Tiny Home Micro Communities Helping to Shelter Denver's Unhoused Population

Standing outside of a place built to bring shelter to Denver's unhoused population, Pallet founder and CEO Amy King felt honored to be next to the city's leadership.

It was New Year's Eve 2023, but instead of watching the ball drop, the group gathered to celebrate the opening of the micro-community of Pallet-built tiny homes located at the 12000 block of E. 38th Ave. in northeast Denver. Joining King was Mayor Mike Johnston, who told the Denver Gazette that he believed the site should have taken about 18 months to build. However, it was completed in just 45 days.

"It was incredibly fast compared to most cities," says King, whose company is working to end homelessness through the creation and delivery of its panelized shelters. "It was one of the better administrative responses to homelessness I have ever seen."

The micro community was made possible in part because of an emergency declaration that Johnston issued upon taking office that called for finding housing solutions for 1,000 people experiencing homelessness in the city. A key component was the work the city planning staff did in not only changing the zoning code to expand the use of tiny homes in Denver but also in working with elected officials and community members to build support for the initiative.

Zoning Solutions for Temporary Micro-Communities

Denver, like many U.S. cities, is grappling with the rise of people experiencing homelessness and forming unsanctioned campsites.

A 2023 point-in-time study from the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative found that more than 9,000 people were experiencing homelessness on a single January night. A more recent report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development found that the nationwide unhoused population was more than 771,000 in January 2024 — an 18 percent increase from the previous year.

Tent cities like the one pictured in October 2020 were set up across Denver during the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo by Adonis page/iStock/Getty Images Plus.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many of the unhoused population in Denver were worried about staying in the city's congregate shelters because social distancing was a challenge. In response, the city allowed its first micro-community in 2020.

"[We started] to think about another model for getting people off the streets," says Libby Kaiser, AICP, principal city planner for the city and county of Denver. "During the pandemic, nonprofits started creating [these] off-street spaces with ice fishing tents that were strapped [in place]. But it was a very temporary solution."

That first micro-community was only approved to operate for six months. And while Denver had zoning regulations for temporary tiny homes — one-room sleeping units with communal bathing and cooking facilities — there were just a handful of them in the city at that point.

"We didn't really have the regulatory framework for [this type of use]," Kaiser says. "But as we identified more of a need for micro communities throughout town, we decided to codify the use and expand our regulations for temporary tiny homes for any sleeping unit, be it a tent or Pallet shelter — whatever the future may hold for these."

Kaiser and the planning staff began working to codify the changes, resulting in an update to the city's zoning code in 2023 to define, allow, and regulate temporary managed communities. A key difference was increasing the amount of time a micro community could operate at a site to four years. After that, the site must close and vacate the property, and another micro community cannot operate in that space for another four years.

"It takes a lot of resources to set these sites up, so then to move them every six months creates quite a burden on the operators and the residents," Kaiser says. "In order to have it be a viable model, we had to give it some sense of permanency."

The code update also made the use allowable in most residential zoning districts — with some limitations, such as combining it with a civic or public institution — and required that the operators of the micro communities provide residents with wraparound support services.

Creative Housing Gets Panelized

With the code update in place, the next hurdle was in creating the micro communities.

Pallet became involved shortly after Johnston took office and announced his House1000 plan — now known as All In Mile High. Denver purchased 54 units and bathroom facilities from Pallet for one of the sites.

The Pallet shelters in Denver are the company's S2 Sleeper product line, with units that measure out at 70 to 120 square feet, can be built rapidly, and can fit individuals, couples, or small families. Photo courtesy of Pallet.

The design of the Pallet shelter is more panelized than true modular, making them easy to move without heavy machinery and cost-friendly to replace individual panels that are damaged. "We were trying to create something that was cost-efficient for cities so that it would make sense to do this not only for homelessness but also for disaster responses or influxes in population or mobile workforce needs," says King.

The company and Denver were a match in more ways than one, as the company requires cities that purchase shelters to agree to dignity standards. These include hiring a service provider to provide wraparound services 24/7 at the site, maintaining security, providing access to hygiene facilities, addressing food insecurity, and ensuring there is clean water available.

Pallet employs a planner to help cities with these and other challenges, as well as government affairs professionals and community development managers to help with stakeholder engagement. "We have them on staff and available for cities to use because we want them to win at this, and we want the residents to move on toward self-sufficiency," King says. "We're trying to work ourselves out of a job as it relates to homelessness."

Creating Housing with Humanity in Mind

Since the zoning code update, Denver opened eight new transitional housing sites, including three micro-communities, and permanently closed 16 tent encampments. To date, the city has housed more than 2,230 people experiencing homelessness — well above Johnston's initial goal. Much of that success can be attributed to the coalitions built by Denver's staff.

"When we built our All In Mile High sites, we did so with extensive community engagement and a commitment to protect neighborhood safety — and to work arm-in-arm with neighbors to address their concerns and needs," says Julia Marvin, marketing and communications manager for Denver's Department of Housing Stability.

There are a total of 158 housing units across the three new micro community sites — the Stay Inn site, La Paz, and Elati Village — and while the number of guests fluctuates, Marvin says they remain relatively full.

"There's a level of humanity here that I haven't felt in a long time," Christina Hopkins, a resident of the Elati Village micro community, told ABC affiliate Denver7 in June 2024.

The city has also bought motels and hotels, including the vacant Stay Inn hotel that is next to the micro community of Pallet shelters. The city hopes to sell that property to a developer willing to turn it into housing for those who have experienced homelessness.

"They're really looking at expanding the options beyond typical shelters that we had relied on for years," says Kaiser, who notes how the city's Department of Housing Stability provides resources to those experiencing homelessness and help for those trying to remain in the homes they currently have. "They have been successful in transitioning people into permanent housing. It really has provided that stepping stone for folks to gain stability in their lives."

Since 2023, Kaiser says neighboring communities have reached out about the city's experience with tiny homes as a solution for the unhoused.

"Our regulations that we have surrounding them are really minimal," Kaiser says. "It is just providing that kind of template and letting people know that there's really not a heavy lift in trying this out and figuring out if it works for you."

But King — whose company has constructed shelters in 119 cities across 31 states, as of January 2025 — was quick to credit Denver for the ways in which the city was trying to address homelessness.

"Working with Denver was a dream," King says. "Seeing how city staff responded to the mayor's initiative and really took intentional moves to succeed and to get stuff done was so refreshing. That doesn't always happen in every city."

Top image: Denver planners worked with Pallet, a company that builds panelized interim shelters, to create a micro community of 54 tiny homes to help house people experiencing homelessness in the city. It is one of three micro community sites made as part of the city's All in Mile High initiative. Photo courtesy of Pallet.