The Closing of Quality
Denver's attempt to house our most vulnerable
Anastasia "Ana" Miller posing for a photograph after a podcast on Nov. 17, 2022. (Patrick Stachniak, CU News Corps)
Anastasia "Ana" Miller posing for a photograph after a podcast on Nov. 17, 2022. (Patrick Stachniak, CU News Corps)
Anastasia "Ana" Miller, a former resident of the Quality Inn during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, reflects upon her experience living there and her experience with Colorado Coalition for the Homeless and the Salvation Army in this podcast.
Though Ana now has her own apartment and works for Housekey Action Network Denver, many other residents were not as lucky. Listen to her tell stories of her life that led her to the Quality Inn and the problems she and her follow residents faced while living there.
A quality shelter requires a roof, running water, and a warm bed: things thousands in Denver take for granted, and things thousands go without. The rapid increase in homelessness spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent recession led to a 60% uptick in those experiencing homelessness for the first time, and greatly increased the challenge of finding them safe housing. Denver’s Department of Housing Stability received a massive influx of money from FEMA and partnered with Colorado Coalition for the Homeless (CCH) and the Salvation Army to shelter and care for the newly homeless, though critics question whether the money was put to good use.
Even when Denver has managed to house those in need, there are still many people who have gone years without ever finding somewhere to live in the long term. Dawn and Mike Martinez met in Denver’s Saint Francis Shelter in 2014 and grew close amid the chaotic environment. Saint Francis was like many shelters, with tight living spaces and gender-neutral bathrooms and showers. Dawn Martinez said that things often went missing, on top of the frequent fights that would break out within the facility.
Dawn and Mike eventually moved to the Crossroads Center and Samaritan House respectively before Mike began suffering from health complications with his heart, liver, and kidneys. There is little leeway that allows a houseless person to choose where they go, leaving the couple no choice but to live in separate shelters.
The Martinez’s caseworkers opted to continue shuffling them around to different shelters for years. “It’s like going around in circles,” Dawn said. Vouchers for longterm housing are prioritized for families, making the process for couples without kids and individuals far longer. Without the vouchers, all of the Martinez's income from Social Security is put towards rent. Even the cheapest motels they have lived in take the entire sum and then some, leaving nothing for the couple to spend on other necessities.
“It all goes to the rent,” Dawn said. “That doesn’t leave us money to do things, like buy the food that Mike needs.”
When COVID-19 reared its ugly head, Mike had few options to live due to his health. Denver used $20 million of the money given to the city through the CARES Act to shelter those affected by the spike in homelessness: opening new shelters for people like Mike.
CCH signed a $40 million contract with Denver to institute four new shelters using motels dotted around the city. CCH negotiated these leases in the short term, with the option to renew the contract at the end of just three months. However, the necessity of the motels persisted as the pandemic raged on, and many called these places home for several years. The Quality Inn on Zuni Street was one of these motels, and prioritized people with medical conditions that left them at risk of COVID-19.
“We know a lot of the motels in the city, so early on in the pandemic we started reaching out to motels asking them if they could lease their space to people experiencing homelessness since their occupancy will be down from the pandemic,” said Chief Communications and Public Policy Officer Cathy Alderman.
The Quality Inn housed around 130 residents vulnerable to COVID-19 in 2020, including Mike and Dawn. Residents expected the Inn to be open until December of 2022, until an unexpected letter was posted on doors August 20 that told residents to move out in just 1 month.
“We were told we’d be here through the year. They posted that note on our doors and basically told us to be out by the 12th or they’d just throw our stuff away,” said Laura Gurule, a seven-month resident of the motel.
Since CCH is a non-profit organization, it relied on FEMA money from a federal emergency declaration that CCH received from the city of Denver in three month increments to maintain and pay its lease to the owner of the Quality Inn, Bruce Rahmani. Complications arose due to the fact that this money is only dispersed when the city government deems the city to still be in an emergency.
Several residents of the Quality Inn with disabilities sitting in front of the building awaiting transport or help from staff on Sept. 14, 2022. (Patrick Stachniak, CU News Corps)
Several residents of the Quality Inn with disabilities sitting in front of the building awaiting transport or help from staff on Sept. 14, 2022. (Patrick Stachniak, CU News Corps)
“There was a lot of talk that the funding was going to end in December (2021), then there was talk of it ending in the spring, then summer, and finally it was almost guaranteed to end this fall,” said Alderman. “It is a really hard way to operate a housing facility, to not know if in 3 months we are going to have funding or not.”
