Out of 550 homeless people who moved into temporary shelters upon the urging of Denver officials, only one left for a treatment program, an early outcome that underscores the difficulties Mayor Mike Johnston faces as he grapples with one of his city’s most visible crises.

Both advocates of a “housing first” approach and a “treatment first” strategy agree that metro Denver’s homeless population faces a daunting drug overdose crisis. So far this year, 477 people have died from drug overdoses in Denver – homeless people made up 181 of those deaths or about 38%.

There is a month left in the year, and statistics may experience a lag of several weeks.

“There is no treatment unless the person specifically asks for it,” Craig Arfsten, president and co-founder of Safe and Clean Denver, told The Denver Gazette. “Sadly, the truth is they rarely ask for help.”

Denver’s homeless housing dashboard shows that out of 550 homeless people who transitioned into temporary shelters, 28 “exited.” Of that number, four went into other shelters, one died, four went to jail, and five went back to the streets.

In addition, 13 left without without telling the city they were leaving or where they were going.

Denver launched a new version of the dashboard to calculate the long-term “success” for homeless people in temporary housing for over 30 days, according to the mayor’s homeless czar, Cole Chandler.

“We’re excited that more than 90% of people are still in the program 30 days after move-in,” Chandler told city councilmembers last week.

The city’s dashboard changed or at least its presentation did.  

On Monday, the dashboard’s language changed the label to 550 “people moved indoors.” Last week, the dashboard showed 586 were “housed.”

The dashboard says people’s average length in shelters is 24 days, and that 89% who moved into transitionary housing units more than 30 days ago are still there. 

Councilmembers earlier cited the Johnston’s administration definition of people who are “officially housed” to mean mean individuals who stayed in shelters a minimum of 14 days.

“There was some miscommunication about that,” Chandler said. “Someone counts as a person who’s ‘indoors’ when they move in.”

Johnston earlier expressed confidence he can deliver on his promise to get 1,000 homeless off of the city’s streets before the year ends.

“I think it’s more and more possible every day,” Johnston told The Denver Gazette. “I am optimistic that we have a path to get there. But more than that, I’m grateful every time I get to see one person who’s made it off the streets and come indoors.”

Plans are afoot to move more than 400 homeless people from encampments and into temporary shelters over the next several days, Denver officials said.

A key part of the strategy is sweeping seven homeless encampments, as the administration is racing to get 1,000 people off of the city’s streets before the year ends.

“The current House1000 is not focusing on treatment,” said Arfsten of Safe and Clean Denver. “The mayor is promoting the ‘housing first’ approach, which says you put a roof over everyone’s head. When they are ready for treatment they will ask for it.”