -7am-7pm; Sun. 11am-4pm; https://www. seniorsupportservices.org VA MEDICAL CENTER: 1700 N Wheeling St.; Aurora 303-399-8020: https://www.va.gov/findlocations/facility/vha_554A5 VETERANS GUIDE: https://www.veteransguide.org; Veterans Disability Calculator https://www.veteransguide.org/va-disabilitycalculator YOUTH SERVICES SOX PLACE (YOUTH SERVICES): 2017 Larimer St.; 303-296-3412Daytime drop-in shelter for youth 12-30; Meals, socks, clothing bank, personal hygiene supplies, internet access, intentional mentoring and guidance, crisis intervention, referrals to other services. T-F - 12-4pm & Sat. 11am-2pm. Instagram: @ Soxplace THE SPOT AT URBAN PEAK (YOUTH SERVICES): 2100 Stout St. 303-2910442; Youth aged 15-20 in need of immediate overnight shelter services, 303-974-2928; Drop-in hours Mon.-Fri. 8-11am https:// www.urbanpeak.org/denver/programs-and-services/drop-incenter SUNSHINE BEHAVIORAL HEALTH (YOUTH SERVICES): 833-931-2484; Services for youth facing substance abuse, addiction, mental health disorders, or a combination of these conditions; https://www. sunshinebehavioralhealth.com URBAN PEAK (YOUTH SERVICES): 730 21st St., Denver; 303-974-2900; Ages14-24; Serving Denver & Colo Springs; Overnight shelter, food, clothing, showers, case workers, job skill/straining, ID and birth certificate assistance, GED assistance, counseling and housing; https://www. urbanpeak.org DENVER VOICE OCTOBER 2026 15
Nov. 3, 2026 denvervoice.org/donate
1 Publizr