A dumpster half full of everything from clothes to stuffed animals was located at the front of the building. Residents of the Quality Inn, many of them requiring wheelchairs or other mobility aids, dealt with problems such as a lack of hot water, no usable phones within their rooms, as well as the collapse of a ceiling girder that came close to injuring a resident.
“My brother and my nephew just passed away since I’ve been here,” Gurule said. “And it’s been really hard not having my own phone. … I’ve been without a phone for about a month and a half.”
Despite the many issues, Denver did not specify that daily reports would include the state of the property. When asked if they had any knowledge about the substandard conditions of the Inn, a representative of HOST stated that they had no knowledge of any of these persisting issues. Both the Salvation Army and CCH blame the problems on Rahmani, while he says the persisting issues were CCH and the Salvation Army's problem.
Alderman said that over the two years CCH leased the Quality Inn, they paid about $9 million to the Rahmani strictly for the property.
COVID-19 is still a declared public health emergency in Colorado, yet according to HOST Executive Director Britta Fischer, Denver, in conjunction with CCH and Salvation Army, decided to reduce the contract from four shelters to only one. 130 people at the Quality Inn now only had one month to find new housing.
“Our goal was to move people out into safe spaces, we recognize that we probably weren't going to be able to identify a long term housing option for every single resident despite it being our mission to do so because the resources just aren't there,” said Alderman. “We did work with several of the shelter providers to make sure we had reserved beds for anyone who needed it, those beds came with three meals a day and case services.”
A resident of the Quality Inn's belongings left outside to be thrown out by staff on Sept. 14, 2022. (Patrick Stachniak, CU News Corps)
A resident of the Quality Inn's belongings left outside to be thrown out by staff on Sept. 14, 2022. (Patrick Stachniak, CU News Corps)
A car loaded with belongings two days before residents must move out Sept. 14, 2022. (Patrick Stachniak, CU News Corps)
A car loaded with belongings two days before residents must move out Sept. 14, 2022. (Patrick Stachniak, CU News Corps)
Housekey Action Network Denver and the Reciprocity Collective are organizations dedicated to assisting homeless people, namely by finding them long term affordable housing. They set up shop across the street from the Quality Inn the week of its closing, as CCH and Salvation Army refused to give them access to the property citing privacy concerns for the residents. However, residents who had crossed the street to meet with volunteers had only positive things to say about the organizations.
“In the hour I’ve been standing here with these people (HANDS), they’ve given me more reassurance and hope than they (CCH) have the whole time I’ve been here,” said Gurule.
According to HAND lead-organizer Terese Howard, CCH had only a few caseworkers dedicated to all of the hotel's 130+ residents, leaving little time to attend to each person's individual needs.
“CCH is the homeless housing industry monopoly. They're Walmart. They house more folks than any other by far, and as such have the ability to really control how things play out,” said Howard.
“Case management is one of those areas that is severely lacking. … You can’t invest the time that’s needed in each of those people and have a caseload that big.”
During their time at the Quality Inn, the Martinezes, Gurule, and a third resident, Carlos Carrillo, all experienced difficulties when working with their assigned case worker. Gurule often had to wait days to be seen, and appointments were sometimes even forgotten. Dawn and Mike were left in disbelief when asked to leave their case worker’s office during their appointment, as the employee did not have a laptop charger to continue working on their dying battery.
Carrillo was lucky enough to have received a voucher for long term housing before he arrived at the Quality Inn. However, a case worker allegedly took the voucher and gave it to a different resident, promising to replace it. At the time of the motel’s closing, no such replacement had been given.
“The voucher was for housing services. She promised me she'd replace it, but she just blew me off,” Carrillo said.
When the time came for residents to move out, around 80% were left without a viable housing option, despite the fact that 31% of the allocated funds for homelessness is still unspent, according to the City of Denver.
Residents could be seen picking up tents brought by HANDS, though Denver did not consider this to be a failure. “I think your whole analysis is flawed,” said Fischer. “I think that we have many people without housing and not enough affordable housing to match them to and every day we try to match as many as we can.”
