John Parvensky is at work on yet another groundbreaking development.
His organization, the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, recently started construction on the Stout Street Recuperative Care Facility and Renaissance Legacy Lofts. The first-of-its-kind development will provide 75 medical respite beds on the first three floors to give homeless individuals a safe place to recuperate after being hospitalized instead of being discharged to the streets or a shelter. The six floors above will provide 98 permanent supportive housing apartments.
This $48 million Denver development is its most complex yet—blending New Markets Tax Credits, 9% and 4% low-income housing tax credits, and requiring three separate ownership groups, four investors, seven soft loans, and a condominium association. It’s the latest in a history of innovative developments by the Coalition, which has long kept its focus on serving the most vulnerable.
“Every time we complete a new project that allows a new family or individual to move from the street and into housing, it provides tremendous pride and reward,” says John Parvensky, president and CEO. “It always seems like the latest project is the most special.”
The work is hard, meaningful, and well suited to him. Growing up in the 1960s, Parvensky was influenced by the anti-war movement and other causes that emerged during that time.
He made a decision to go to law school to learn the tools to advance social justice, and while at the University of Pennsylvania, he was exposed to the needs of low-income communities and different ways to deliver health care, employment, and housing services.
As a young lawyer, he helped community groups in Philadelphia organize around the Community Reinvestment Act to demand reinvestment by banks in low-income communities, but Parvensky wanted to be on the front lines of advocacy and development. He moved to Colorado just as the Coalition was getting started and became its leader in 1985.
Under his watch for the past 36 years, the nonprofit has grown from a single health clinic with two exam rooms to serving about 20,000 people experiencing homelessness each year through comprehensive housing and health care. The Coalition has developed 2,000 affordable, supportive housing units, manages about 2,000 scattered-site housing vouchers, and operates a major health center and four satellite clinics.
“John Parvensky is one of the people who helps with the conscience of Denver to ensure that as we make decisions as a community, and as a city we are always thinking about people who are the most vulnerable, the most disadvantaged, and are without homes,” says Britta Fisher, executive director of Denver’s Department of Housing Stability.
Housing and Health
Ahead of his time, Parvensky realized early on that focusing on “housing as health care” was critical to addressing homelessness.
“We could provide quality health or mental health care to people experiencing homelessness, but, if we sent them back to the streets, the likelihood that their health status would improve was limited. So, when we couldn’t find landlords that would house our folks, we started buying and then building housing,” he says. “And for the most vulnerable, we found that we needed to provide intensive health, mental health, and other supports to keep people housed. That’s how we end homelessness, one person or family at a time.”
The connection between housing and health became even more critical during the past year amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“In March 2020 when the pandemic struck locally, John was one of the partners who participated in daily calls with the city of Denver Emergency Operations Center and shelter and homeless service providers as we collaborated to serve people without homes as our community entered stay-at-home orders,” says Fisher, who served as the sheltering chief for the Emergency Operations Center.
“John’s work showing that housing is foundational to health was suddenly visible to the whole community,” says Fisher. “He leaned in and led as we navigated an historic crisis with focus on serving people with the fewest resources.”
Parvensky participated in daily calls with the center and other service providers to serve those without homes as the community entered stay-at-home orders. The Coalition opened the first “protective action” hotel rooms for high-risk individuals experiencing homelessness. In addition, it provided medical screening and triage at the large auxiliary shelters that opened last year, according to Fisher.
A former Coalition employee, she is among the industry leaders who have learned from Parvensky. Under his watch, the nonprofit’s staff has grown from just six to 750 members.
Fighting Homelessness
Parvensky has been a pioneer in bringing the Housing First model to Denver, an approach that aims to get people who are experiencing homelessness into housing as quickly as possible and then offering the supports they need to improve their lives and maintain housing. By bringing together the resources of its Federally Qualified Health Center and its supportive housing development, he has been able to leverage health care resources to build healthier housing, and to increase the integration of housing and health care for those experiencing homelessness. Over the past 30 years, he estimates the Coalition has helped leverage almost $1 billion to create and provide housing and health care for Colorado’s most vulnerable citizens.
A 2006 evaluation of the Housing First effort showed that it was successful in keeping a large majority of the residents housed even though the advocates were working with a challenging population that had been homeless for an average of eight years. In addition, the housing model saved the city significant money by reducing emergency room visits and other service costs. These results were recently confirmed by a five-year study of the Denver Social Impact Bond by the Urban Institute in which the Coalition was the lead housing and service provider.
“John has dedicated his life to fighting homelessness and building strong communities,” says Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.). “An organizer at heart, he knows it takes collaboration to tackle affordable housing and chronic homelessness. Colorado is stronger because of John’s work.”
The Coalition’s communities include the acclaimed Stout Street Health Center and Renaissance Stout Street Lofts, which provides 78 units of supportive housing along with integrated health care services for 10,000 of Denver’s neediest residents.
The organization also recently completed Renaissance Veterans Apartments at Fitzsimmons, providing 60 units of supportive housing for homeless veterans and their families in Aurora.
Parvensky and his wife, Tenley Stillwell, a social worker, recently celebrated their 40th anniversary. They met while in college when Parvensky was organizing the law school and Stillwell was organizing the social work students to push back against the university’s firing of housekeepers who wanted to join a union. Their daughter, Michele, works on child poverty issues.
“Every time I’ve had a twitch of thinking that maybe it’s time to move and do something different, there would be a new challenge that captured my imagination and attention,” Parvensky says. “It’s been challenging, but overcoming those challenges with staff and partners to achieve things that no one thought was possible has made me want to continue to do this as long as we can.”
