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Denver, Colorado, like many American cities, is struggling with affordable housing.
A growing number of people in Denver who are newly unhoused own cars, but have no safe, legal place to park or sleep. In 2020, the Colorado Safe Parking Initiative (CSPI) formed to advocate and support community groups to provide safe, legal, supportive overnight parking areas for those without homes so they can sleep safely in their cars. First Universalist Church of Denver has been part of that effort.
Founded in 1891, the church is located in the University Hills neighborhood of Denver, a growing city of over 700,000. “An analysis earlier this year by the real estate tracking company Zillow reported that metro Denver needs more than 70,000 additional housing units just to meet current needs,” says Rev. Eric Banner, senior minister at First Universalist.
Linda Baggus, a lay leader and chair of the congregation’s Homelessness Taskforce, was critical to launching the program at First Universalist, the city’s first safe parking lot. In an interview with Denver’s ABC affiliate in 2021, Baggus said, “We just saw the need and thought, ‘We got a back parking lot,’ and things went from there.”
“Safety is a gateway to rest,” says Nancy Wilson, a lay leader at First Universalist and chair of its Safe Parking Program.
For other congregations considering local community support initiatives, partnerships are critical to success. “If someone is thinking about starting a new program, don’t do it alone,” says Banner.
At First Universalist, participants helped create a community with volunteers from the congregation and staff from CSPI and the local YMCA. CSPI provided case work opportunities. The congregation volunteer team offered daily meals to participants, and, with support from the UU Funding Program, provided critical grant assistance for car repairs. “This program is so important,” says Wilson. “For some people, sometimes this is lifesaving. It makes a difference.”
CSPI notes, “In 2022 alone, CSPI provided safe parking to 190 households impacting a total of 262 people, providing shelter for an average of 116 households per night.” Unfortunately, CSPI stopped operating in December. The congregation helped existing parking participants move into permanent housing but has had to suspend the program.
Banner and Wilson both emphasize the effort needed and the importance of having a partner to navigate legal obligations and permitting, connect with participants, and communicate with neighbors to launch and sustain the safe parking site. “We don’t just say every person matters; we’re here to be part of a team working to solve problems,” Banner says.
Sheila Pendleton, a poet and former parking participant at First Universalist, expresses her feelings in a poem titled “We Will Grow in Love,” which she hopes will inspire more communities to sponsor safe lots. It says, in part:
If we could get inside the minds
of ones we thought we understood,
we might find that things do not appear
the way we thought they would.