Denver Mayor Mike Johnston on Monday unveiled his budget proposal for 2024, saying his spending priorities align with residents’ needs for an “affordable, safe, sustainable, and vibrant” city. 

Johnston proposes to spend $242 million on homelessness, a slight drop from this year’s budget of $254 million. 

“Every budget is a moral document, it is an affirmation of our values and a roadmap to deliver a city that lives up to its greatest potential,” Johnston said in his letter to the city council. “In my first budget as your mayor, we are positioning our city to respond quickly and decisively to our toughest challenges and take advantage of our greatest opportunities. I deeply believe the challenges we face as a city are solvable, and we will be the ones to solve them.”

Johnston said his 2024 budget focuses on five priorities: affordability, safety, a “revitalized” downtown, a “greener” Denver, and “housing for all.”

Here are some of the mayor’s proposed spending items:   

• “Leveraging” up to $100 million? in city, state, and federal funding to “develop and preserve 3,000 affordable homes in 2024”

• An additional $39.2 million to bringing another 1,000 people out of homelessness in 2024

• $12.6 million for rental assistance programs to prevent homelessness

• $2 million for free legal services for households facing eviction

• $365,000 for three inspectors to reduce the time for affordable housing critical projects?

• $200,000? for a “first-ever process reform study” on building and zoning codes and procedures?

• $8.2 million to add 167 new police recruits 

• $7.2 million? to fund co-responder programs and grow the Support Team Assisted Response program

• $1.8 million? to add a second Wellness Winnie team 

• $3 million? in staffing and facility improvements to make 90 more beds available in community corrections as treatment alternatives to traditional incarceration?

• $4.2 million? for the Behavioral Health Solutions Center

• $21.5 million? to complete the 16th Street Mall with an expanded tree canopy and new pedestrian spaces?

• $1 million? to help stabilize businesses impacted by construction on the mall?

• $16.6 million? to “ensure the success” of the downtown Convention Center in both operations and maintenance?

• $4.5 million? for downtown activation, including to attract new businesses and visitors 

• $14.7 million? to allow the city to “leverage” $136 million in Federal Transit Authority funding for a bus rapid transit option along Colfax?

• $2 million? to accelerate the transition of city vehicles to electric vehicles 

• $1.5 million? for EV charging infrastructure

• $15 million? for multi-modal infrastructure investments, including bike lanes, safe routes to school and pedestrian crossings

• $2.8 million? for Denver’s e-bike voucher program?

• $1.3 million? for additional community rebates, incentives, and electrified micro-transit