Denver's Version Of Speed Dating Is Speed Housing: Matching 576 People With Homes In 100 Days

DENVER (CBS4)- You've probably heard of speed dating but the City of Denver has speed housing. The city received a windfall of COVID-19 funding last year from the federal government, including $127 million for housing programs.

In an effort to stretch every dollar, the Department of Housing Stability decided to try something new. It assembled a brain trust of-sorts to execute a housing surge. Experts from dozens of organizations joined forces in a fast-tracked streamlined push to get people into housing. They met weekly, pooled resources, cut red tape, expedited applications, and moved 340 families - or 576 people - from shelters to homes in 100 days.

Now, they're in their second surge with a goal of finding homes for 400 families in 100 days.

Jennifer Tidwell is the first beneficiary.

"I love it. It's quiet, it's homey and it's all mine," she said from her new apartment.

At 42 years old, she has never had a place to call her own until now, "I don't take it for granted."

After 16 years in an abusive relationship, she left her husband last year.

"Not knowing what the future holds, and not knowing where I was going to be."

She ended up in a shelter, "When you're homeless, you get down on yourself thinking it's never going to come true."

Last month, Denver's Department of Housing Stability accomplished in days what Tidwell had been trying to do for months - find an apartment she could afford.

"I pay all my rent."

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, who created the Department of Housing Stability just months before COVID-19, says the pandemic exacerbated what was already a housing crisis. The number of people like Tidwell in shelters, he says, grew 60%.

He says the goal for the first housing surge was to find homes for 400 families in 100 days. They surpassed that.

"It just demonstrates what multi-level collaboration among governments can do, and when we engage partners who do this every day, the kind of impact we can make."

Hancock met with Tidwell, who he says inspires him, "She has an optimism that's very contagious when you're around her. That's the kind of difference we want to make in the lives of people in the city."

Tidwell not only has a home but a job, working at the Denver Rescue Mission.

"I love helping people. I want to pay it forward."

A year ago this month she was living on the street, Tidwell is now living her dream, "I want to put my story out there so people know it does come true."

The city budgeted $270 milllion to address the housing crisis this year. Half of the money comes from the federal government. The Department of Housing Stability says, with so many organizations involved, there's no breakdown for how much the housing surges alone cost.