Looks like freshman Mayor Mike Johnston is all in on his ambitious pledge to take 1,000 people off of Denver’s streets by year’s end and “house” them so that, technically speaking, they won’t be homeless anymore.

The price tag, as reported by The Gazette: about $52 million.

That’s the upshot of a news conference this week at which Johnston sought to assure the press and public that City Hall has the money.

Too bad it will go to waste – because, of course, the plan will fail.

That’s not to say it can’t be done, but what’s shaping up as this mayor’s approach certainly won’t do it. Merely moving the city’s habitual street dwellers around like some sort of shell game isn’t doing them any favors. And that’s even for those who agree to lodge in one of the mayor’s “micro-communities.”

As we noted here just recently, if Johnston really wants to succeed, he must defy the conventional wisdom of progressive pols and policy advocates in addressing homelessness. He has to face up to what keeps much of the hardcore homeless population on the streets – not lack of opportunity, bad luck or an unfair economic system – but addiction.

The mayor’s elaborate plans to replace illegal homeless camps around the city with supervised, temporary quarters – from motel rooms to city-run camps of “pallet shelters” – lack the one provision essential to getting the homeless back on their feet. There’s no screening for addiction or mental health issues and no requirement for treatment prior to placing people in housing. It’s part of the “housing first” philosophy – a dead end.

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If spending on such folly actually worked, Denver would have spent its way out of homelessness many times over by now. City Hall spent $152 million addressing the issue in 2022 and has authorized fully $254 million for 2023. When former Mayor Michael Hancock took office a dozen years ago, spending on homelessness was at $8 million.

Yet, as The Gazette also noted in its report, the ranks of the region’s street-dwelling population keep growing. Between 2022 and 2023, the number of “unsheltered” people tracked in the metro area in the annual Point in Time Survey grew by 33%, from 2,078 to 2,763. Denver saw the biggest increase with 5,818 homeless people, up from 4,794 last year.

We can expect more of the same under the mayor’s plan.

In the short term, the people it induces to take advantage of the bathrooms, kitchens, showers and other conveniences at the micro-communities will simply carry their addictions and mental health issues with them. Not only will that make life in the micro-communities problematic in no time, but it also will spill over into the surrounding neighborhoods where they are located.

One Denverite who lives near a new homeless “pop-up” shelter told a Gazette reporter this week of violence, drug-use, loitering and jaywalking.

“Our tax dollars are going toward this. The city is creating a homeless problem in our neighborhood that wasn’t there before,” the resident said.

The long-term outlook is even more troubling. Those who move into one of the mayor’s ad hoc homeless villages will be set up for a fall – a return to the streets – absent a requirement for rehabilitation from the alcohol and/or drug addiction that derailed them in the first place.

Meanwhile, word already is out that Denver offers no-cost, hassle-free accommodations where no one will ask you what’s in your backpack. All perfectly legal. And the number of homeless will keep rising.

Denver Gazette Editorial Board