Colorado’s capital has joined the evergrowing list of cities that have become overwhelmed by the influx of migrants — with over 38,000 asylum seekers arriving in Denver in the past year.
The Mile-High City has struggled to accommodate the new arrivals who have inundated city shelters and hospitals, prompting state officials to enact a limit on how long migrants can stay in state-funded rooms starting Feb. 5.
The city initially paused the discharge of migrant families from shelters on Nov. 17 to assist the increasing number of new arrivals.
However, after seeing a dramatic uptick, the city is now housing 4,500 migrants and will resume discharging migrant families.
Denver’s Deputy Director of Communications Jose Salas told The Post the city will extend “its previous length-of-stay policy for families from 37 days to 42 days.”
“The changes will be rolled out over the next several weeks and come as Denver experiences a significant surge in arrivals from the southern border as well as pressing budgetary concern,” Salas said.
A Venezuelan family told NBC News that they just received notice from the city that they will be evicted from the hotel where they have been living.
“Just yesterday they started throwing away the toys, the bicycles in the common area,” the mother of three girls said. “We don’t know where we will go next.”
Dr. Steven Federico, a pediatrician and chief of government and community affairs at Denver Health, told the outlet that hospitals like his have become a “safety net” for the city.
“I think it’s been an unheeded call so far in terms of who’s going to be responsible for the health care of this population,” Federico said. “In the meantime, it falls on safety net hospitals like Denver Health.”
Federico says hospital officials have begged state and federal officials for help covering $10 million in unpaid medical bills from migrants.
Emergency room doctor Kristi Rodrigues told NBC she worries asylum seekers may not be able to get the help they might need after being discharged from the ER.
“I don’t mind being busy. I can see a lot of patients, I can stay late,” Rodrigues said. “But I don’t know if this person is going to get his medicine filled. I don’t actually know if this person is ever going to get into a pediatrician to be seen and taken care of. For me, that’s the part that pulls at my heartstrings.”
Denver Public Schools has seen an additional 3,000 students enter the system since July, putting a strain on their budget as funding gets set based on the district’s population the previous October, according to Adrienne Endres, who oversees multilingual education for the district.
Most of the migrants have come from Venezuela, and many arrived with little to no schooling, Endres said.
“We’ve gotten a lot of new kids really quickly, with a lot of needs,” Endres said. “It’s been getting creative in a lot of spaces. It’s been bringing a lot of other departments in. And it’s been an adventure that we’re glad to be on.”
Both hospital and school officials have been able to handle the influx thus far, but worry the rate of growth is not sustainable. To date, Denver has served over 38,000 migrants, costing the city a whopping $40 million, Salas said.
The mayor’s office agreed that the city is floundering under the increased number of residents, telling The Post that current projections indicate the city may have to cut as much as $180 million from its annual budget to accommodate the added population.
“While we recognize families need as much time as we can give them, we must once again limit the amount of time families can remain in shelter,” Salas noted.
The news comes on the heels of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announcing that the Lone Star State has bused more than 102,000 migrants to so-called sanctuary cities — including over 37,500 to New York City.
While the Big Apple and Chicago received the bulk of the migrants, Denver has reportedly received over 16,000 since May 18, according to Abbott’s office.