About 100 homeless people have so far found shelter through Denver’s services since Mike Johnston took office as the city’s new mayor in July.  

The number – 101 as of Sept. 15, to be exact – represents 10% of the mayor’s promise to take 1,000 homeless individuals off the streets by year’s end. It also reflects the magnitude of the crisis, which Johnston vows to resolve by the end of his first term as mayor.

The city unveiled the data via a dashboard that officials promised to update on a daily basis.   

In a statement, officials said the dashboard shows the city’s “dedication to transparency, accountability, and achieving our mission of providing housing and shelter to those in need.”

“We believe that by making this data accessible to the public, we can foster collaboration, inspire support, and encourage community engagement,” city officials said. 

The city’s homelessness dashboard shows that roughly half of the homeless people that Denver has helped are in shelters, while the rest are living in rental units or have been unified with their families:

• Permanent housing: 5

• Rental unit: 35

• Permanently reunified with family: 12

• Temporarily unified with family: 2

• Micro-communities: 18

• Housing-converted motel or hotel: 6

• Other “sheltered outcomes”: 23

Solving the city’s soaring homelessness crisis has been top of mind for the new mayor, who intends to spend roughly $50 million on his homeless initiatives through the rest of the year, the majority of which is earmarked for building “micro-communities.” 

Johnston has also proposed spending $242 million on homelessness and housing affordability next year, a slight drop from this year’s budget of $254 million. His spending plan, he said, puts the city on a path to house 2,000 homeless people within the next two years.

The mayor had declared a state of emergency on homelessness in his first full day of office.

On Monday, councilmembers extended that emergency declaration, the third time they’ve done so in the last two months. 

District Five City Councilwoman Amanda Sawyer remained opposed to the emergency declaration’s extension. 

“I don’t think we need an emergency declaration to achieve the goals we are trying to achieve,” Sawyer said Monday, referring to Johnston’s goal to move 1,000 homeless people from Denver’s streets into shelters by year’s end.

“There is an impact on residents,” Sawyer said. “We are making a choice on how we dedicate the budget. The budget is tight and there are trade-offs that have to be made.””

Another councilmember voted ‘no’ to the emergency declaration’s extension: District 7 City Councilwoman Flor Alvidrez, who brought up “equity” concerns regarding the treatment of homeless people and residents.

Alvidrez’s district last week hosted a town hall, where residents of a nearby potential homeless micro-community site – at 5500 Yale Ave. – confronted Johnston over his homeless strategy, with some arguing his plans could create new problems for neighborhoods.

The residents asked the mayor sharp questions, offered suggestions and relayed worries, notably about increased crime, violence, drugs, public defecation, decrease in home values, police officer response times, and rapid re-zonings.

“This is a very difficult position for me to be in,” Alvidrez said during that meeting. “These people want to be a part of a community and we want to build that.”

On Monday, Cole Chandler, the mayor’s adviser on homelessness, said, “Every conversation we have in the emergency operations center is along the lines of equity.”

The goal is to be able to provide housing resources and services on a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week basis, he said.

“Expect a fully-staffed, 24-hour-a-day site,” he said. “Expect a site that has complete wraparound services and everything they need to thrive.”

City officials have defended Johnston’s emergency declaration, saying it allows Denver’s emergency operations center, which the mayor tasked with carrying out his strategy, to tackle homelessness more effectively and immediately. The city has pulled 75 people from various agencies to staff the emergency operations center.

The city has adopted several strategies in its campaign against homelessness, with a special emphasis on building “micro-community” sites. Micro-communities consist of a supervised set of tiny home or “pallet” shelters with access to bathrooms, kitchens, showers, mental health treatment and other services. The idea is to offer homeless people a place to live that can be built faster and cheaper.

Of the $50 million Johnston plans to spend through the rest of the year, he earmarked $19.6 million for micro-communities. 

Already, the Denver City Council has approved up to $7 million to order 200 portable pallet shelters.

Last July, housing authorities in Denver approved the purchase of a Best Western hotel in northeast Denver for $26 million, with plans to convert it into housing units.

Under the plan, the Denver Housing Authority will lease the building to the city via Denver’s housing department for a nominal annual rate and basic maintenance costs. The department will then contract out with a partner to provide non-congregate shelter with supportive services – until the site is ready for conversion to supportive housing, which authorities said would take a few years.

The seven-county metro Denver region saw a 32% jump in homelessness this year, based on the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative count. Point-in-time counts are estimates taken on a single night, which many say undercount the true scale of the crisis.

As of Jan. 30, the region had 9,065 homeless people, compared to 6,884 the year before. Between 2022 and 2023, the number of “unsheltered” people – those who specifically sleep in public places, such as on the street, in tents or in cars – grew by 33%, from 2,078 to 2,763.

In raw count, Denver saw the biggest increase with 5,818 homeless people, up from 4,794 last year.