The first migrant families are scheduled to move into temporary housing in the Mullen Home in the West Highlands at the end of this week after the Denver City Council approved a deal between the city and the Archdiocese of Denver.
The city will lease the former assisted living facility at 3629 W. 29th Ave., which has 75 apartment units, until the end of next year. Denver plans to use about 30 of the units initially and may increase that number after operations and other services are set up, officials said.
Part of the agreement also includes a land swap between the city and the Archdiocese — the two entities will exchange properties they currently lease from one another, and the difference in the value of the land will cover the city’s full rent cost for the Mullen Home apartments for the year.
Additionally, as part of the Mullen Home lease agreement, the city will pay $1.5 million for utilities, maintenance, repairs and insurance.
The transitional housing option will be available to migrant families with children as a “stop-gap” between leaving temporary emergency shelter and finding permanent housing, said Jordan Fuja, spokesperson for Denver Mayor Mike Johnston. Families will be able to stay in the units for about 90 days, and discussions about how much they would pay in rent are ongoing.
Officials have been working on this deal over the past year as thousands of migrants have arrived in Denver seeking shelter and emergency services, many of them fleeing from humanitarian and political crises in Venezuela.
“We know that the migrant families arriving in Denver work tirelessly from the moment they arrive to find jobs and housing, and this new partnership will provide the important temporary support they need to be successful here,” Johnston said in a statement. “I am deeply grateful to the Archdiocese of Denver for their partnership and look forward to working together to support our new neighbors.”
Little Sisters of the Poor, a Catholic nonprofit, closed the assisted living facility in 2022 after 105 years and deeded the land and buildings to the Archdiocese. The Archdiocese plans to revamp the property and use it for senior housing in the next two years but has agreed to let the city use it temporarily for migrant housing.
“It is my hope that Mullen Home can provide safety and respite for migrants who have risked much to come to our great country in search of a better life,” Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila said in a written statement. “I am grateful to Mayor Johnston and his team for working with us on this project, and his heartfelt care for migrants in our city.”
With the land swap agreement, the Archdiocese will give the city the land at 2900 W. Harvard Ave., currently used by the city as the Harvard Gulch West ballpark, and the Archdiocese will get the land at 3546 Kalamath St. and 1120 W. 36th Ave., which is now used as church parking, according to City Council documents. Those property leases had been active since the 1990s, and the exchange will allow the city and Archdiocese to own the properties they had been leasing.
Although land swaps are unusual, Fuja said, they do occur, and the city decided to trade the properties because of its current need for sheltering migrants while maintaining the historical uses of the properties.
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