The last of Mayor-elect Mike Johnston’s public forums concluded on Friday with one question ever-present throughout the night: “Where’s the mayor?” 

Johnston did not attend, or plan to attend, any of his 28 public forums over the last 10 days, which were led by his committee chairs and designed to collect community feedback to develop the priorities for his first 100 days in office. 

But Johnston’s absence was felt deeply during Friday’s housing and homelessness forum. 

“This is the forum he needs to be at to hear the people,” said Alicia Canady, a forum attendee who is homeless. “You ran on a platform that says you want to deal with the homeless. This is where the homeless people are.” 

Canady said she and many other attendees who are homeless thought this would be their chance to speak directly to the incoming mayor about their experiences. 

“You need to hear first-hand what we go through in a day, what we have to deal with,” Canady said. “The mayor goes home at night. We have to figure out where we’re going to sleep. … Those are the burdens we deal with.” 

The frustration was palpable during the forum. A handful of attendees briefly chanted “we want the mayor” at the beginning of the meeting. Periodically, audience members heckled the speakers. When a facilitator asked what Johnston should do to address homelessness, someone shouted, “Show up!” When they said housing and homelessness are Johnston’s No. 1 priorities, another yelled, “Then, why isn’t he here?” 

More than 150 people were present at the start of the meeting. Only around half remained by the end of the 2.5-hour forum, but the bulk of participants who are homeless stayed, committed to being heard. 

“This isn’t a good start,” MaryAnna Thompson said. “I understand (Johnston) has a lot of meetings, but doggonit, we elected him to help the houseless! There’s people here who are houseless or formerly houseless and we wanted to speak with him! … This is a promise I feel is not being kept from him.” 

Johnston had pledged to end homelessness by the end of his first term. Accomplishing that goal, he said, is contingent on a coordinated attack on overlapping challenges that are fueling homelessness.

“Denver needs a mayor who will make solving homelessness a top priority and align every department of city government to ensure results,” Johnston had said. “As mayor, my office will be front and center of the fight against homelessness.”

In a policy proposal his campaign outlined, Johnston laid out four core pillars for his proposed solutions. He said that, in order to solve the homelessness crisis, the city needs to address three overlapping crises – the lack of affordable housing, the absence of available mental health support and an explosion in the severity of addictive drugs.

Throughout the night’s discussions, Denverites called for the expansion of managed homeless campsites, tiny home villages, hotel voucher programs, safe parking lots, addiction treatment and case management programs. 

Suggestions from some participants who are homeless focused on immediate safety concerns, such as opening more 24-hour shelters during extreme temperatures, ending the city’s urban camping ban, increasing emergency response systems such as the STAR program, and establishing warning systems before kicking people out of shelters for behavior issues. 

“There’s people dying on the streets and no one’s doing anything about it,” Ana Gloom said. “They’re getting money from our taxpayers, from the city, the state and the federal government, and they’re not doing anything.” 

To make housing in Denver more affordable, the attendees recommended rent control or stabilization, preserving existing affordable housing, incentivizing accessory dwelling units, eviction restrictions, eliminating single-family zoning, building more housing, and converting unused space like vacant office buildings into housing. 

At the end of the night, Ean Tafoya, co-chair of Johnston’s homelessness committee, said he will tell Johnston that residents want him to come to these kinds of public forums. 

“The most important thing is that every single person in this room stays committed to this cause,” said Tafoya, who ran for mayor against Johnston. “I feel very confident that, with your help, we can turn a tide after these last 12 years and find solutions that work for people in our community.” 

Friday’s participants submitted written answers to questions regarding housing and homelessness in Denver and what they’d like to change. The answers and discussions will be made into a report to be sent to Johnston before he takes office on Monday. 

“It’s one thing for us to write down what we all want to say, hearing it makes it real,” Canady said. “Tell the mayor to come walk in our shoes. Walk with us, have breakfast with us, see what we go through from day to day to day just trying to keep a roof over our heads.” 

Like other major cities, Denver is struggling to tackle the homelessness crisis.

A 2021 point in time count, which tallies the total number of Denverites living on the streets, identified 3,752 homeless people in Denver shelters. The city, using this data, estimates there were more than 5,000 homeless people in Denver on any given day last year. Not all of them find their way to shelters, opting instead to erect tents and camp on city sidewalks.

The city spent $152 million on homelessness in 2022 and authorized $254 million to address the problem in 2023.