Denver’s mayor, Mike Johnston, aims to tackle homelessness effectively.
Denver’s Homelessness Crisis: Mayor Takes Aggressive Action
As Denver, Colorado’s homelessness crisis continues to worsen, the city’s newly sworn-in mayor is planning an aggressive crackdown on the issue.
Democratic Mayor Mike Johnston took office on July 17, overseeing a city that saw a 13% increase in overall homelessness and a 33% increase in the unsheltered homeless population from 2020 to 2022.
Tackling the Issue Head-On
Johnston, who declared a state of emergency for homelessness on his second day in office, plans to combat the spikes starting with housing unsheltered homeless people, or those who regularly sleep in cars, parks, streets, and other spaces not fit for human habitation, within months.
“It’s about triaging the Denver residents who are most at risk,” Johnston told the Washington Post. “We have a lot to do to support those people to get access to permanent housing.”
In a city with about 1,500 unsheltered homeless people, Johnston vowed to find housing for 1,000 of them by the end of 2023 through several different means.
Exploring Innovative Solutions
Johnston’s plan is looking at possible solutions such as purchasing hotels and converting them to permanent shelters — the city approved a $25.95 million purchase of a Best Western with 194 units on July 27. Other ideas include subsidizing rental units allowing families or individuals a permanent living space with both a kitchen and bathroom, converting warehouses into living spaces, and building tiny home communities to serve as transition locations into permanent housing.
However, many homeless advocates say that while it could be easy to make the numbers work on paper, some homeless people are not in the proper mental or personal state to function in a sheltered environment. Some prefer to stay on the streets, or live reclusively, or would not sign up for permanent housing if it meant giving up alcohol or drug addictions as a part of the rules for living at a given location.
Terese Howard, an organizer at Housekeys Action Network Denver, told the Washington Post that the rules and types of housing matter, according to a survey of homeless people her organization conducted.
“There needs to be a focus on what type of housing people actually want long term,” she said, adding that the ability to cook, shower, use the restroom, and not abide by a curfew are top preferences for homeless people.
The new mayor said he would not close homeless encampments until some homeless people have a place to go, promising to house the residents of the most populated encampments first. According to the Washington Post, some advocates criticize the mayor’s plan as a way to curb the “visible homeless” while not dealing with the underlying issue which they believe is housing.
Despite that, Johnston hopes the city will allow 3,000 permanent affordable housing units per year, where beneficiaries would pay at most 30% of their income to rent.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
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