Denver’s homelessness emergency order expires 167 days and $45 million in spending later
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston’s emergency order, which he declared on his first full day as mayor to tackle the city’s homeless crisis, has expired after 167 days and $45 million in spending.
The Johnston administration used the $45 million to get 1,000 homeless people out of the city’s streets by Dec. 31. That spending translates to roughly $45,000 per person.
Johnston’s emergency declaration on July 18 allowed the city to activate its emergency operations center and fast-tracked the allocation of resources, notably staffing and dollars, toward one of the city’s most visible crises. Indeed, the city initially signed contracts worth millions of dollars without any public bidding. Some of the subsequent contracts have since undergone a bidding process.
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston declares emergency, vows to house 1,000 homeless people
The Denver City Council extended the homeless emergency order four times. It officially expired on Dec. 31, the day Johnston’s administration declared victory after moving more than 1,000 indoors.
Concerns from some councilmembers had grown with each vote to extend the emergency. In particular, they expressed wariness with the pace and amount of spending and what some described as the mayor’s office’s lack of transparency.
District 5 Councilmember Amanda Sawyer, for example, voted “no” to the emergency order extension, citing a lack of information from the mayor’s office and the amount of spending.
Three councilmembers also rejected the extension request the last time Denver’s policymaking body voted on it last month. Cole Chandler, Johnston’s homeless czar, told councilmembers it would be the final emergency order request.
The mayor told The Denver Gazette the city spent $45 million to house 1,000 homeless people in 2023. Denver expects to earmark $50 million in 2024 to house another 1,000 homeless people, Johnston said.
“I am proud to announce that as of yesterday, this city succeeded in under six months moving more than 1,000 people off the streets and indoors,” Johnston said on Sunday, when he introduced the city’s first “micro-community” at 12033 E. 38th Avenue.
The “micro-community” was poised to house 54 homeless people in pallet shelters by Sunday night. It took the city 45 days and 10 different organizations to complete construction, which, the mayor said, “should have taken 18 months.”
“That is the spirit of what these folks put in,” the mayor said. “Not just because they believed in the mission, but because they believe in the neighbors that they needed them to deliver these sites on time so no one had to go into New Year’s and stay outside in the cold.”
A key part of Denver’s strategy is shutting down large homeless encampments across the city and moving their residents into temporary shelters at hotels and “micro-communities.”
As of Jan. 1, the city’s housing dashboard shows 1,034 people moved “indoors.” The dashboard, whose presentation has changed multiple times, now clarifies that the “moved indoors” metric refers to people who went to the city’s shelters, regardless of their length of stay.
9News, a news partner of The Denver Gazette, earlier noted that city leaders repeatedly said a successful outcome meant 14 days or longer in a shelter. In fact, the homeless dashboard showed the total number of people who moved into shelters for any length of time, even if they returned to the streets shortly after.
The city has since acknowledged that discrepancy.
As of Monday, the dashboard says the average length of stay at hotels and “micro-communities” is 23 days. The dashboard also says 1,013 are “still indoors.” Of that number, 633 have been staying at shelters for under 30 days, while 112 have gone past 30 days.
Also, the dashboard says 263 people have moved into “permanent housing,” which the city defines as including leased units obtained through a voucher or subsidy, for example, reunification with family, and other forms of “permanent housing,” such as placement into a long-term care facility.
The city says it no longer tracks people’s length of stay once they have moved into permanent housing.
Denver extends homeless emergency declaration until end of year
Whether Johnston will push for another homeless emergency order in 2024 remains unclear.
Denver’s mayor wants to repeat efforts last year in 2024.
“We are building a city that believes that hard problems are solvable, and we are the ones to solve them,” Johnston said in a statement. “As we welcome a new year, we will double down on our efforts to make Denver a city where nobody has to sleep on the streets.”
