Mike Johnston came into the mayor's office 100 days ago with a massive promise and moral conviction to end homelessness and encampments in four years. He got to work immediately on his first full day by declaring a state of emergency over homelessness and pledging to house a thousand people by the end of the year.
But, as the CEO of the city, he also manages a 13,000-plus employee city, hires and fires department heads, oversees the city's public-safety and housing response, and ensures the daily stuff -- think potholes, parks and possum infestations -- are taken care of.
And then there are the unexpected emergencies, like the arrival of thousands of migrants bused from the southern border with nowhere to go.
And, as a first-time mayor, he has to do all this while boosting the city.
Johnston also has to balance the interests of Denverites of all backgrounds, from unhoused residents to business owners, City Council members to community groups. Some of those coalitions have already been strained, and whether he can keep those political alliances intact will determine whether he can effectively run the city and reach his ambitious goals.
One of the fastest ways a new mayor can make a mark on the city is by answering this question about department heads: Should they stay or should they go?
Coming in after Mayor Michael Hancock, who served 12 years in the role, Johnston has had to make hard decisions about who to keep around. Fire people, and he loses institutional knowledge and risks bringing on somebody less competent. Keep people, and he risks not innovating and letting potentially bad practices fester.
Johnston kept most department heads on for several months as he mulled who to pick.
He quickly hired a new chief of staff, Jenn Ridder, and a chief operating officer, Janel Forde.
Deputy Chief of Staff Evan Dreyer, whom former mayor Hancock described as the MVP of his administration, has stayed on to the surprise of many. Dreyer worked on the front lines of most major crises Hancock faced while offering the mayor advice, and he will continue to play that role under Johnston through at least the end of the year.
Johnston hired 10 people to work in his office on homelessness resolution. He's appointed 36 staffers in the mayor's office who have joined seven career service administrative staffers.
Hancock appointee City Attorney Kerry Tipper retained her position, as did Denver International Airport CEO Phil Washington.
There have been some changes. Denver Parks and Recreation head Happy Haynes retired and was replaced by former District 7 City Councilmember Jolon Clark.
Johnston appointed several newcomers:
- Anne-Marie Braga as the executive director of Denver Human Services
- Suma Nallapati as his chief information officer
- Nicole Doheny as chief financial officer
- Elizabeth Babcock as the executive director of the Office of Climate Action, Sustainability and Resiliency
- Adeeb Khan as the executive director of Denver Economic Development and Opportunity
- Mike Bouchard as the head of the Office of the National Western Center
- Ben Sanders as the director of the Mayor's Office of Social Equity and Inclusion.
There are also a lot of positions empty or held by interim leaders.
Community Planning and Development head Laura Aldrete was out soon after Johnston took office, and she has yet to be replaced by a full-time employee.
Johnston opted not to retain Denver Arts and Venues Executive Director Ginger White, and that position sits empty.
The Department of Housing Stability, arguably the agency most critical to Johnston's pledge to end homelessness in four years, does not have a permanent head.
Britta Fisher, the former head of HOST , took a job leading the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless toward the end of Hancock's third term. HOST staffer Laura Brudzynski took the helm at HOST, in the interim but left the position to become the chief operating officer of Archway Communities. She was replaced, also in the interim, by Susan Powers, the CEO of Urban Ventures, an urban redevelopment company.
So far, the heads of the big safety teams who served under Hancock are still in their positions: Police Chief Ron Thomas, Denver Fire Chief Desmond Fulton, Sheriff Elias Diggins, and their boss Department of Public Safety head Armando Saldate. That hiring process is ongoing, and their fate is uncertain.
Other uncertain positions include the heads of:
- The Department of Transportation and Infrastructure, General Services
- The Department of Public Health and Environment.
- The Office of Children's Affairs
- The Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security
- The Agency of Human Rights and Community Partnerships
So what has Johnston been doing? Trying to solve homelessness, for one.
On Johnston's first full day in office, flanked by most City Council members, he declared a homeless state of emergency, pledged to try to bring 1,000 people inside by the end of the year and activated the Emergency Operations Center.
He began meeting with unhoused residents, property owners and city departments to pull together resources to meet his goal.
