Jesse Carey, policy director for Denver City Council District 8, talks to the Quebec Corridor community meeting.

Crime, safety, traffic, transportation, and shelters for the unhoused. These are all frequent topics at neighborhood meetings in Denver. Residents who live in the Quebec Corridor can now be part of the solution to ongoing issues where they live.

The first Quebec Corridor community meeting was held Thursday night to introduce the community to a task force being formed to address problems in the area along Quebec St. running from MLK Jr. Blvd. to I-70.

The area includes three shelters, eight schools, one recreation center, one library, businesses, and more than 17,000 residents who are represented by four registered neighborhood organizations: Central Park United Neighbors, Greater Park Hill Community, Northeast Park Hill Coalition, and Overlook at Park Hill.

On Thursday night, a gymnasium at the Martin Luther King Jr. Recreation Center was filled with people who live and work in the area, Denver police officers, and leaders from city departments.

Cole Chandler — Denver Mayor Mike Johnston’s senior advisor for homelessness — has been in conversations in the area before about area shelters.

“We’re here to step back and think together about how we can improve the quality of life for everyone who lives and moves along the Quebec corridor,” he told attendees. “It includes people that go to businesses, and it includes the people that live in our shelters. How do we really come together to create a cohesive plan to improve quality of life along the corridor?”

Denver City Council member Shontel Lewis has been a big proponent of the task force but was not at the meeting due to illness. Her constituent services director, Bre Huizar-Arellano, asked groups of people seated at tables to discuss questions about the best parts of the corridor, the problems that need to be addressed, and who should be part of the task force.

Given 30 minutes to discuss, most people agreed that the best part of the area is the convenience of the Quebec Square shopping center. They also agreed that the safety of and access to the area need to be addressed.

A Park Hill resident who gave his name as Kevin said that since shelters have opened up in the Quebec corridor, he’s seen more unhoused people in the area, as opposed to other parts of the city, such as Park Ave., where “I’ve seen it get a lot better. There’s been so much improvement in terms of unsheltered homelessness, but I don’t think we’ve felt that same improvement [along Quebec]. Maybe the opposite.”

Kevin said he was inspired to come to the meeting to help find solutions.

As representatives from each table presented answers to the questions from their group, there were common themes: Making people feel more comfortable, providing resources for people in the shelters, and the idea of spreading out the shelters to different areas of the city rather than having three in the Quebec corridor.

People who are selected to be part of the task force will be emailed by May 1, and will be asked to take part in the following meetings:

• Wednesday, May 14
• Wednesday, June 25
• Wednesday, July 23

For more information, click here to fill out a survey about joining the task force.

The next community meeting will be on August 13, where the task force will present ideas about the Quebec Corridor.