One of Denver Mayor Michael Johnston’s homeless hotels is turning into a hotel of horrors.

The mounting death toll and recurring violence at the former DoubleTree by Hilton, at 4040 Quebec St., as reported by The Denver Gazette, are tragic. The implications are troubling for the Johnston administration’s approach to getting the chronically homeless off Denver’s streets.

But, really, can anyone be surprised?

The administration had spent $45 million in tax dollars by the end of last year, followed by millions more to date, to acquire hotels, buy “tiny” shelters and set up “micro-communities” to accommodate the city’s urban “campers.” Yet, as critics including The Gazette editorial board have pointed out, the effort by and large only has reshuffled people who can’t sustain themselves – whether in illegal camps or city-sponsored hotel rooms.

Stay up to speed: Sign up for daily opinion in your inbox Monday-Friday

The policy doesn’t address their addictions or other pathologies, including criminal histories, when giving them shelter. There’s no drug screening, background check or mental-health evaluation to get them the care they need. And what if they’re wanted for serious crimes?

The mayor’s “housing first” policy ensures most beneficiaries will be back on the streets sooner or later. That’s assuming they don’t overdose first – or fall prey to violence – in their new taxpayer-funded digs.

The Gazette’s news staff pored over public records from the Denver medical examiner and found that seven people in total have died at the Quebec Street hotel-turned-shelter since it opened in December. City Hall’s online dashboard indicates two more have died at other shelters that are part of the administration’s effort.

Two of the deaths made headlines – a double-fatal shooting at the Quebec Street hotel March 16. Sandra Cervantes and Dustin Nunn were found dead inside one of the rooms; no arrests have been made so far in that incident. The cause of the other five deaths at the facility remain unknown pending the results of toxicology tests.

Early Thursday, The Gazette reported another resident had been shot in her room at the Quebec Street hotel Wednesday night. She is expected to survive. Denver police announced later Thursday they had apprehended two suspects – one of them in another room at the same facility.

The bigger picture is at least as alarming.

As noted in The Gazette’s report, the former hotel has been a hot spot for 911 calls since it reopened as a homeless shelter. Between Oct. 1 and Jan. 12, dispatchers fielded 1,212 calls from the hotel and nearby, according to Department of Public Safety data obtained by The Gazette. That number exceeds the number of calls from the program’s other shelters, but it underscores how the entire program is placing surrounding neighborhoods at risk and, arguably, putting the shelter residents themselves in harm’s way.

Sorry, Mr. Mayor; it’s time for a told-ya-so.

The administration’s presumed victory in moving some of the chronically homeless indoors is turning out to be hollow at best, as could be expected.

Sure, it got some people off the streets for however long that lasts. Authorities dismantled some of the wretched shantytowns that have sprouted up around the city in disregard of the law. That brought short-term relief for beleaguered homeowners and embattled small businesses that endured the stench, noise, rowdy behavior, panhandling, petty crime and blight. Yet, it is unlikely to achieve any lasting success because it is fundamentally flawed.

Merely housing people temporarily as an end in itself is, in fact, a dead end. In some cases, literally.

Denver Gazette Editorial Board