No solid answer could be given by HOST as to the reasoning behind the closing of the Quality Inn. When pressed for a specific reason for closure, Fischer repeated: "Closure decisions are based on a variety of factors, including the availability of partners to operate the program as well as the phasing of closure over a time frame to mitigate the impact on the rest of the shelter system. Throughout our emergency response, we’ve opened and closed resources in response to COVID-19 prevalence, demand, resources, and partner capacity.”
Demand still existed for the Quality Inn, as residents expected to shelter there until December of 2022. Resources were still available, as $7 million remains in the city's budget dedicated to housing the homeless. The contract was amended on Sept. 17, just one day after the Inn closed down, and now CCH and the Salvation Army run only one of these shelters. According to HOST, the shelters had been a success, but were no longer needed, despite the fact that 80+ homeless people with adverse health risks received no viable option for new housing.
“The way that the city focuses on reporting for the agencies that they fund is output focused, versus outcome focused,” said Councilwoman Candi CdeBaca. “The city is perfectly OK with metrics of success from a shelter that are simply saying that we housed 1,000 people every night for however many months, instead of saying ‘we housed x amount of people and that translates to x number of people into permanent housing.'”
HAND secured housing in other motels for around 50 of the residents in need, including Carrillo and the Martinezes, who are currently at the Niagara House Motel.
“It’s not to say that there aren’t great staff in the mix: there are,” said Howard, concerning the closing of the Inn. “But that's just individuals. It’s not a system that’s set up to have high quality customer assistance, as you expect if you had a hotel for wealthy housed people.”
CdeBaca witnessed the closing of a similar shelter and has seen the subpar system in effect within her own district. Since gaining office in 2019, CdeBaca has been campaigning to not only better house the homeless in Denver, but also redefine how the city gauges those who require affordable housing.
Ana Miller shouting at a man during an argument out front of the Quality Inn on Sept. 14, 2022. (Patrick Stachniak, CU News Corps)
Ana Miller shouting at a man during an argument out front of the Quality Inn on Sept. 14, 2022. (Patrick Stachniak, CU News Corps)
A resident's crutches propped up outside their room on Sept. 14, 2022. (Patrick Stachniak, CU News Corps)
A resident's crutches propped up outside their room on Sept. 14, 2022. (Patrick Stachniak, CU News Corps)
In Denver’s 2023 Action Plan, only around 200 new units are slated to be built for the entire 0-30% Area Median Income (AMI) bracket. As a part of the plan, developers are now required to dedicate 10% of new developments to affordable housing. However, CdeBaca says that the small percentage only caters to those above the 60% AMI mark, and those who qualify may see their rent increase as much as 100% if their AMI is raised.
“Affordable housing isn’t affordable for most people who need it and it doesn’t even stay affordable for the people who can attain it in their first year,” CdeBaca said.
Each year, CdeBaca attempts to amend the city’s budget to put more focus on new programs to lease property and pay the rent of those who require affordable housing, rather than maintain the many shelters that people like Mike and Dawn get shuffled in between.
“The shelters are the only solution that the city is focusing on when it comes to the unhoused and it’s really just treated as a holding pattern, they’re not putting them anywhere meaningful or on the trajectory to anything meaningful,” CdeBaca said.
CCH helped HAND pay for an extra two weeks for several former Quality Inn residents at the new motel, though they no longer handle any of their cases. And once again, Mike and Dawn find themselves in an all too familiar situation.
Mike faults the stress of not knowing where they will go next for harming his health. He says he often lies awake at night with anxiety. Worse yet, he says the stress complicates existing health problems, such as his seizures, that caused a stroke the previous year.
Case workers within these organizations are vital, as many people experiencing homelessness are unable to navigate the complex paperwork required to get the aid they need. For instance, Mike and Dawn both have learning disabilities, making the process even more difficult without a responsive case worker. Though Denver has done what it can with the money from the CARES programs, organizations like HANDS and The Reciprocity Project believe that their services fall perpetually short of the mark in helping people like the Martinezes, Gurule, and Carrillo.
Members of Housekey Action Network Denver and the Reciprocity Collective helping residents at their tables set up across the street from the Quality Inn on Sept. 14, 2022. (Patrick Stachniak, CU News Corps)
Members of Housekey Action Network Denver and the Reciprocity Collective helping residents at their tables set up across the street from the Quality Inn on Sept. 14, 2022. (Patrick Stachniak, CU News Corps)
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