Denver’s housing department on Monday released an ambitious plan for 2023 that focuses on addressing homelessness and combating the housing crisis by, among others, decommissioning camps and rehousing thousands of households.    

The Department of Housing Stability, which will host a public meeting on Oct. 18, is urging residents to offer feedback on the 2023 action plan.

Metro Denver is struggling to address homelessness, which jumped by 12.8% – from 6,104 to 6,888 – between January 2020 and January this year. Significant resources have been poured into tackling homelessness in the last few years. Just this Monday, the Denver City Council gave the greenlight to allocate $5 million to help purchase a hotel that houses some of the city’s homeless population. Earlier, the council decided to allow another group to operate a homeless tent site in a city-owned parking lot and to set aside $2 million to provide monthly cash assistance to 140 homeless women and families.

Highlights of the housing department’s plan include a commitment to: 

• Build and maintain 1,700 affordable homes

• Serve 8,000 homes with housing stability programs

• Rehouse more than 2,500 households that are homeless

• Decommission homeless camps

• Improve the homeless resolution system for families 

Other items include commissioning a study to document “racial disparities” and discrimination in housing. The study will also propose solutions to advance “equity.” 

The plan also seeks to expand pathways to homeownership. Officials said it would will leverage American Rescue Plan funding to provide down payment assistance to residents and households affected by discriminatory practices, such as “redlining,” in which financial or other services are withheld from customers residing or seeking to reside in certain places. 

The plan also supports more development of affordable for-sale homes, officials said.  

The full action plan can be viewed online and is available in both English and Spanish. 

The Department of Housing Stability has set up a survey, where members of the public can provide feedback on the 2023 action plan. The public feedback session will be held via Zoom.