When Denver Mayor Mike Johnston announced he would issue an emergency declaration regarding homelessness – with the goal of housing 1,000 people by the end of the year – it also came with the promise to expedite permitting and construction for homelessness and affordable housing projects.

It’s not yet clear how the city will execute that plan or what its approach might look like. A week into Johnston’s administration, city officials say details are still in early development and that the emergency declaration is “the starting point.”

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston declares emergency, vows to house 1,000 homeless people

“It establishes the goal of helping 1,000 people currently living unsheltered on the streets inside by the end of the year and activates the Emergency Operations Center. Over the coming weeks, specific details, strategies and tactics will be developed and shared publicly,” Department of Housing Stability Derek Woodbury told The Denver Gazette in an email.

A spokesperson within the mayor’s office was not immediately available, and a spokesperson with Community Planning & Development did not respond to interview requests.

The emergency declaration and Johnston’s first homelessness initiatives left some business and development leaders optimistic it would lead to more affordable housing sooner, and they are eager to see how Denver will carry the plan out.

“As a local, Colorado developer who works directly with affordable and supportive housing, we are happy Mayor Johnston is dedicated to addressing the homelessness issue in our community and we give him accolades for declaring an emergency,” Joe DelZotto, president of Delwest Development, said in a statement.

Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce President and CEO J.J. Ament also called the declaration a smart move that signals to businesses considering Denver for relocations or expansions that the “new mayor of Denver is taking this issue very seriously.”

Companies already know the city and country face challenges with homelessness, Ament said.

“Most of the places that they’re coming from also have issues. So what they want to see – and they’ve told us all this and they said it in our site selection conference – is that the community isn’t in denial of its problems and challenges, and that it’s taking steps to address them,” Ament said.

Johnston hit on “a real big issue and concern” by the development community when he said his initiative would streamline planning and zoning, Ament added. Part of Denver’s woes with affordable and attainable housing is the time to market, “and a lot of that time to market is held up in the bureaucracy of planning and zoning entitlements,” he said. 

“So, if he can find a path for an urgent issue like addressing homelessness, if he can find a path through declarations that can deliver product to the community that somehow pierces the red tape of city hall – then that’ll be a huge additional benefit of this. And if we can do it under an emergency declaration, perhaps we can then learn how to do that when there’s not an emergency declaration,” Ament said.

Ament asked, though, “now that’ he’s made the declaration, how do we actually deliver?”

The chamber is “ready and enthusiastic to help,” he said.

The most recent count put the number of homeless people in Denver at 4,794 at least, a number that grew by 44% from only five years prior. In response, the city has poured significant resources into tackling the crisis, spending $152 million in 2022 and authorizing $254 million to address the problem in 2023. That 2023 spending translates to $53,000 per homeless person in Denver, based on the 2022 count.

When then-Mayor Michael Hancock took office a dozen years ago, that spending stood at $8 million.

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All about the details

Jeff Martinez, president of Brothers Redevelopment, feels similarly. The declaration and effort to get more affordable projects faster is encouraging, he said.

“Although, the devil is in the details, if you will. I would be really curious to learn just what that means, what tools (the emergency declaration) lends to the city to help address some of the challenges faced by our unhoused,” he said. “And, how quickly that might lend to housing them, because that is the most important aspect of that.”

Although Brothers is not a direct provider of homelessness services, the Denver-based agency is eager for an audience with Johnston, he said. The nonprofit has spent five decades developing affordable housing for low-income residents, and, like other organizations focused on affordable housing, wants a voice in generating solutions to the homelessness crisis.

He believes one way to bring affordable housing online sooner is city funding to help developers acquire land. The cost of real estate is one of the largest barriers to building homeless and affordable housing projects, he said.

Expedited permitting may well be one solution, “and it may be even more in the coordination of departments to be able to secure permits,” he said.

Martinez has long seen city departments work in silos, slowing down the process of developing affordable housing, he said. Denver needs to consider how to get developers of affordable housing through the process quicker, he said.

He’d also like to see the city lean on HOST more during the building process and enable agencies working in affordable housing to collaborate, instead of competing for public funding sources.

The need for homelessness and affordable housing projects is dire and growing, Martinez said. Being on the frontline, Martinez hears stories firsthand from people who are facing eviction after a medical issue, or who lose their job and the interruption in their pay is enough to throw “their budgets out of whack and they can’t recover.”

The affordability and homelessness issue is “scary for a lot of people” and disappointing to longtime residents now wondering if the next generation of their family will be able to afford living in Denver, he said.

“We’re all anticipating bold action,” he said. “I would hope that that bold action will be more than decrees – it will be full, tactical plans and strategies that the city will bring to bear.”

Reporter Hannah Metzger contributed to this story.