Denver’s councilmembers on Monday insisted on spending $30 million in rental assistance next year.

Mayor Mike Johnston initially proposed $12.6 million in his 2024 budget for the city’s Emergency Rental Assistance program, which aims to support Denver residents whose income sits at or below 80 percent of the area median income.

The council asked for an additional $17.5 million.

Johnston countered with a $3 million increase, which, if approved would put the budget at $15.6 million. The mayor argued the city needs to keep its reserve funds at 15 percent of the overall budget. Johnston is proposing a $1.74 billion budget for next year. 

On Monday, Councilmembers Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez, Sarah Parady, Shontel Lewis, Paul Kashmann and Stacie Gilmore sought to take $14,790,000 in general fund dollars and add it toward Johnston’s $15.6 million. The councilmembers said the money would help combat evictions, which they said set a record this year with more than 12,000 residents being forced out of their homes.

“The cheapest way to solve the (homeless) problem is to keep people in their homes,” Kashmann said. 

Councilmembers said 20,000 households could benefit from the bigger rental assistance spending.

“We found out funds ran out last week,” Gonzales said.

Some councilmembers expressed wariness at the proposal.

“It’s a bad precedent to set for dipping into our city reserve funds this early,” District 2 Councilman Kevin Flynn said. “In fact, there is a path to accomplish this with the same amount by following our rules … There could be funds clawed back from our agencies that could be presented back to us.”

“Residents will be left with no guarantee down the line,” said Parady, who suggested cutting other budget items that she believes aren’t as needed.

“We know renters in our city are some of the most vulnerable residents,” Gilmore said. “We need to keep people housed.”

The councilmembers also approved amendments to increase funding for Vision Zero, which aims to bring down crash-related fatalities to zero by 2030, by $555,000.

Also on Monday, the council approved a $6 million purchase order for Denver-based Clayton Properties Group, Inc. to construct up to 300 “manufactured sleeping units” to house homeless people.

Johnston vowed to house 1,000 homeless people by year’s end.

Sawyer, who last week called to postpone the vote so officials could tour the Clayton Properties facility, called the sleeping units “thoughtfully designed.”

“This is such a better option than pallet shelters that we have already approved,” Sawyer said.