Denver is considering reallocating $14.7 million in city funds for Mayor Mike Johnston's "House1000 Initiative," which aims to get 1,000 people into shelter by the end of 2023. On Wednesday, City Council's safety, housing, education and homelessness committee voted to move forward the three bills to all of Council for consideration in the next few weeks.
The $14.7 million is part of Johnston's plans to spend $48.6 million on his House1000 initiative through the end of this year. The proposed bills would reallocate $8 million from the city's Coronavirus Emergency Response fund, $4.7 million from interest earned on federal pandemic ARPA funds and $2 million left over from a capital improvement project to Denver's homelessness response.
This week, the Johnston administration began moving people into shelter with the rollout of its encampment sweet model, moving people in tents while offering shelter, which around 70 people accepted.
While the funding reallocation passed through committee, some Councilmembers questioned why some funding isn't going to support local businesses.
Councilmembers Amanda Sawyer and Darrell Watson asked the mayor's office why all of the $14.7 million is going toward shelter, as opposed to financial support for small businesses located near encampments that might be struggling.
Cole Chandler, Johnston's senior advisor for homelessness resolution, said that putting money meant for shelter toward business support would only prolong the problem, without solving the root cause of encampments.
"When we go down the road of providing financial support to businesses, but don't have a back-end timeline of when encampments would be resolved, homelessness would be reduced, we would be opening up our checkbooks to just endless support of businesses if we don't have a plan to get people into housing," he said.
Councilmember Stacie Gilmore asked Chandler about how the Johnston administration is defining success in the goal to shelter 1,000 people by the end of the year.
A new dashboard from the city counts people who receive shelter from the streets for 14 days, even if they return to the tent afterward. Plus, recent Denverite reporting found that at city sanctioned campsites, a model for the growing micro-community approach to shelters, around half of residents returned to homelessness after their stay.
"It's hard for me to reconcile that, when we know that most folks who have been traumatized and who have been living on our streets, it's going to take a longer duration of time to help get them those resources," Gilmore said. "Likewise, we are providing shelter options to newcomers to our city that is about double that amount of time for shelter."
Gilmore asked the city to consider 28- or 30-day timelines for people getting off the streets as part of the House 1,000 program.
Chandler said the city plans to use the time spent in shelters and micro-communities to find people long-term housing, but affirmed that those who follow the 14-day initial timeline will be counted toward the mayor's 1,000-person housed goal. He said the city plans to track long-term outcomes beyond the two weeks they are served.
"We want people indoors forever," Chandler said. "We had to decide a point at which we would count someone as successful, and we didn't think that one night and shelter counted as successful. So we wanted to raise the bar."
Council also voted on a number of other contracts related to Johnston's housing initiative earlier this week.
City Council approved a $15.7 million contract with Denver's Housing Authority to finance the Best Western Central Park at 4595 Quebec Street. The city plans to operate the hotel as non-congregate shelter units, before turning it into permanent supportive housing units. As rental units, at least 40% of the apartments will be for people making 30% of the area median income, or less than $24,650 for one person.
Watson asked Council to postpone a $6.4 million contract with the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, to conduct outreach to people living in encampments. When the contract initially passed through committee, Councilmembers raised concerns about potentially duplicating services.
Like in committee Wednesday, Watson and Sawyer raised concerns about the effect of encampments on local businesses, and asked about potential funds for some business owners.
Both Sawyer and Watson voted no on the committee contract, which passed to full Council on Monday, but which Watson requested to postpone. Watson has not responded to Denverite's request for comment, but Council will reconsider the contract Monday, Oct. 2.
