Denver Mayor Mike Johnston on Monday outlined his top 2026 priorities, with an eye toward the city’s most persistent challenges, notably homelessness, which has been growing under his administration, though there had been gains in some areas.

The city’s top goals, Johnston said at a news conference at the La Alma Recreation Center, include further reducing gun-related shootings and homicides, increasing housing opportunities, decreasing street homelessness and developing more green infrastructure. 

The city also intends to expand access to childcare and bolster downtown by filling more office and retail space.

Decrease gun-related homicides by 10% and shootings in ‘high-risk’ neighborhoods by 20%

The good news, Johnston said, is that Denver just recorded one of the city’s lowest homicide totals – 37 in 2025.

“The challenge is there’s about twice in Denver’s history where (there’s) been this low level of homicides,” Johnston added. He said in the years following 2000 and 2014, homicide numbers increased significantly.

“If we deliver another 10% drop, we will be at or among the lowest violent crime rates in many cities in the country,” Johnston said. “Our goal is to reach that level and try to stabilize at that level.”  

Fill 3 million square feet of downtown office and retail space

With the reopening and rebranding of 16th Street complete, Johnston said he plans to fill 3 million square feet of downtown office and retail space – just under half of the 7 million square feet currently available.

To accomplish this, he said, the city will look for “creative” ways to convert commercial office space into apartments, add more childcare facilities, and create more working space for artists and nonprofits.

Strategic public investments, he said, can drive growth in an uncertain economy.

“That means making sure all of our bond projects are moving on time, on budget,” he said. “That means our five-year capital improvement plan, which drives all the incremental construction that we do, neighborhood by neighborhood, is moving, and these larger signature projects, like the Park Hill Golf Course, like our work at the National Western complex, like the new Summit Stadium, and our Burnham work around the Broncos stadium.”

Reduce street homelessness by 75% compared to 2023 numbers

On Johnston’s first day in office in July 2023, he declared a state of emergency, freeing up funds and fast-tracking decisions in his quest to end homelessness in the city by the end of his first term as mayor, as he had promised during the campaign.

That allowed the city to move forward with plans to dismantle homeless encampments and move people indoors and off the streets, with financial backing from federal funding sources, such as the American Rescue Plan Act.

Since then, the city has spent more than $155 million — some $65 million more than what the mayor earlier said it would cost — in hotel shelters and service contracts to house the homeless and provide “wrap-around” services, such as case management, mental health services and job assistance.

A count last year showed that although fewer people were sleeping on the streets in Denver, the total number of homeless individuals in the city grew.

For 2026, Johnston said, the city plans to reduce its 2023 street homelessness numbers by 75%.

The city has also set its sights on addressing homelessness reports within one business day. 

Deliver 2,500 affordable units and permit an additional 5,000 units 

Denver has added close to 5,600 “affordable” housing units over the last 30 months, but Johnson said more are needed to ensure housing is available to people of all income levels.

“What we know is that we have had success in stabilizing and even dropping rental prices in the city because we have added more units,” Johnston said. “And the more units we have, the more supply there is, the more we can keep control of pricing.”

The state and local governments have imposed several regulatory strategies to spur housing development. Denver, for instance, requires housing development of 10 or more units to allocate a certain number to “affordable” units.

Supporters view it as ensuring that any new development would have dedicated housing for lower-income residents. Critics said it has only served as a barrier to new development, ultimately penalizing working-class residents.

Builders who work with higher density projects have also said that the state and local governments’ medicine doesn’t treat what ails the market for affordable homes.

Install more ‘clean’ energy systems and develop ‘green’ infrastructure

Looking to have more neighborhoods powered by “clean” energy and “protected from climate risks,” Johnston said the city will prioritize installing 5,000 clean energy systems and developing 50 acres of green infrastructure.

“Those focus on the needs of both cutting carbon pollution and providing a resilient environment,” he said.

“Clean” energy systems, according to Johnston, would include solar charging stations, battery storage, and heat pumps.

The development of more green infrastructure looks “a lot like less concrete and asphalt and more either open space or grass or permeable surfaces and trees that provide shade, that can absorb water, that can protect us from heat,” he said.

Like the state, Denver has adopted a regulatory framework to transition toward electrification. Notably, the city is requiring electrification of all buildings larger than 25,000 square feet.

The fundamental problem with the program, building owners have said, is that the standards set for energy savings have been intentionally set to make them impossible to meet without fully electrifying buildings and eliminating the use of natural gas for space and water heating entirely. Industry representatives have also said that, in many cases this is both financially and physically impossible for older, multi-family buildings to achieve.

Connect 5,000 young people to quality out-of-school programming

To achieve this goal of expanding affordable childcare and providing thousands of young people with after-school programming, Johnston outlined two priorities.

The first is to build a citywide framework to expand affordable childcare using Denver’s preschool model as a foundation.

The second is to increase out-of-school programs and youth employment, reaching 3,000 young people in the summer and connecting 2,000 additional high school students with paid job opportunities.