Many if not most of Denver’s diehard street dwellers are addicted to drugs or alcohol. Their addiction is, by and large, what keeps them on the streets.

To acknowledge that is considered impolite in some circles, but it’s not intended as an indictment or even a “judgment.” It’s just being realistic.

And it is why freshman Denver Mayor Mike Johnston’s heralded effort to house 1,000 of Denver’s “unhoused” by year’s end is unlikely to yield lasting success.

It also is why efforts to get people off the streets right next door in Aurora hold greater promise.

In Denver, the premise of the mayor’s mad dash to put roofs over 1,000 homeless heads before midnight on New Year’s Eve – come what may – is that simply housing people is an end in itself. It is, in fact, a dead end.

The approach embodies the naive, “housing first” notion that victory over homelessness lies in finding an indoor space where the beneficiaries can continue the lifestyle that landed them on the streets in the first place. It ignores the cumulative, extensive damage the street denizens have done to themselves through substance abuse – and their need to mend their ways.

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Sure, they are homeless and for the most part, jobless, unless you count panhandling – but it’s not because of some presumed economic injustice. It is because so many of them have rendered themselves incapable of holding a job or affording a place to stay.

If it’s a place to bunk they need, that’s already abundant at conventional homeless shelters. But many who live on the streets refuse to bed down in them because shelters set standards for behavior. The mayor’s push to house them sidesteps standards, merely offering rather than requiring rehab, job counseling and the like – then throws them the keys to one of the myriad hotel rooms where they’ll be put up at a cost of tens of millions of tax dollars per hotel.

It’s a pretty sure bet they’ll be back on the streets sooner or later, still dependent on drugs or alcohol. Until then, they’ll be dependent on the kindness of taxpayers. All the while, few will make the leap to a more productive life or even take the initial steps to get back on their feet.

An enlightening news report by The Gazette this week made that crystal clear. Of 550 homeless people who had moved into the temporary accommodations as of Monday, only one so far had left for a rehab program. A total of 28 had “exited,” according to Denver City Hall’s new dashboard to track the homeless. But they hadn’t left for treatment, The Gazette reported. Four went into other shelters, one died, four went to jail, and five went back to the streets. Another 13 left without saying where they were going.

Just in case there’s any doubt addiction is the crux of their problem, consider 181 of the 477 people who have died from drug overdoses in Denver so far this year – were among the homeless street population. That’s about 38% of all overdoses.

None of the 550 in Denver’s ad hoc housing program is getting the help they need – a compassionate, helping hand up. Not a handout. That means charting a course for a return to productive life.

Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman gets that. In his State of the City speech on Friday, he said he and City Council members are working on a multi-pronged approach to homelessness that will include making Aurora a “work first” city. Housing will be “earned through employment.”

“Success is not getting the unsheltered homeless off the streets only to make them permanent wards of the state at taxpayers’ expense,” Coffman said.

Kudos to Coffman. He ought to have a chat with his counterpart in Denver.

Denver Gazette Editorial Board