NEWS RELEASE

Denver, Colorado
December 19, 2020
CONTACT: Larry Ambrose
LarrySWIC@gmail.com; 303.934.2268 (Office) 720.490.1991 (Cell)

News Conference: 11 AM, Monday December 21, 2020 via Zoom (See below for link)

Denver Mayor Hancock Ousts Non-profit Serving Seniors
and At Risk Residents

SouthWest Improvement Council Told It Must Leave
Westwood Community Center

Under Hancock Administration order, SWIC. serving second most gentrifying neighborhoods in the US, must vacate home of thirty-three years at end of 2021.

During the term of Mayor Michael Hancock, Denver had the largest share of its vulnerable neighborhoods that gentrified than all other cities in the United States but San Francisco.
Now, it seems, he has no qualms in expelling one of the City’s oldest human service nonprofit organizations, the SouthWest Improvement Council (SWIC), serving mostly Latino, Native American and Asian American Elders, from the City building which it has successfully operated at its own cost for 33 years.

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Since 1988 SWIC has operated the Westwood Community Center at 1000 S. Lowell Blvd.
The campus includes the Westwood Branch of the Denver Public Library and the Mile-High Early Learning Center. SWIC serves people from throughout metro Denver, but its focus is on Westwood and the neighborhoods of SW Denver: Mar Lee, Barnum, Barnum West, Valverde and Athmar Park. SWIC provides educational, wellness and social programs, free food, clothing and essentials for families, helps to keep elders safe, secure and stable in their homes and strives to improve the quality of life for all people in the
community.

SWIC provides free daily meals, daily activities and programs for Senior citizens, a food pantry and gymnasium space for adult, youth and Denver Public School athletics programs, housing counseling and home buyer education.
Since the COVID pandemic, SWIC has continued to provide daily meals delivered to the
homes of Elder clients and has grown its weekly food pantry to serve an estimated 200
food insecure families with quality groceries and personal, home and hygiene supplies.

SWIC was responsible for initiating and promoting a bond issue which built the Westwood
Community Center in 2007. The City owns the buiidng but SWIC built it with the promise of
becoming the owner. Because of its role in creating the Center and established role as an
anchor institution, SWIC was for many years told that it would be able to buy the building
from the City and have a home of its own to continue its good works. There was a signed
purchase option. In 2012, the City reneged on its promise. Despite many years of trying to
negotiate a long term lease and direct appeals to Mayor Hancock the past two years,
SWIC was notified by his Administration it must vacate at the end of 2021.
No reason or explanation has been given. No alternative use for the Community Center
has been revealed. The City has only said there are other non-profit organizations which
need space and there are likely better uses for the facility than the services which SWIC
has provided to the community and its senior citizens for over 30 years. SWIC is a
stabilizing factor against displacement and gentrification. SWIC provides affordable
housing, housing counseling, food and supplies which help residents stay in their homes.
The action by the City comes at a time when SWIC has been pressed by the COVID
pandemic to address increasing numbers of families experiencing food insecurity. Over
the past 6 months of pandemic, SWIC has provided more than 200 families an estmated
80,000 pounds of groceries and supplies during 2,500 visits.

The SWIC expulsion adds to the Hancock Administration’ s abysmal record of gentrification
of Denver’s neighborhoods. According to a recent study by the Washington, D.C.-based
National Community Reinvestment Coalition, Denver was the second most
gentrified City in the United States between 2013 and 2017, second only to San Francisco.
Gentrifying neighborhoods involves an inflow of young affluent people into communities of
color who have longstanding family ties to the areas being transformed.
Join us for a Zoom News Conference held by SWIC at 11 am on Monday, December 21,
2020 to give further details on the actions of the City, to answer questions and to talk about
SWIC’s options for the future.
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Zoom News Conference
Topic: News Conference on Denver Mayor Michael Hancock Ousting SW Denver Human Services
Nonprofit
Time: Monday, Dec 21, 2020 11:00 AM Mountain Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84016131743
Meeting ID: 840 1613 1743
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kzEq1Rr5I
One tap mobile
Meeting ID: 840 1613 1743
Phone in: +1 253 215 8782