A mayoral task force is considering more than $40 million in social service projects – including 200 apartments for the homeless and an office building to serve Denver’s east side.
Among other recommendations are renovations to four city-owned child-care centers and the closure of three others.
The proposals could end up as part of a $300 million citywide capital improvement plan under review by Mayor John Hickenlooper’s Infrastructure Priorities Task Force.
The task force is analyzing proposals from eight subcommittees in order to craft a final list.
Those groups are made up of 110 public employees and private sector executives appointed by the mayor to assess the city’s capital improvement needs and recommend funding options.
Options include increasing property tax rates and asking voters to approve a bond issue.
“It’s really about getting it right, and the executive committee is just starting the final process of review,” mayoral spokeswoman Sue Cobb said. “It’s not been fully mapped out yet.”
Human Services Director Roxane White said the issue is whether “we really care as much about the poor as we do about the roads, about our other public amenities.”
“None of these requests are extras,” White said of the subcommittee proposal. “They are pretty basic: housing, hospital beds, child welfare.”
The human services subcommittee’s first recommendation is a $1 million project to update or expand four child-care centers: Edna Oliver Child Development Center in Five Points, Westwood Child Development Center in Westwood, Lowry Montessori in Lowry, and Neighborhood House in Lincoln Park.
The renovations would allow the city to close its Northeast Montessori and Westside child-care facilities and raze or remodel the Five Points Community Center.
The subcommittee decided the agency’s branch office, in the Five Points center at 2855 Tremont Place, is too small to handle the client workload and a new building in a different location would solve the problem.
“It stopped being a typical community center 20 years ago when the city moved in,” White said.
The subcommittee proposed a $5.8 million renovation to Denver Health that would add three dozen beds.
White said several child-care facilities might close if the projects are not approved.
“There are just too many safety issues for it to remain uncorrected over the long term,” she said.
Staff writer David Migoya can be reached at 303-954-1506 or dmigoya@denverpost.com.
