DENVER — Community groups in Denver’s Montbello neighborhood say budget cuts proposed by the mayor are unfairly targeting low-income areas.
Cuts to the city's Parks and Recreation Department will limit hours at recreation centers and cut summer programs for kids. Nonprofits worry it could destroy everything they built.
"I am certain that it is going to be detrimental. It already is," said Khadija Haynes, managing director of Colorado Black Arts Movement. "If you were looking for equity, if you are looking to have a city that remains whole, you don’t take from the bottom, you take from the top."
At the Montbello Organizing Committee, there's fear and anger that the budget cuts will lead to increased gun violence, reductions in mental health services, and programs to help kids outside of school. The committee is a nonprofit community development organization that partners with 40 other community nonprofits in Montbello.
Board members say the budget cuts proposed by Denver Mayor Mike Johnston to pay for the migrant crisis threaten to destroy everything they’ve built.
"I feel worry, nervousness, for our communities and our children," said Joel Hodge, who goes by Coach Eye and is a co-founder of the Struggle of Love Foundation. "Losing safety for our children, our youth. I’m worried about that."
"What went through my mind is the domino effect this is going to have on our health and wellness of our families and our community," said Dianne Cooks, director of Families Against Violent Acts. "We worked hard to make sure that those programs could be in place for our young people, so that they don’t have to hang out. So that we don’t have an increase in violence. We don’t want that."
Last month, when the mayor announced the first budget cuts, Parks and Rec and the DMV were the first to lose money. Johnston already announced more than $4 million in cuts from Parks and Rec, including cutting 25% of summer programs and cutting hours at recreation centers.
"We have been working together on how we find these cuts and how we make sure that these cuts are equitable," Johnston said at a Feb. 9 press conference.
In Montbello, they don't see the equity he's talking about.
"It is not equitable. It is not equitable, or we wouldn’t be hurting in the way that we are," said Donna Garnett, CEO of the Montbello Organizing Committee. "We're having our community brought to its knees because we’re losing the kinds of resources that people need."
The mayor’s office told 9NEWS again Monday that no final decisions on the majority of budget cuts have been made yet, other than the $5 million or so that’s already been announced. They say more decisions will likely be made in April.
Regardless, these community leaders say they see the writing on the wall and feel like they’re being robbed of everything they built up in their community.
"To take from Parks and Rec, which is a universal need for every community but particularly for communities that are on the bottom rung of the economic ladder in his city, seems to me to lack any moral consciousness," Haynes said. "Rather than closing rec centers, boost hours. Bring people in… Do whatever is necessary to make sure our young people, our seniors, have the opportunity to have some relief in our lives."
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