City Council's Monday night session was all about proposed funding contracts geared toward Mayor Mike Johnston's homelessness initiative. Council unanimously voted against a proposed contract between the Department of Housing Stability and the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless. Meanwhile, Council approved a plan to use a hotel as a shelter before converting it into permanent housing.
The rejected $6.4 million agreement with the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless would have gone toward providing outreach services to Denver residents living in encampments as part of the city's encampment response.
With the funding, the Coalition would have hired additional staff to create a new outreach team responsible for providing supportive services to those living in encampments. The Coalition's target, in collaboration with the city, would have been to move at least 1,080 people from encampments into housing within three years.
The contract drew several concerns from councilmembers prior to Monday night's vote.
During Council's homelessness committee meeting, Councilmember Amanda Sawyer pointed out that services proposed through the agreement were already being provided by several organizations throughout the city.
Councilmember Darrell Watson agreed, adding the contract lacked transparency, adequate success measures and, most importantly, it wouldn't help a sufficient number of people considering the amount of funding being given to the Coalition.
"I thought that it was essentially a contract not built for the urgency that we are currently in with this emergency order and it did not provide the accountability and the ability to actually meet those targets," Watson said. "They did list benchmarks, but the benchmarks are too low...We have close to 3,000 folks living unsheltered on our streets. And to have 360 as a minimum target with an annual collection of taxpayer dollars of $1.8 million? I thought that was woefully too low. Absolutely doesn't meet the sense of urgency and it's something that we should not be contracting with any service provider to do."
According to the 2023 Point in Time count, there are about 1,423 unsheltered people in Denver and about 3,300 in emergency shelters.
Watson and Sawyer also agreed that money from the contract could be used to address other concerns surrounding encampments and homelessness. For example, both noted that many local businesses in their districts have said they're suffering financially because of encampments. The money could be used to support them while the city works on removing encampments and getting the unhoused into shelters.
On Monday, Johnston agreed with council's concerns and asked council to disapprove the contract.
"There is more work to do to ensure that the contract includes sufficient accountability measures that secure your confidence," Johnston wrote. "This decision will not impact 'House 1000' efforts and our shared goal of housing our most vulnerable neighbors. It will also allow my administration and Denver City Council additional time to develop a strong and fair contract that is fiscally responsible and prioritizes accountability to deliver success."
ICYMI: Johnston's "House 1000 efforts" refers to his initiative that seeks to provide some type of shelter to 1,000 people by the end of 2023. He plans to spend $48.6 million on the plan with part of that money coming from three contracts that were approved for a first reading at Monday's council hearing.
Meanwhile, a proposed funding agreement for a recently acquired hotel was unanimously approved.
Council approved a $15.7 million grant agreement between HOST and the Denver Housing Authority. The grant will go toward repaying a bridge loan DHA received to purchase the Best Western Central Park at 4595 Quebec Street.
The hotel will eventually be converted into permanent supportive housing, but for the next three years, it will act as a non-congregate shelter run by the Salvation Army.
When the building is converted into permanent supportive housing, at least 40% of the units will be dedicated to tenants who make 30% of the area median income, or less than $24,650 for an individual and $35,150 for a family of four.
Also in council, three more proposals approved Monday were monetary reallocation contracts that would add $14.7 million in city funds to Johnston's plan.
Those contracts are broken up as follows; the city will reallocate $8 million from the Coronavirus Emergency Response fund, $4.7 million from interest earned on American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money and $2 million left over from a capital improvement project to Denver's homelessness response.
Sawyer called out the latter two contracts. Similar to her concerns on the Coalition contract, Sawyer said funding from both contracts could go toward other city needs.
Sawyer noted the last time the city used interest earned from ARPA dollars, they used the money toward the temporary rental and utility assistance fund.
Both contracts passed and will be up for a final reading at next week's council meeting.
Clarification: This story has been updated to note the amount of unsheltered people in Denver according to the 2023 Point in Time count.
