In response to a Common Sense Institute report claiming a “work-first” approach to addressing homelessness is the best approach, the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless countered in a news release this week that “housing-first” is best practice. 

Colorado Coalition for the Homeless called the CSI study “misleading” and “loosely informed” in the Tuesday release, saying the report fails to understand the housing-first model and the housing market conditions that lead to homelessness. 

In response, a Common Sense Institute spokesperson said the coalition’s letter “misrepresents both the content and purpose” of their work, adding that their report “does not reject” the housing first model.

Common Sense Institute is a “non-partisan research organization dedicated to protecting and promoting the economy,” according to its website.

Denver’s housing-first with supportive services strategy to managing homelessness was adopted from Colorado Coalition for the Homeless and is the most effective model for addressing the issue, according to the Coalition’s release. 

Through the housing-first model, homeless people are given rapid access to housing, crisis intervention, case management and supportive services. Teams who work with homeless people encourage engaging with employment opportunities, healthcare and mental healthcare, and substance use disorder services, but engagement with services is not required as a condition of housing.

The Institute report, authored in part by former Aurora City Councilmember Dustin Zvonek, compared the model created by Colorado Coalition for the Homeless to a “work-first” strategy, which has been adopted by Aurora. The report said Colorado leans into “housing-first” and needs to shift its focus to be successful.

Aurora officials took notes from strategies used in Houston, Texas, and borrowed from “work-first” and “treatment-first” models by providing anyone in need with emergency services but offering more robust services to people who are participating in the workforce and receiving any behavioral health treatment they may need.   

The CSI report contrasted Denver and Colorado Springs and concluded that the former has been unsuccessful, while the city to the south, which uses a work-first approach, has seen “real progress.”

According to the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative’s point in time homeless count, Denver County saw an increase from 5,818 homeless people in 2023 to 6,539 homeless people in 2024.

Meanwhile, El Paso County saw a decrease in homeless people, from 1,302 to 1,146, during the same period, according to the Pikes Peak Continuum of Care.

Colorado Coalition for the Homeless officials countered that an increase in homelessness in one city is not a result of housing-first policies, but rather a result of housing costs. A survey of 26 studies from the National Low Income Housing Coalition showed housing-first is more effective, the press release added.

From a total participant pool of over 17,000, the survey showed that housing-first programs decreased homelessness by 88% and improved housing stability by 41% compared to treatment-first programs.  

There are also other factors at play when it comes to reasons for homelessness increases and decreases, the Coalition press release added, namely housing costs. 

“Writing a report about homelessness that fails to mention the housing shortage and affordability crisis that every Coloradan has seen grow in recent years is the opposite of common sense,” Cathy Alderman with Colorado Coalition for the Homeless said.

A housing affordability report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition showed Colorado as the 18th most expensive state in the country for housing in 2014, then as the 8th most expensive in 2024. 

Between 2019 and 2023, Denver’s per capita rate of homeless people increased from 5.4 to 8.1 people per 1,000. During the same period, Denver rent increased from $1,204 to $1,538 for a one-bedroom apartment, according to the Coalition. 

As of 2024, Denver had a gap of 134,280 affordable and available units for people living at 30% of the area median income or less, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition. 

“A more common-sense driven and legitimate interpretation of data would tell a reader that cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Portland demonstrated increased homelessness in recent years because they are expensive places to live, not because they are ‘Housing First’ cities as characterized in CSI’s report introduction,” Alderman said.

The CSI report said Denver spent $16 million on homeless people who remained in “unsheltered” status after leaving a city program that Mayor Mike Johnston launched in 2023.

On page 21 of the CSI report, Colorado Coalition for the Homeless is listed as spending $106,827,635 in the 2023 fiscal year.

The Coalition’s press release called this funding data “woefully miscalculated,” saying the data collected and used from their 990 tax forms does not break down spending by program. CSI’s report counts funding allocated to healthcare services, which is over half of the organization’s budget, and funds used outside of Denver, the coalition said. 

“This is a miscalculation that CCH pointed out to CSI at length in both 2023 and 2022,” the press release said. “Yet they continue to mischaracterize the data to advance a false narrative about spending on homelessness in Denver.”

The Colorado Coalition for the Homeless has more than 40 years of experience in managing homelessness. Tuesday’s press release from the coalition said the information in the CSI study has a potentially harmful impact on the homeless response system in Colorado. 

In response to the Coalition’s letter, a CSI spokesperson said their report did not dispute that housing-first can work, but that “at a systems level, it has failed to reduce the total number of people experiencing homelessness.”

“We believe the federal government should allow greater flexibility in how homelessness programs are funded — so that alternative models can be implemented, measured, and compared based on real outcomes,” the CSI spokesperson said. 

The spokesperson added that CSI “agrees that housing market conditions matter,” but are not the only thing acting as a barrier to housing stability.

In response to the coalition’s criticism of the institute’s spending analysis, the spokesperson said they used data that was transparent and available. 

“When an organization operates with a $100M+ budget and claims criticism is invalid because ‘not all of it went to homelessness,’ we would respectfully request that they provide greater transparency,” the CSI spokesperson said.