After months of set­backs, oppo­si­tion and changed plans, Denver’s first sanc­tioned home­less encamp­ment will soon open at Denver’s First Bap­tist Church in Capi­tol Hill.

And a sec­ond encamp­ment will like­ly soon follow.

Denver’s Depart­ment of Com­mu­ni­ty Plan­ning and Devel­op­ment issued a tem­po­rary use per­mit to Earth­links, which will oper­ate the encamp­ment, last week, con­firmed spokes­woman Lau­ra Swartz. Now all the non­prof­it must do is obtain elec­tri­cal and fire safe­ty per­mits before it can open, she said.

That site should be up and run­ning by the end of next week, said Kath­leen Van Voorhis, direc­tor of hous­ing jus­tice for the part­ner­ing Col­orado Inter­faith Alliance. The lease for the prop­er­ty will last six months, she said.

“We are very hap­py that we can set up and serve those in need,” Van Voorhis said. “The goal is to get peo­ple into resources and into hous­ing and up and out of poverty.”

The encamp­ment will accept women and those who iden­ti­fy as trans­gen­der, Van Voorhis said. Because some cou­ples can be allowed there, the site’s 22 shel­ters could host a max­i­mum of up to 30 people.

The plan­ning depart­ment is also con­sid­er­ing a tem­po­rary use per­mit for a pro­posed encamp­ment at the Den­ver Com­mu­ni­ty Church’s uptown loca­tion on Pearl Street, Swartz said. That process will take a bit longer because of the Thanks­giv­ing holiday.

This sec­ond site will host men, women and cou­ples, Van Voorhis said.

The per­mit for the First Bap­tist Church encamp­ment requires those run­ning the site to have an oper­at­ing plan that details strate­gies for secu­ri­ty at the site and near­by prop­er­ties, prop­er­ty main­te­nance, med­ical screen­ings, emer­gency con­tacts and ways to lim­it noise and litter.

The plan also dis­cuss­es oth­er ways to min­i­mize the encampment’s impo­si­tion on the neigh­bor­hood and to ensure that per­ma­nent res­i­dents have an avenue to ask ques­tions and voice com­plaints, if necessary.

“Camp­site guests will be screened at intake to evi­dence their com­mit­ment to the camp­site rules, and vio­la­tors will be sub­ject to evic­tion (for acts of vio­lence and seri­ous threats of harm to per­sons),” the per­mit says. “There will also be a sin­gle point of con­tact for neigh­bors and oth­ers on all mat­ters relat­ed to the Tem­po­rary Man­aged Campsite.”

Before set­tling on these two church loca­tions, city offi­cials con­sid­ered two oth­er spots before back­ing out in the face of push­back from res­i­dents and busi­ness­es. Many — some high pro­file — have opposed encamp­ments at these sites as well.

Oth­ers, how­ev­er, have stressed that encamp­ments are sore­ly need­ed, espe­cial­ly as the weath­er grows cold­er and the pan­dem­ic worsens.