This month, the city plans to close two encampments -- one downtown and another tucked between Elyria Swansea and Northeast Park Hill -- and offer shelter to more than 200 people living in them.
If the unhoused accept the city's offer and remain there for at least two weeks, the move would put Mayor Mike Johnston about halfway through his plan to house 1000 unhoused city residents by the end of the year.
The two camps identified in a news release by Johnston's office are at 20th and Curtis Streets and 48th Avenue and Colorado Boulevard. Encampment residents would be transported to a converted hotel for support services, according to the Mayor's office.
The city has already begun reaching out to people living in the encampments slated for closure.
"Every individual we get into housing is a life changed and every encampment that we close is a neighborhood transformed," Mayor Mike Johnston said in a statement Friday. "We are delighted to bring more than 200 Denverites into housing, help close encampments and reactivate public spaces all around the city."
According to the city's dashboard, just 311 people have moved indoors since the start of the effort, which first started closing encampments in September.
The additional encampment closures planned for later in December would bring that figure to just over 500, about half of Johnston's initial goal. Meanwhile, a number of more traditional city sweeps have continued without the offer of housing, with the city citing public health and safety concerns at certain camps.
According to the city's dashboard, the 311 people sheltered include people in a mix of leased units, "reunification with friends or family" and "other sheltered outcomes." The Mayor's office defines a successful outcome as someone staying housed for 14 days, something the city has faced criticism about from City Councilmembers and homeless advocates.
Johnston told Axios last month that his administration made "a mistake" in choosing that 14-day timeline for success in the House1000 program. He also said it was possible the city will not meet the goal of sheltering 1,000 people by the end of 2023.
The city has also faced pushback from community members about proposed micro-community sites for people leaving encampments.
So far, Johnston's administration has rolled back plans for four proposed sites and reduced capacity at a fifth. The city has cited infrastructure issues and a lack of nearby resources as some of the reasons to cancel plans for a few sites.
Meanwhile, the city is starting up a volunteer program for community members to help set up converted hotels and micro-communities for people coming off the streets. That program starts Saturday and runs through the end of the month. Interested Denverites can sign up online.
