Resident generated news about Lakewood, Colorado
Resident generated news about Lakewood, Colorado
Homeless Shelter Could Be Your New Neighbor to "Share Responsibility"
The new zoning rewrite drastically changed the very definition of a residential dwelling unit. Residents may be accustomed to using words like single-family, duplex, or even shelter. All that has now gone away. All of them are now considered the same. They are all “residential dwelling.”
That means that any of them, including a homeless shelter, can be your new nextdoor neighbor and there’s nothing to stop it.
The 2012 zoning code broke out 9 categories for uses and permitted them per zone, depending on suitability.
The same table in the 2025 rewrite shows only three categories. The highlighted categories from 2012 have all been compressed into one category, “residential dwelling”.
That means you could have a homeless shelter or a 30- person group home right next door.
City Council members say this measure is necessary to share the homeless responsibility throughout the city.
The other way to say that would be to share the pain, with or without your consent.
Group homes are already difficult for neighbors to deal with. Denver non-profits buy homes in Lakewood to operate mental health, addiction recovery homes, and assisted living homes. Buying a house in Lakewood is cheaper than operating an institution in Denver.
Shelters, even on an “emergency” basis, attract more homeless and bring down home values.
Public notice has been needed for these uses in a single-family residential zone – until now. Now there will be notice, no hearing and no possibility of appeal.
As this Lakewood resident said in public comment, Lakewood seems to be causing blight to spread, not fixing it.