DENVER — Months after residents first raised concerns about looming funding cuts, the future of Denver’s Monroe Village tiny home community remains uncertain as the Colorado Village Collaborative scrambles to find a new site and the money to move it.
Residents were nervous back in September when Denver7 spoke to them about the looming funding cuts and closure of the community.
Denver
Transitional tiny home village set to close in 2026 due to Denver budget cuts
"We found out from the city that they would no longer be funding our Monroe site starting September of this year," said Jessica Ehinger, CEO of Colorado Village Collaborative, which operates the tiny home village on city-owned property.
According to the proposed 2026 Denver budget, the move is listed as a series of "strategic restructurings to reduce duplicate services."
"Closing non-congregate sites, including the Comfort Inn and Monroe micro-community, as we shift All in Mile High to focus intensively on housing, connecting individuals to work, and street engagement for high acuity populations," the budget proposal reads.
In the last few months, the group has been weighing its options, including moving to a different property.
“Currently, there is a unique permitting code that we operate under, and one of the terms of it is that we can only operate for four years, and then we have to be off that property for four years. And so we've worked really closely with city council to investigate if there are other opportunities for us to operate under different zoning codes," said Ehinger.
CVC said they don't intend to be a permanent fixture in any one neighborhood, but would like to be able to stay longer. The move to a different property would be an extensive effort.
"We have to physically move all of the infrastructure on site, which means literally picking up all of the tiny homes with a crane or other major equipment, picking them up and then putting them down in the new location," said Ehinger.
She said it is estimated to cost $3,000 per home to move; the total is about $750,000, which is about half their annual budget.
"We do not currently have enough funds to do that. We are starting a capital campaign to fund that work," she said.
That fundraising effort is set to launch sometime this week.
"We're getting lots of support from city council. We've had some really excellent conversations with Councilman Darrell Watson, whose district we are currently in. We've also gotten a lot of support from Councilwoman Sarah Parady," she said. “I think there was some disappointment and frustration felt initially. So it's been really great to see people step up and say, 'No, we really care about CVC and the work that you do.’”
The future is still up in the air for Monroe Village as conversations continue, and the clock ticks down.
"The challenge is figuring out the zoning and permitting rules and being able to do that in the window that we have before September, because those processes take a lot of time and touch a lot of different offices," said Ehinger. "That's really the biggest challenge we're up against right now, there's kind of a ticking clock for how quickly can we get all those changes made."
To donate to Colorado Village Collaborative, click here.