On July 25, in Curtis Park, he launched a citywide tour of 41 neighborhood meetings to talk about his homelessness strategy and to encourage communities to offer land where the city, in partnership with nonprofits, could build and operate micro-communities.
At many of these, he listened with diplomacy and curiosity as residents berated his plan.
He also resumed Hancock-era sweeps that pushed people from one block to the next. Some were large-scale. Others were small. He justified them citing health and safety hazards.
And the city began the process of finding and acquiring hotels, motels and empty parcels of land to build palette shelters, tiny homes and other micro-communities. He built off of Hancock and the Denver Housing Authority's work securing housing and finalized the purchase of the Best Western in Central Park. And he has worked to acquire -- and in some cases break ground on -- micro community sites citywide.
"Prior to Mayor Johnston taking office, it often took up to three years to site micro-communities, but in just the first 100 days of the Johnston Administration, the city has acquired two hotels and broke ground on three micro-communities, putting us well on the path to obtain the units necessary to meet this crisis with the urgency it deserves," wrote Johnston's spokesperson Jordan Fuja in an email.
In late September, the city carried out its first encampment closure, moving 83 people from 8th Avenue and Logan Street, near the Governor's Mansion, into the former Best Western, run by the Salvation Army. The site offered a mix of mental health support and workforce training. The former encampment was "permanently closed." The city pledged to work with neighborhood groups, businesses and outreach and enforcement teams to ensure no more tents popped up on the spot.
The second permanent encampment closure, announced on Johnston's hundredth day in office, will take place near 21st and Curtis Streets in the days or weeks to come.
"This marks real progress toward our ambitious goal to bring 1,000 unsheltered Denverites indoors by the end of the year," Johnston said in a statement.
But reaching that goal will be tough, despite the mayor's ambition and speed. According to the House 1,000 dashboard, just 183 people have had housing outcomes and count toward the goal.
Johnston's ongoing sweeps that don't result in housing have cost him trust with homeless advocates who oppose forced cleanups and view his continuation of them to be inhumane and inconsistent with his politics.
Advocates have also taken umbrage with how Johnston is measuring success in his House1000 campaign. To be counted as having a successful housing outcome, a person has to stay inside for a minimum of 14 days. Johnston plans to track the long-term housing status of the people his administration is bringing inside.
Toward the end of his first hundred days, Johnston announced a federal partnership that, for now, has not provided funding.
"Denver became the 7th city to join the Biden-Harris Administration's ALL INside initiative, which will deploy a federal official to Denver to support the city's efforts on homelessness and break barriers to federal funding and support," Fuja wrote.
Things continue to be grim for those struggling to stay housed. Nearly 40 people experiencing homelessness have died on the streets since he took office, according to the Office of the Medical Examiner. The past year has seen record eviction filings and tensions between the housed and unhoused have resulted in violence.
To make his homeless agenda happen, Johnston needs the buy-in from City Council. That wall of support has shown cracks in recent months.
Johnston is asking a lot of City Council. While the Mayor holds more power in city government, he needs Council's support to pass the budget, continually re-approve his emergency declaration on homelessness and pass a costly string of contracts related to his House1000 initiative. In total, his administration says it plans to spend almost $50 million to shelter 1,000 people in 2023 -- something Council will need to sign off on.
Over the past few weeks, that support has started to splinter. When Johnston first proposed the emergency declaration, Councilmember Amanda Sawyer gave the sole no-vote over concerns about financial transparency. Four months later, Councilmembers Flor Alvidrez and Stacie Gilmore joined her. A number of other Councilmembers said their yes votes were not guaranteed in future declaration extensions.
Most of Johnston's contracts have passed through Council, with the exception of a homeless outreach contract unanimously voted down over concerns about duplicate services and spending. But Councilmembers' questions and concerns are growing louder.
"I'll be honest with you, you're slowly losing me," said Councilmember Shontel Lewis earlier this month, before voting yes on the emergency declaration. "I am thirsty for the vision, and I am having a really hard time finding it."
