Denver Mayor Mike Johnston has appointed his senior homelessness advisor, Cole Chandler, to lead the Department of Housing Stability (HOST).
Chandler has been the face of the mayor’s homelessness strategy — and at times a punching bag for Johnston's critics.
“I'm tremendously proud of what we've done to address both homelessness and affordable housing over the last two-and-a-half years of this administration,” Chandler told Denverite. “I think I'm well positioned to continue moving that progress forward and being a strong leader for the team of creating stability and camraderie and support.”
“I think Cole has done a fantastic job and has really grown in his leadership both across the city and across our employee base,” Johnston told Denverite. “And I think we're ready for the next phase of this work on homelessness into the next phase in housing. And I think he's going to be really well positioned to have dramatic success.”
What is HOST?
HOST works to end and prevent homelessness and implement an affordable housing strategy for the city. It was founded by Mayor Michael Hancock, who combined the separate housing and homelessness departments into a single agency in 2019.
When Johnston took office, he created the House1000 strategy, which aimed to bring 1,000 people from the streets into shelter by the end of his first six months in office. After hitting that goal, he renamed the strategy All In Mile High. Johnston has touted both as major successes that Chandler helped helm.
Both efforts were directly under the mayor and separate from HOST’s standard homelessness prevention and resolution strategies. That created confusion across the city about how money is spent and concern about whether the strategy has been effective.
The new HOST head’s background
Chandler got his start in homelessness services at the Catholic Worker House.
He was instrumental in the tiny-home shelter movement. He was the founder and CEO of Colorado Village Collaborative, a neighborhood-based tiny-home village that Johnston has looked to as an example of what works in shelter: individual spaces in smaller communities.
His foray into politics began at the Statehouse, advocating for Proposition 123 — a statewide affordable housing strategy.
Since Johnston took office, Chandler has been the mayor’s primary representative on homelessness before Denver City Council. He has consistently defended the mayor’s approach to bringing people off the streets and into hotel and tiny home shelters — even as some of those spaces have faced violence, safety issues and poor long-term outcomes for shelter guests.
Chandler has also faced scrutiny from homelessness advocates with the Housekeys Action Network Denver — many of whom worked with him on his tiny home projects a decade ago.
“I came up in the advocacy rank, so I know how to push back and fight when I need to,” Chandler said. “And I think having that clear vision and moving things forward with a collaborative spirit, but also just an unwillingness to fail, is a big thing that I've learned.”
New priorities
Chandler plans to continue the work he’s already doing in the new role.
“I think when we look at what we've built, I'm incredibly proud of it,” he said. “There are days when it feels fragile.”
Two of Chandler’s priorities are shoring up the current strategy and reducing burnout among HOST staff who have faced both a pandemic and a new mayor’s aggressive approach to homelessness.
While Chandler’s focus in his previous role with the Johnston administration has been ending street homelessness, the new position will also allow him to work on homelessness prevention and affordable housing development.
Jamie Rife, an academic and former head of Metro Denver Homelessness Initiative, was Johnston’s first permanent appointee in the role. She left around two years into the job, and the position has been held by interim director Molly Urbina.
Johnston said he conducted a national search for the position.
“By far and away, the best candidate in the pool was Cole Chandler,” Johnston said.
