Denver Mayor Mike Johnston says he achieved his goal of sheltering more than 1,150 people experiencing homelessness by the end of 2023 through his House1000 program. Now, city officials are facing an even bigger task as their focus shifts to finding more permanent housing options for people already in the program so they can provide shelter for another 1,000 homeless people this year.
Part of the House1000 program’s success was driven by Denver’s efforts to develop new shelter spaces for the unhoused, such as acquiring multiple hotel properties and opening micro-communities of pallet shelters, according to Cole Chandler, who serves as Mayor Johnston’s senior advisor on homelessness resolution. But new shelter developments will be a secondary focus this year as the city bolsters its rapid rehousing infrastructure, Chandler said.
Rapid rehousing typically involves helping people obtain more traditional housing quickly, without having to cross such barriers as having a job or income, or a clean criminal record, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness. It is also considered a less expensive option than traditional interventions, such as shelters or transitional housing.
“It was a big initial lift and, but the work is just beginning,” Chandler told The Colorado Sun in an interview.
The efforts come at a time when Denver is trying to balance its response to the two competing crises of increased homelessness and migration. Not including Central and South American migrants who have been arriving daily by bus since December 2022, there are more than 5,800 people experiencing homelessness in Denver, which represents a climb of roughly 21% from a year earlier, according to the latest Point in Time Count.
Denver spent approximately $45 million in 2023 on its House1000 program and another $50 million to provide services, including transportation to other cities, for more than 35,000 migrants from Central and South America. Mayor Johnston has said spending on Denver’s migrant response could more than triple to $180 million this year, and he has already asked city agencies to start considering where they can trim their budgets to help financially support Denver’s efforts.
Chandler said he doesn’t expect the House1000 program to face any budget cuts because it is one of the mayor’s priorities.
“We know we both want to be a welcoming and supportive place where people are not going to be without services and support, and we also want to fund critical services all across the city to make sure everyone has access to the services they need,” Johnston said Jan. 9, during his weekly update on the migrant crisis.
Access to services ups odds people will remain housed
Denver’s strategy over the first six months of the House1000 program was to create more shelter space by opening new shelters like the Denver Navigation Campus and New Directions in the Central Park neighborhood, both of which were converted from old hotels, Chandler said. Denver also contracted with nonprofit organizations to provide services like case management and counseling at the new shelters. The city’s outreach teams have also been working to build rapport by creating friendships and working to connect people with the services they request, Chandler said.
Because of this work, 1 in 4 people who entered the House1000 program were placed in permanent housing before the end of 2023, according to the city’s House1000 database. The House1000 program defines permanent housing as a leased unit, a reunification with friends or family members, a community-based housing program or a long-term care facility — not a shelter bed or other temporary placement.
For context, Denver’s Department of Housing Stability said in its updated five-year strategic plan from November 2023 that it requires shelter contractors to place at least 30% of unhoused people they serve into supportive housing like Beacon Place in Sloan’s Lake or Fusion Studios in northeast Park Hill.
Metro Denver Homeless Initiative Deputy Director Kyla Moe cautions against comparing House1000 outcomes to other housing programs because it’s “so early in the program’s implementation.”
To increase the number of people in permanent housing, Chandler said, Denver is working to create a pipeline that addresses individual needs. It can be difficult for an unsheltered homeless person to find housing because they often lack the identity documents necessary to secure a housing voucher, for example. They may also struggle to keep track of medications and maintain contact with case workers. Some people simply have a hard time turning off “survival mode” after experiencing chronic homelessness, Chandler said.
The city will address many of these hurdles by bringing the necessary services to each shelter site, Chandler said. For example, he said the city could bring a representative from the Department of Economic Development, Human Services, and the Department of Motor Vehicles to help with job placement, case management, or resolving identity document issues.
The city also partnered with a nonprofit organization called Housing Connector to help with landlord relations as the city works to give out about 195 state housing vouchers and another 200 rapid rehousing vouchers to House1000 participants, Chandler said. These vouchers could help the city start to open shelter space to new people as current House1000 participants find housing, he added.
“We’re not just handing these sites over entirely and saying ‘good luck, go hit your metrics,’” Chandler said, referring to the converted hotels and micro-communities. “The Mayor’s Office and the Department of Housing Stability are continuing to play a big part in the coordination effort.”
House1000 has also been criticized for things ranging from providing misleading public data about its success to not offering people in group shelters first-priority access to new shelter spaces. Neighborhood organizations have also pushed back against hosting pallet shelter micro-communities.
Despite the program’s early successes, Terese Howard, an organizer with Housekeys Action Network Denver, said she is concerned the House1000 program won’t provide many people with the stability they’re looking for.
Howard cited previous rapid rehousing attempts like when former Mayor Michael Hancock cleared several encampments ahead of the 2021 MLB All Star Game and when a temporary shelter for LGBTQ+ unhoused people at The Rodeway Inn in the Berkeley neighborhood closed in 2023, as examples of previous attempts gone awry. Howard said she’s heard anecdotally from the unhoused community that many of the people who were housed under these initiatives are again homeless. Howard added that she is still waiting to see data from the city and a couple of shelter providers to confirm those suspicions.
“There are a lot of people out here who need help,” Howard said, “and this just seems like we’re setting people up to get evicted again.”