Denver renews plea for donations, volunteers amid migrant crisis

DENVER — The City and County of Denver is converting another recreation center into an emergency, temporary shelter for migrants who recently arrived to the city from the southern border of the United States.

Citing security reasons, the city is not disclosing which recreation centers are being used as shelter. The first shelter, which opened Dec. 6, is accommodating 271 people (up from 153 individuals on Dec. 12).

According to the city, an additional 62 people are currently being housed at churches in the area.

A third recreation center is being used as a reception center to help migrants access shelter or reunite with loved ones.

In a Dec. 15 press conference, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock said the city's resources are approaching a "breaking point."

"What I don't want to see is a local humanitarian crisis of unsheltered migrants on our hands because of the lack of resource," the mayor said. 

Because of that, Hancock issued an emergency declaration, which will free up resources to respond to the sudden increase in demand for funding and housing for the migrants.

Some of the migrants have been able to connect with family and friends once they arrived in Denver. According to a Dec. 12 press release from the city, 35 migrants transitioned out of the shelter after a successful reunification process.

“With migrants continuing to arrive in Denver, additional capacity is needed in order to ensure basic needs are being met while ensuring the city does not experience a humanitarian crisis of keeping hundreds of unhoused migrants displaced in our city,” city officials said in a press release.

Though migrants arrived unexpectedly, the mayor’s chief of staff said their arrival does not appear to have been organized by another state's government, as we saw earlier this year in places like Martha’s Vineyard.

City officials said about 600 migrants have come to Denver over the past “several months.” The first emergency shelter was set up Dec. 6 to accommodate about 150 people who arrived via bus. The migrants are from South and Central America; some of them confirmed they are from Venezuela.

Many of the migrants arrived at Union Station and made their way to the Denver Rescue Mission before being directed to the emergency shelter.

"We all need each other's help to navigate life. And in a city, when you're there for the first time, that person will take as much help as we can give them, and we're going to try to give them that help,” Stephen Hinkel, the public relations manager at Denver Rescue Mission, told Rocky Mountain PBS.

The city established a donation drop-off center at Iglesia Ciudad de Dios (5255 W Warren Ave. Denver, CO 80227). The church is accepting donations on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 4 p.m.- 7 p.m.

The drop-off center is specifically requesting:

• New men’s underwear
• New women’s underwear
• New women’s sports bras
• Long sleeve shirts (men’s, women’s and unisex)
• Jeans (men’s and women’s with special need for M)
• New Socks (men’s and women’s)
• New sweatshirts and sweatpants (S, M & L, both men’s and women’s)
• Closed toe gym shoes (both men’s, women’s, boys, girls, infants)
• Shoelaces
• Winter coats and pullovers (men’s, women’s, children, and infants)

"When we started seeing this influx last week, when residents started sending us messages, they weren't asking why these people were here and why aren't we stopping them," Hancock said. "They were asking How can we help? So that meant a lot to us ... That's the hallmark of a welcoming city and I've never been prouder of our city."

Organizations interested in helping the migrants should contact the Emergency Operations Center at donations@denvergov.org.

If your go-to rec center is now being used as an emergency shelter, the city said members can visit any other rec center and the fee will be waived.

Kyle Cooke is the digital media manager at Rocky Mountain PBS. You can reach him at kylecooke@rmpbs.org.