Denver Mayor Mike Johnston’s office is being slammed for its lack of transparency regarding its homelessness initiative after new estimates, delivered nearly a year after the program was launched, came out to be about $65 million more than originally projected.
Johnston, a Democrat, launched his homelessness initiative, then called House 1000, on his second day in office on July 18.
In total, the program, now called All In Mile High, has moved more than 1,560 people off the streets and into temporary housing, according to city data, though 165 of those people have since returned to homelessness.
The mayor’s office plans to spend $155 million on its initiative between July of last year and the end of 2024, about $65 million more than Johnston told Denverites it would cost when he held two separate press conferences last year, 9News reported.
“This total cost is about $48 million,” he said in 2023.
While $48 million was budgeted for 2023, Johnston said the following year would be cheaper, at around $39 million.
More than $100 million will be spent on expenses for hotels that have either been bought or leased and turned into homeless shelters, the city said. Another $35 million will go toward building and running micro-communities in Denver, and $14 million will be spent on programs that help the homeless transfer into permanent housing.
“We’re getting to a point where we understand now what this program costs moving forward year-over-year,” Jamie Rife, executive director of Denver’s Department of Housing Stability, said at Tuesday’s city council meeting.
Rife said the city now expects to spend at least $57.5 million every year to try and solve homelessness.
Her presentation came less than 24 hours after councilwomen Stacie Gilmore and Amanda Sawyer voted against a $5 million contract with a company that will move people directly off the streets and into rented apartments. Even though the contract passed, Gilmore and Sawyer blasted Johnston’s administration for its lack of transparency.
How Denver intends to pay for the program’s $57.5 million cost next year and every year after that is still up in the air.
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“I promise you that in fall, when we bring you the 2025 budget, we will explain not only how we’re addressing some of the needs of All In Mile High but, of course, a plethora of very important programs we have,” Stephanie Adams, the city’s deputy chief financial officer, told council members.
Denver still has access to some one-time funds. It also has some money it can free up in its dedicated homelessness resolution fund, but the city has yet to provide specifics.