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June 4, 2020
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Denver walks back ‘group living’ proposal amid backlash City’s goal: ‘Increase flexibility and housing options for residents’ BY ALAYNA ALVAREZ COLORADO POLITICS
been on crutches gets it.” Talbot, a Washington Park resident and Rotarian, survived polio in the mid-1950s. In the early 2000s, he began to suffer from post-polio syndrome, affecting primarily his left leg. About that time, Talbot began to research the need for mobility equipment in developing countries and found that at least 20 million people in Africa were in need because of some sort of disability that made them immobile. And in 2005, he and his wife, Candice, who serves as the organization’s director of operations, got Crutches 4 Africa started.
Denver city planners have gotten an earful since seeking community input on plans to update city zoning code regulations that would allow eight unrelated adults — rather than two, as is currently law — to live together in one home. After the city’s Community Planning and Development Department hosted meetings to gather feedback on the proposal earlier this year and was met with much opposition, the volunteer Group Living Advisory Committee adopted new changes May 27 that would now allow only up to five unrelated adults to live together in most traditional units. The city’s goal, planners have said from the beginning, is to “increase flexibility and housing options for residents, to streamline permitting processes for providers while fostering good relationships with neighbors, and to make it easier for those experiencing homelessness, trying to get sober or who have other special needs to live and access services with dignity.” By updating its zoning code, the city said it will be closer to realizing the vision in Denver’s Comprehensive Plan
SEE CHARITY, P4
SEE LIVING, P7
A woman smiles upon receiving a pair of crutches during a distribution by the nonprofit Crutches 4 Africa, which got its start in 2005 by polio survivor David Talbot. COURTESY PHOTO
Charity opens doors to mobility Denver nonprofit works in developing countries BY CHRISTY STEADMAN CSTEADMAN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
In 2006 while in Uganda, David Talbot met a 9-year-old girl with an amputated leg because she had broken it falling out of a tree. “She had a compound fracture, and they didn’t have any way to fix it,” Talbot said. Following that initial meeting, Talbot and his nonprofit organization called Crutches 4 Africa kept tabs on
the girl and provided her with a pair of crutches every few years as she grew. About a year ago, she had reached full growth and Crutches 4 Africa arranged for her to travel to Nairobi, Kenya, to receive a prosthetic leg paid for by the government there. The last Talbot heard about the girl is that she is now attending boarding school. But Crutches 4 Africa intends on following up with her to find out how the prosthetic is working out. “Lifting somebody up off the ground and giving them an opportunity to participate in life is what it’s all about,” Talbot said. “It’s valuable equipment — anybody who has ever
THE BOTTOM LINE PERIODICAL
“People were pulling on God from whatever place they was at, and I believe God honored that.” Denver Pastor Terrance Hughes after his three-month fight with COVID-19 | Page 2
VOLUME 93 | ISSUE 30