While Metropolitan State University of Denver builds its first dorm, a Chicago nonprofit is buying off-campus housing for students.
Depaul USA operates buildings in four cities that house homeless college students. It will expand to Denver in time for the fall semester after purchasing a house at 1544 N. Pearl St. for $1.2 million in early July.
“We work with the universities to make sure the students are staying in school. … We think of ourselves as partners,” said Depaul USA interim CEO Sandra Guillory.
In addition to MSU Denver, the nonprofit will also work with Regis University to provide housing to students in need of a bed. The 10,000-square-foot home has 12 bedrooms, but some will sleep more than one person, Guillory said.
The purchase was funded entirely by donations, she added.
The house was built as a duplex in the 1930s but was later combined into one single structure, she said. The seller, fellow nonprofit Colorado Vincentian Volunteers, was using the building to house recent college graduates participating in a yearlong program to help the less fortunate.
“It’s an opportunity to preserve what is currently affordable housing in what is a rapidly gentrifying area,” Guillory said.
The nonprofit’s Denver operation will have a program director, case manager and house manager that will live on-site and is also a student. Each student lives in the house for two years and receives a crash course in navigating young adulthood. That includes financial planning, a future housing plan and connection to employment opportunities. Depaul USA also helps students apply for government assistance and will operate a food pantry on-site.
Guillory said the problem of college student homelessness is not a small one. She pointed to research showing that nearly 14% of college students reported being homeless in 2024.
“[And] if they were to drop out of school, then they would have been in a worse place than if they would have not gone to college because they will leave without the degree but with the debt,” Guillory said.
Depaul USA, founded in 2009, also provides day shelter and permanent housing for adults, along with a host of other social services, across a dozen cities.
Its specific program for homeless college students is called Dax, named for the French city where Saint Vincent de Paul attended university before a lifetime of service to the poor.
The connection to the Denver real estate deal stems from him.
One of Depaul USA’s board members was formerly active in the Mount Saint Vincent healthcare complex in Denver’s Berkeley neighborhood, Guillory said. The school was founded by the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth, a social service organization modeled after the work of Saint Vincent. The Colorado Vincentian Volunteers, who sold the 1544 Pearl building, also fall under that umbrella.
