Denver Mayor Mike Johnston is closing two homeless shelter sites and changing his strategy on homelessness.
Next year, the city will shut down the former Comfort Inn shelter on Quebec Street and the Elyria Swansea Monroe Village tiny home communities. The shelters were opened in recent years to give individual shelter rooms to people experiencing homelessness.
The mayor said he was making the change because he wants to focus on moving people from existing shelters into long-term housing more quickly. It also comes as the city faces significant budget cuts; the mayor said the closures would save the city $11 million per year. Permitting that allowed the Monroe Village community is expiring soon, and the city had long ago committed to developing housing on the land.
Johnston also signaled that he wanted to see a greater focus on results in the shelter system — including in putting people to work and getting them treatment for mental health and addiction issues.
The city plans to offer permanent housing to all residents at both sites, or at least a room in another shelter, the mayor’s office said.
“The end goal was never to run these sites as permanent housing,” said Jon Ewing, a spokesperson for the mayor.
Why is the mayor closing shelters the city recently opened?
When Johnston took office in 2023, he pledged to open shelters in every neighborhood in Denver. That never happened. Now, he’s closing down some of the shelters that opened in recent years.
The former Comfort Inn on Quebec Street has 136 rooms. The city has had a short-term lease on the building. It will close in March.
In June, the city will close Monroe Village, a “tiny home” site in Elyria Swansea. It hosts two communities, including one for women, transgender and non-binary people. In total, the site has 43 tiny homes. The plan is to redevelop the land as housing for middle-income people like teachers, nurses and police officers.
The city says it will help the Colorado Village Collaborative, the nonprofit that runs the site, in finding a site for a new tiny home community. But the city will no longer fund the community. The city will continue funding two other tiny home projects run by CVC, along with additional tiny home communities.
Initially, Johnston talked about solving homelessness exclusively by building tiny home villages, but soon learned it was cheaper to buy or lease unused hotels.
Losing the land and the funding comes as a blow to CVC, which was one of the organizations that pioneered tiny home shelters in Denver. The nonprofit is grateful for the city’s support and is preparing to raise funds to continue operating a third site.
But moving and operating the site will be expensive.
“There will absolutely be a fundraising challenge on our side,” CVC CEO Jessica Ehinger said.
Earlier this year, the city shut down its All In Mile High Radisson Hotel shelter. Working on a deadline, caseworkers found housing for most of the guests. Ewing said it was one of the city’s most successful housing efforts yet.
The mayor hopes closing these sites leads to similar results.
On Thursday, Sept. 25, Johnston will host a community town hall at the Central Park Recreation Center to discuss the changes. Doors will open at 5 p.m. and the program will run from 5:30-6:30 p.m.
The mayor argues the city needs fewer shelter units and more intensive case management.
“In just two years, we have changed the landscape of homelessness in Denver and we are not slowing down,” Johnston said in a statement. “The next phase of All In Mile High will build on our progress, with a laser focus on getting more people into permanent housing, putting more people to work, and removing barriers to success for those with the most severe forms of addiction and mental illness.”
In the coming years, shelter providers will be paid not just for providing shelter but also for how successful they are at regularly offering case management and getting people into permanent homes. The city will track success and reward nonprofits that run shelters based on whether they do a measurable, better, or faster job at housing individuals.
While the mayor has not changed his position that stable shelter and housing are necessary components to help people experiencing homelessness regain stability, he is emphasizing the importance of work and treatment more loudly — echoing neighboring Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman and, to some extent, President Donald Trump.
Gov. Jared Polis has also been calling for a shift in strategies. He recently told Colorado Matters that Denver’s approach to homelessness should not be the model for the state.
“I think Aurora and Colorado Springs have been better on their approach to homelessness,” Polis said. “I think that focusing on mental health is critical. When they say ‘housing first,’ sometimes that means even when there's an underlying drug addiction or mental health, you focus on just the housing. It doesn't always work. It doesn't work perhaps even most of the time. You really need to focus on the person.”
That’s a big part of what Johnston now says he’s doing.
It’s a major change for the mayor’s signature program.
When he took office, Johnston said he wanted to end street homelessness by the end of his first term in 2027. That effort is now known as All In Mile High.
The program focused on breaking up encampments and moving their residents into shelters. Johnston opened 1,300 shelter units at the peak. The city will have just under 900 All In Mile High units after these facilities close.
The initiative has brought 7,396 people into shelter and moved 6,049 individuals to permanent housing, according to the mayor’s office. There are now far fewer camps and tents around the city center.
But homelessness remains a top issue for Denver residents. There are still thousands of people suffering outside. Families are living in cars. More people than any time in at least 20 years are being evicted from their homes and risk falling into homelessness. Overall, homelessness has risen since the mayor took office.
Now, the mayor is claiming success in shutting down encampments – work the Urban Institute has recently described as “a promising path” for other cities.
Instead of focusing on moving people from tents to shelters, the city will push harder to move people out of city-owned and rented hotel shelters toward permanent housing.
Solutions vary for each individual. Some just need good-paying jobs or affordable rent, while others need mental health and addiction treatment. Caseworkers might help people get or use housing vouchers. And sometimes, the city will help individuals connect with family and friends.
Denver’s Roads to Recovery program will continue to connect people living on the streets directly with shelter, treatment or whatever they might need. People who commit what the mayor calls “quality of life” crimes also may be arrested and pushed toward treatment, he said.
Roads to Recovery has helped over 300 people since its founding in January 2024. Meanwhile, the city has counted more than 770 fatal drug overdoses and 4,680 non-fatal overdoses since the program began.
Each individual’s circumstance is different, Ewing said. And the city wants to meet people where they’re at.
“What we want is to help you get on your feet,” Ewing said.
It’s not clear how much the city will invest in its recovery strategies next year. The draft 2026 budget will be released Monday.