Some like Gilmore are worried about transparency. Others, like Sawyer and Councilmember Darrell Watson, want to see money repurposed toward supporting local businesses. Councilmember Sarah Parady has criticized the administration's approach to sweeps saying he risked losing support if he didn't offer solutions for the unhoused, while other Councilmembers have grilled the Mayor's office on defining success with housing, programs partnering with landlords and communication with City Council.
"Denver knows this is an emergency," Fuja said in response to Council concerns. "We are focusing on the most vulnerable populations across the city, knowing that the safety risks are highest for those currently living unsheltered in encampments, especially with winter approaching."
There's also debate over the budget, which is drafted by the Mayor's office and requires Council approval. Councilmembers sent a letter requesting more than $80 million in budget changes, most of which Johnston turned down or funded at lower levels. He cited the volume of requests and the need to keep reserves at 15%.
Rental assistance in particular has been a sticking point, with Council requesting an additional $17.5 million, and Johnston responding with an extra $3 million. Johnston has pointed to the fact that the city is investing more in rental assistance than in recent years, but that figure still falls short of what advocates say the community needs and is less in total than recent years as federal pandemic funds have dried up. Councilmembers still have a few weeks to propose budget amendments and pass a final budget.
Denver is also sheltering the most migrants since arrivals first spiked at the end of 2022.
After tapering off in the spring, migrant arrival numbers rose sharply again this fall. Denver is currently sheltering nearly 2,500 people, with hundreds arriving daily driven by the volume of people crossing the Southern border. Some people have traveled to Denver on their own or with the help of nonprofits, while Texas Governor Greg Abbott has been busing thousands of people to predominantly Democrat-led cities as a political statement.
In recent months, Johnston's response has been similar to how the city responded last winter and spring, with city staff mobilizing emergency response operations. Unlike earlier in 2023, the city has not utilized rec centers for shelter.
But Johnston and the city are in the process of contracting with a number of partner nonprofits to take over operations. That comes after former Mayor Michael Hancock backed off a controversial $40 million contract with GardaWorld, an international security firm that would have covered all migrant services. Activists and nonprofits raised concerns about the company's background.
When announcing his budget, Johnston initially said he was budgeting $20 million outright for migrant operations in 2024. But the city has already spent nearly $30 million since sheltering operations began in December of 2022; Denver has received nearly $13.5 million in state and federal grants. When announcing his budget in September, Johnston recognized that the city might have to increase funding as arrival numbers fluctuate throughout the year, relying on a mix of state and federal money, plus city contingency funds.
There's a lot going on in the city beyond homelessness and migration.
Since Johnston took office, crime and police misconduct settlements have been major issues, yet his administration has mostly stayed quiet on these.
Over the past three years, crime is up more than 6%, according to the Denver Police Department's crime dashboard Drug and alcohol crimes are up more than 58% over the past three years. There have already been more murders in 2023 than there were in 2022.
Johnston has done little, at least publicly, to address any of this. He's neither hired new public safety heads nor shown confidence in the Hancock-era hires by cementing their roles in his administration.
The mayor is also working on boosting downtown businesses in collaboration with the Downtown Denver Partnership and a new grant that will spread $350,000 to local community members who want to do activations of all sorts downtown.
For the upcoming November election, he has endorsed school board candidates in the upcoming election: John Youngquist, Marlene De La Rosa, and Kimberlee Sia.
He's also celebrated the groundbreaking of the next phase of Denargo Market and the creation of 59 units of supportive senior housing at the St. Francis Center Apartments West and another 89 income-restricted apartments at Warren Village at Alameda.
But what's beyond his first 100 days?
All eyes will be on whether he pulls off his goal of housing 1,000 people or pulls back from the numerical goal and retools his approach. Once the year ends, will he continue working aggressively on solving homelessness, or will he shift his priorities? What about his response to less visible homelessness, off the streets and in shelters, in hotels and on couches?
How will he continue to manage the arrival of migrants? Will the city find enough places for people to go to keep from overwhelming city facilities?
How will Johnston approach the rising number of eviction case filings? How will he ensure people stay housed and don't land on the streets? How will his plan work during the coldest months of the year?
And how long will it take him to hire all those empty positions? Check back in another 100 days.
