DENVER — Every time the call comes in, a seemingly never-ending stream of sirens respond to a location they know how to get to by now.
At the former DoubleTree Hotel on Quebec now being used to house the homeless, Tuesday afternoon's call was a false alarm. But they aren’t all this way.
Denver Police had received 446 9-1-1 calls to this location since Nov. 1 of last year.
Mayor Mike Johnston’s homelessness initiative is currently sheltering more than 1,200 people. The majority are staying at four hotels around the city. More than 860 9-1-1 calls were made to these four locations in the past four and a half months. Police responded to at least 26 assaults, 28 domestic violence calls, 14 overdoses, and 66 trespassing calls.
It might sound like a lot, but the city said it’s a considerably lower number of calls involving the homeless than when police responded to encampments.
"Really when you look at that in comparison to previous calls to encampments, it is not on that same scale," said Cole Chandler, senior advisor to the mayor of Denver and deputy director for All In Mile High, the mayor's homelessness initiative.
In 2023, DPD responded to between 7,000 and 8,000 calls to homeless encampments all around town. Now, first responders find themselves more and more at the hotel shelters housing the formerly homeless.
"You’ve taken basically hundreds of sites around the city and truncated those into basically just a handful," said Chandler. "When DPD comes on-site here, there’s staff here that knows the guest’s name that is having the challenge, they can walk with that person all the way to the room. There’s a much greater degree of predictability."
As of this week, Chandler is now working at the former DoubleTree in Central Park full time. Over the weekend, two people were shot and killed there. Now the city is taking over the lead for security here instead of letting the Salvation Army handle it.
"We have added 24/7 DPD presence, we’ve added 24/7 private security presence, we’ve also created a check-in system where every single person coming through the front door has to swipe in to get into this building so that only the guests of this building can be here," said Chandler.
There are also security cameras and guards at every entrance. Before this week, none of that existed.
"You’d have the staff that was up here engaging with the guests but we didn’t necessarily know everyone who was in the rooms and hallways behind us," said Chandler. "So we’ve completely changed that in the last three days. Every single person is now coming in and out of this front door."
Denver Fire said that the station closest to the former DoubleTree in Central Park responded to 158 more calls in January and February than in the same time last year. It’s so much, they’re changing how they respond. They’re now working to bring in a medical truck for these calls so they don’t have to run firetrucks every time they get a call from the shelter.
Denver City Councilwoman Shontel Lewis represents the part of Denver where several hotel shelters are located. She said overall, she's happy with the progress that's been made.
"I definitely think there are opportunities for improvement, to learn from mistakes, but I’d say overall things are going well," said Lewis.
She hopes to start a survey of guests staying at the hotel shelter to make sure they have the resources they need. She said the Salvation Army, which runs the shelter, has not been agreeable towards starting it.
"The Salvation Army has not been responsive and have not been good partners to not only get that survey in, but also get volunteers in," said Lewis. "I have found, at least in my experience, that this particular contractor has not been a fun one or a great one to work with. So I’m excited to partner directly with the mayor and his administration because I know how important this is."
The Salvation Army released the following statement on Wednesday about safety concerns at the shelter, but did not respond to specific questions about 911 calls.
"The safety and wellbeing of our staff, our guests and the community has always been our top priority. The Salvation Army has staff on site 24/7 as part of our services provided at The Aspen (a former DoubleTree). We have a badging system with photo ID cards that all residents and staff must keep with them to receive entry into the facility. Additionally, all our entrances and exits are secure, and we recently installed additional exterior and interior cameras. We have security staff inside and outside of the building. Finally, we’re working with the Denver Police Department, who provide 24-hour presence. The Salvation Army’s mission is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and meet human needs in His name without discrimination. Helping our neighbors to meet their basic human needs is one way we live the word of The Gospel, and we entrust our work to benefit the community."
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