Safe Outdoor Space

Dear Colleagues,

I am writing to share with you a new partnership that Regis University has entered into with the city of Denver and local non-profit service agencies to help address the need for emergency housing that has been exacerbated by the pandemic.

When COVID-19 shutdowns led people on the margins to lose their jobs and housing – and with indoor shelters severely limited or closed – the city partnered with the Colorado Village Collaborative and the Saint Francis Center, a ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Colorado,  to provide humane shelter for people needing temporary emergency housing. Two Safe Outdoor Spaces (SOS) were established in downtown Denver in December and have operated safely and successfully ever since.

Now, Regis University is stepping forward to provide for a temporary SOS to be located in a vacant corner of parking lot 6 on the edge of our Northwest Denver Campus. Starting June 1, the SOS at Regis University will offer a 24-hour staffed and secured shelter for up to 60 individuals and families who are screened and selected by service agencies. The facility, which will operate for six months and will offer residents shelter, cots, food, wellness checks, access to nearby bus routes, and assistance for finding permanent housing. Another site will open concurrently in Denver’s Park Hill neighborhood.

We carefully considered and discerned over many months the request to provide space with the needs and safety of our students at the very center of our thoughts. We have conducted listening sessions with key faculty and staff as well as with the SOS team and other community and faith-based leaders. Additionally, we toured an existing SOS site that we found to be very well managed, well secured and properly maintained. We witnessed how the SOS team provides a warm bed and secure housing for people who otherwise would be subject to unsafe conditions on the streets. And this opened our hearts.

Be assured that we are calling upon our Jesuit Catholic mission and core values: Our Regis University community is united in compassionate service to others, especially the poor, vulnerable and marginalized. The words of Pope Francis resonated with us: “If we do not take care of one another… we cannot heal the world.” 

With thought, dialogue and care, we decided to do our part, as a University family bound by faith and service, to help heal our own community. This is the Jesuit Catholic mission in action, and I hope you will feel the same spirit of grace and charity underpinning these actions as we do. 

It is important to note that the SOS’s only request of the University was for space. They are not asking for help from faculty, staff or students as they have several service agencies that work closely with their residents. There is no other obligation for our community than to open our hearts and to designate a parcel of our property.

To learn more, I invite you to watch this video tour that I narrate.

For Regis community members interested in learning more about the site, there will be an information meeting held via Zoom on Friday, May 7, 11 am – 12 noon.  Email outreach@regis.edu to register or you may submit questions here.

There also will be an open house at an existing SOS site at 1595 Pearl Street in Denver’s Capitol Hill neighborhood on May 8 , and two additional community information meetings via Zoom on May 15 and May 20. For information about how to join these events, visit Regis Safe Outdoor Space - Colorado Village Collaborative.

Gratefully,

Rev. John P. Fitzgibbons, S.J.

President