After 112 days in office, Denver’s new mayor now needs to house 100 homeless people on average each week to deliver his promise of getting a thousand of them off the city’s streets by the end of the year.

So far, Mike Johnston’s administration has housed 208 homeless people, according to a city-made homeless housing dashboard at the start of November.

He’ll need to house 792 more by Dec. 31.   

Johnston, who was sworn in as Denver mayor on July 17, immediately took aim at the city’s homelessness crisis. He declared a state of emergency, launched an operations center to coordinate responses, hired a homelessness adviser, and spent millions of dollars to buy “tiny homes” – his foremost transition strategy – under the umbrella of a “housing first” approach to the challenge.

Observers gave Johnston solid marks for his first 100 days in office. Others have long criticized the mayor for failing to tackle what they believe lies at the root of homelessness: mental health and drug addiction.    

“Mayor Johnston certainly deserves an ‘A’ for his extensive engagement with the community in addressing Denver’s No. 1 challenge, which is homelessness,” Mike Dino, a political expert who served as campaign manager for former Mayor Wellington Webb, told The Denver Gazette. “He has been attentive, considerate, and positive in his approach to the various facets of his plan to address homelessness.”

In August, Citizens for a Safe and Clean Denver – which describes itself as a non-partisan group that seeks to offer “alternate narrative, and data-based, common-sense solutions” – urged Johnston anew to focus on mental health, saying even if the mayor successfully gets 1,000 homeless people into shelters, “we cannot house our way out of this crisis because, well-intentioned as he may be, he’s fighting the wrong battle.”

“The mayor has not yet meaningfully acknowledged the primary role that addiction and mental health play in creating unsheltered homelessness. Until these facts are recognized and addressed, Denver’s crisis will only grow,” the group said. “We are tolerating and destigmatizing public drug consumption while enabling lives to be lost to addiction.”

Johnston’s ‘housing first’ sprint       

Johnston’s administration hunkered down on his first full day of office. The new mayor activated an emergency operations center, which draws scores of staffers from the city’s pool of employees, the first time in history that Denver launched one to tackle homelessness.

Of Colorado’s major cities, Denver saw the biggest increase in the number of homeless people – 5,818 as of January, up from 4,794 last year, according to a point-in-time count that offers a single night’s snapshot of the crisis back in January.

And, between 2022 and 2023, the number of “unsheltered” people – those who sleep in public places, such as in tents, cars or the streets – grew by 33 percent, from 2,078 to 2,763, according to the survey.

In contrast, Aurora’s homeless population stood at 572 in the same survey, down from 612 the year before. Meanwhile, El Paso County saw a 17 percent drop in its homeless population – from a high of 1,562 in 2019 to 1,302 in January.

Against this backdrop, Johnston’s administration embraced the “housing first” approach. The idea is to respond to an individual’s most acute need first, which proponents of the strategy say is housing, and then offer other services later. 

So far, the Johnston administration has provided shelter to just under two homeless people a day on average. He now needs at least 14 a day to achieve his goal by Dec. 31.

The plan – Johnston and his homelessness adviser, Cole Chandler, articulated – is to sweep homeless encampments, put people in transitional housing with services offered, and eventually give them permanent housing opportunities.

Already, the city has cleared four encampments.

Also crucial to the strategy is building “micro-communities,” where the “tiny homes” would be erected. Chandler told The Denver Gazette to expect a busy December. Up to 500 such units are in the pipeline for the “micro-communities,” four of which have already broken ground.  

“We wanted to take a huge and measurable chunk out of that right off the bat,” Chandler said. “And, so you know, the goal is really within the first term to end unsheltered homelessness. But we wanted to start by taking up a significant chunk, and so that’s where we got to the 1,000 number.”

Some claimed that previous administrations didn’t show the same dedication that Johnston has when it comes to homelessness.

“Mayor Johnston has really embraced the sense of urgency that we’ve been feeling about homelessness for years,” said Cathy Alderman, who speaks for the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless.

Denver contracts with the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless for services. Denver’s councilmembers last month rejected a $6.4 million, three-year contract with the group following a request by Johnston to do so, saying his administration needs more time to develop a “strong and fair” agreement. The group hinted of differences in approaches.

“I think he is setting a tone of optimism and confidence and he is spending a lot of time listening to people, which is so important,” Alderman said.

Denver, a dozen years ago

Former Mayor Michael Hancock’s first 100 days looked much different 12 years ago.

At the time, the country was recovering from the Great Recession and the National Western Stock Show and United Airlines were on the verge of leaving Denver.

Tim Tebow became the Denver Broncos’ starting quarterback, and the Broncos held a 2-5 record to start its 2011 season in the last mayoral transition. The team ended up going on a six-game winning streak after Hancock’s first 100 days.

“Mayor Hancock had a mostly robust economy and the city was in an upswing,” Dino said. “Mayor Johnston is dealing with the post pandemic malaise and the need to rejuvenate our center city and restore hope that city government is a viable partner in moving forward for our success.”

Homelessness has been imprinted on Denver’s consciousness as a crisis going back to the 1980s. A Washington Post article noted how the country’s leading mayors, including Denver’s Federico Peña, told a congressional subcommittee that hunger and homelessness increased, even as the unemployment rate declined. The Post cited Peña as saying that, despite low unemployment, Denver had been unable to cope with the mentally ill and thousands of homeless job-seekers, which he said were from other regions.

Subsequent mayors, too, tackled homelessness, including Wellington Webb and John Hickenlooper, who famously launched Denver’s “Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness.”

By the time Hancock took office in 2011, the city was spending $8 million on the crisis. When Hancock left office this year, Denver’s homelessness budget stood at $254 million. Johnston’s administration wants to spend roughly the same amount – $242 million – next year. Using the latest homeless count, that translates to roughly $85,000 per homeless person total for two years. 

Alderman said Johnston is on the right track. 

“I don’t think the city of Denver was able to scale up the necessary resources and response to make significant headway in addressing the problem,” Alderman said of Hancock’s homelessness response.

Johnston and Hancock’s cabinets, snowstorms and direct DIA flights   

Like Hancock, Johnston spent his first 100 days building his team. 

“I remember Mayor Hancock kind of did that pretty methodically,” said Jim Carpenter, who served as chief of staff to Gov. Bill Ritter and state director for U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar. “I think that Mayor Johnston has made some really strong hires. But I think he’s doing this, you know, at kind of his own pace. I think some people will say filling these positions has been a little slower, but he’s made some really great hires.”

By this time, Hancock needed only three more positions to fill. Johnston is still looking for department heads for Community Planning & Development, Denver Department of Public Health & Environment and Department of Public Safety. In addition, he has yet to appoint chiefs for the police and fire departments and the sheriff’s office.  

Both Hancock and Johnston celebrated 100 days right before the season’s first major snowfall.

And both proudly announced direct, international flights out of Denver International Airport. In August, Johnston announced partnering with Aer Lingus for direct flights to Ireland. Hancock, too, announced direct flights, from Denver to Iceland with Icelandair.

Downtown Denver Partnership CEO Kourtny Garrett, who worked with Johnston closely in his first 100 days, said she sees progress. 

“Being able to rally every single city department around this issue, from where it has gotten in just 100 days in terms of beginning to build that housing pipeline, beginning to address encampments, and offering housing and services to each individual is tremendous,” she said. “Look at just 100 days, versus a lot of these plans that are six months, eight months, six years, eight years in the making.”

What if Johnston fails to get 1,000 homeless people off the streets by Dec. 31?

“To steal his words, ‘Even if we fail, we will fail fast and start again,'” Garrett said. “Because right now we need to see action. We need to be moving forward.”