DENVER — Newly elected Denver Mayor Mike Johnston on Tuesday shared some details about how he plans to get 1,000 people who are currently experiencing homelessness into housing by the end of the year.
On Monday, the mayor announced he had activated the city's Emergency Operation Center as part of his emergency declaration. He spoke Tuesday at the Denver mayor's office alongside Cole Chandler, senior adviser on homelessness resolution, and Matt Mueller, executive director for Denver’s Office of Emergency Management.
Johnston said the city is looking at housing options among four categories:
- The first category is existing units, such as rentals, that are available in the city. He said the city will partner with landlords to begin housing people in those units with leases.
- The second category consists of hotel conversions.
- The third category consists of micro-communities, which may be tiny home villages or safe outdoor spaces. Johnston said the city can partner with nonprofits to build micro-communities on vacant land.
- The fourth category is potentially larger commercial buildings that could be adapted for use as a non-congregate shelter where people have individual rooms, or a congregate shelter, or a combination. It could be anything from unused former schools to old churches to commercial warehouses.
Johnston said all categories would come with wraparound services to provide support. He added that although there are providers in place now, more will need to be added.
“As you may know, we announced last week at this time our plan to bring 1,000 Denverites indoors, get them access to housing to shelter and to also work on decommissioning those encampments where people are currently living, and then to keep those neighborhoods free from future encampments," Johnston said.
About that term, "decommissioning." Does that mean the same as sweeps? And what makes that policy different than former Mayor Michael Hancock?
“It’s very different, and the reason why it’s very different is, I think, the old camping ban enforcement was -- people are living on a block and you want them to not be living there, and so you force them to move all their stuff and move off that block. When you are not offering those folks some place to go, in the form of housing, all they can do is take their stuff and move to the next block," Johnston said.
He said that "decommissioning" of encampments would need to wait until the city has housing options.
"We are waiting for us to bring housing units on, when housing units are available, then we would come to people at encampments and say 'we now have housing units to move you to, let us help you move to those units,'" Johnston said. “When we don’t have units, there will still be camping in some parts of the city until we get enough units, but we want to reduce those number of sites. We want to have neighborhoods and regions that we can start to close off to camping and begin to get those people access to housing.”
However, clearing encampments would still happen under the same scenarios that existed under Hancock.
“When there are places where we have public health or safety risks, or we have right-of-way infringements, or we have private property that’s going to be infringed, we are continuing to clean up or intervene in those sites. That will continue," Johnston said.
Johnston said he would not arrest someone for camping, but if there were criminal activity happening, the person could be arrested for that.
"But we are not going to arrest people for being homeless," Johnston said.
He said a series of town halls will take place in all 11 council districts over the next 45 days. The first will be Tuesday, when Johnston and District 9 Councilman Darrell Watson will speak with the public beginning at 6 p.m. at The Savoy Denver, located at 2700 Arapahoe St.
When asked what would happen to people who are not interested in moving into housing, Johnston said evidence shows that a majority of people would accept the housing offer.
“Our evidence both in Denver and around the country has been ... the number of people who are currently unhoused, who have said that they will take those units is close to 90%,” Johnston said.
He said the city cannot own or operate these housing spaces and that they would be run by nonprofit providers. The city will look for providers that can operate and manage them, he said.
Johnston issued an emergency declaration for homelessness on July 18, and Denver City Council voted 12-1 to extend the order Monday. The City Council will have to vote on extending the order again in August.
The mayor's office said in a release that the Emergency Operations Center's specific objectives include:
- Identify key data and begin tracking measures of success.
- Identify and secure locations for homeless services and housing.
- Coordinate encampment outreach efforts, service delivery and encampment cleanliness leading up to encampment closures and move-in days.
- Solicit and coordinate providers to operate and provide supportive services for micro-communities, including hotels and tiny home villages.
The release said the city will significantly increase housing-focused outreach and engagement to people who are living in encampments. The city will also increase efforts to reduce public health risks and minimize trash accumulation until encampments can be permanently closed.
The city will continue to enforce the camping ban, and closures of large-scale encampments will continue.
“We have a moral obligation to make sure everyone in Denver can get indoors, and activating the Emergency Operations Center is an important step in that direction,” Johnston said. “I couldn’t be more grateful to the city workers who time and time again dedicate themselves to addressing our city’s most pressing issues. Under the leadership of Cole Chandler and Matt Mueller, the Emergency Operations Center will allow for greater collaboration between departments and agencies across the city, and will give us the capacity to tackle this challenge head-on and house 1,000 Denverites.”
"I appreciate everyone's concern and agree 100% no one wants to see homelessness in Denver," said District 5 Councilwoman Amanda Sawyer, who was the only one to vote against extending the order. "I really appreciate the bold action of our new mayor. I don't feel it's appropriate for us to be approving something we don't have the information we need to approve it. City Council is not a rubber stamp for the mayor's office."
Johnston's office also released the names of nine mayoral appointees tasked with overseeing, coordinating and following through on his efforts to address homelessness:
- Cole Chandler - Senior adviser for homelessness resolution
- Joshua Posner - Director of strategic initiatives
- Milagros Barsallo - Director of public engagement
- Perla Bustillos Gutierrez and Sterling Loza - Deputy directors of public engagement
- Tony Lucero and Fatimah Ben-Masaud - Internal project managers
- Stephen Padilla - Grants and operations manager
- Sterling Simms - Operations coordinator
The Metro Denver Homeless Initiative (MDHI) 2023 Point-in-Time (PIT) count released Monday showed a more than 30% increase in people experiencing homelessness over the year before.
The count was done Jan. 30 and included those staying in shelters and outdoors. The count found 9,065 people experiencing homelessness, a 31.7% increase from 2022. Those who are experiencing homelessness for the first time is up from 2,634 to 3,996, according to the report from MDHI.
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