The challenge

Three years ago, eight homeless men were murdered on the streets of downtown Denver. The tragedies galvanized civic soul-searching in Colorado, reminding the public that the homeless have not disappeared. In fact, their ranks have grown as affordable housing has grown scarcer. In recent years, activists have struggled to overcome another challenge: growing public indifference. “When we first started C.C.H. in 1986, our goal was to go out of business in five years, because we would have eliminated homelessness,” says John Parvensky. “Then we thought it would be done in 10 years. Now, we have come to realize that homelessness will be with us for a long, long time. The earlier sympathies for homeless persons have faded in many sectors. There is active antipathy by some. To end homelessness, we must re-commit ourselves as a nation to create lasting solutions.”


Seeds of Commitment

Parvensky grew up in the 1960’s, influenced like many Americans, by the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement, and inspired by the work of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy. Mitch Snyder, former leader of the Community for Creative Nonviolence, also influenced Parvensky’s work with the homeless. “I had the opportunity to sleep on the streets of Washington D.C. with Mitch in 1987 as we lobbied and organized for what became the McKinney Homeless Assistance Act the first federal response to the issue of homelessness,” says Parvensky, whose decision to go to law school was motivated by a desire to use the law for social justice. “Friends often ask, ‘How can you continue to work year after year on homeless issues when the numbers keep growing, and the solutions keep getting more elusive,’" he says. “I see our work as ‘guerilla warfare,’ winning a battle here losing one there. But with each battle, we win over supporters, increase public awareness and create real solutions for many of those we serve.”


Accomplishments

Parvensky has built C.C.H. into an organization that serves as a national model of integrated housing and supportive services for homeless persons. The organization provides transitional housing for men, women and families; permanent single room occupancy housing for men and women; a variety of mixed income housing; medical respite housing (short term stays while receiving medical care) and rental assistance programs. Health care services include both physical and mental health care, an in house pharmacy, and a vision clinic. Other services include: intensive case management for the chronically mentally ill, substance abuse treatment, employment assistance and childcare.

Because of Parvensky’s leadership, a statewide network of more than 240 service providers now works together on the issues. C.C.H. also created the Metro Denver Homeless Families Project, the first multi-county initiative in the country to assist homeless families. He forged a working group of grass roots agencies, homeless people, local and state government representatives, churches, and housing organizations. Over a five year period, C.C.H. was able to leverage an initial $500,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation into housing assistance for 250 homeless families worth $6.2 million. Parvensky persuaded banks, corporations and public entities to invest more than $60 million in our affordable housing developments. C.C.H.’s pioneering rental-assistance approach to transitional housing has dramatically improved services for Colorado’s homeless population. Its model of mixed housing provides a third of homes reserved for homeless persons, and a third for low income people, while a third are available at market value; the market rate units help cover the costs of units for the homeless.

C.C.H.’s most significant victory so far is the creation of affordable housing through the closed Lowry Air Force Base in Denver. C.C.H.’s six-year campaign has developed more than 500 affordable housing units, and another 281 units are under construction at Lowry and throughout the Denver area. At the national level, Parvensky helped bring agencies for the homeless from around the country to speak before Congress, requesting that the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration address substance abuse among the homeless. After a two-year campaign, in 2001, the agency released funding for services to the homeless.


His leadership style

Parvensky has demonstrated an extraordinary ability to reach out bringing diverse allies from business, the social service sector, government and the homeless “first by appealing to the community good, and second appealing to their self interest,” he says. “We have continued to nourish these relationships, extolling them to do good while reminding them of the consequences of not doing so. This has been a difficult balance, but a successful one.” He has established formal financial collaborations and alliances with scores of smaller social services organizations to leverage resources and avoid duplication of services. “In my work I must interact equally well with people from Skid Row and from Wall Street, from those running small shelters to those running large banks. By focusing on things than unite us, we have been able to develop successful collaborations,” he says. “Developing win win solutions is our first goal. If that is not successful, we move to confrontation and agitation.”


The future

In the immediate future, Parvensky is anxious to see the completion of the Lowry Air Force Base initiative and C.C.H.’s redevelopment of the Central YMCA Building in Downtown Denver. Despite his success, Parvensky says he is “continually frustrated with the day to day, nuts and bolts activities of running an organization” leaving little time for reflection and regeneration. “Too often we must sacrifice making broader connections in order to maintain the ones we have. I would like to grow beyond these limitations.” Next year, Parvensky will be president of the National Health Care for the Homeless Council. Through increased national advocacy, he hopes to influence federal decisions regarding the homeless. “I would like to expand our efforts to change the minds and hearts of our civic leaders on issues of poverty and homelessness,” he says. “For too long, our cities have focused on building monuments to commerce, tourism and civic pride. Too often, they have left the poor and homeless behind. Our cities need to dedicate the same level of resources and energy to addressing these issues or we will continue to fall further and further behind.”


More about John Parvensky

“[When six homeless men were murdered in downtown Denver three years ago] it was an awful time. John was really out there saying that this is not acceptable; we have to do something to protect these folks; he called me saying, ‘You're the city; what are you going to do about it?; We lifted the limits on shelters; we got search and rescue out there.…[John] got in touch with some landowners in the lower downtown area where the murders were taking place; he got permission to set up a tent on a vacant field and got a bunch of stuff donated; the tent was staffed 24 hours a day for several weeks by members of the Coalition and community volunteers. It was around Thanksgiving, and it was really cold. It became a safe place for people who were outside and were scared….. The community really organized under John's leadership in a real time of crisis.”
— Nan Moorehead, Community Liaison, Denver Department of Human Services