Still searching for $180 million to carve out of the city budget in response to the migrant crisis, Mayor Mike Johnston laid out plans and goals to juggle housing and migrants while keeping Denver a "vibrant, affordable and safe place," he said at a press conference on Monday, February 26, to announce his citywide goals.
"In the middle of a tornado is the best time to have a clear sense of where you're going and how to get there," Johnston said. "There are other top priorities the city has and departments have that we need to stay laser-focused on."
Just under 2,500 migrants are in Denver's shelters right now, according to the city, almost half as many as the all-time high in mid-January, when nearly 5,000 were in shelters. On February 15, the city announced the hire of its first Newcomer Program director, Sarah Plastino, to lead the migrant response, and Johnston plans to reveal more details on Wednesday, February 28, regarding the city's plans for tackling Denver's migrant crisis; the city has also hired a new director of Denver Community Planning and Development, who will be revealed within the next 48 hours.
Denver's local government "will work to reduce the total number of services we can provide to newcomers and reduce the total number of newcomers we can serve," the mayor said, referring to the migrant population.
"What we know is it's unsustainable for us to permanently serve the number of people we're serving with the types of services we're providing," he added. "Those are our two biggest cost-cutters: how many folks we have, and how expensive the services are that we provide them."
Reinstating the length-of-stay policy, which forces migrants out of shelters after a certain time, in January after suspending it for nearly two months because of cold weather "was a critical step" in reducing the number of migrants that the city serves, according to Johnston.
City departments are trying to "both manage those budget cuts and stay focused on the work they want to accomplish," the mayor said. "Staying on offense here is critical, because we have things that the city residents expect us to deliver, and we're not going to back down."
On February 9, Johnston revealed Denver's first budget cuts to respond to the migrant crisis, including fewer rec center hours and a suspension of public event permits by Denver Parks & Recreation, as well as cuts to Denver Motor Vehicle Division services.
Aside from that, "we have not made any final decisions yet on cuts," Johnston said.
"All of our departments and all of our branches are going to have to find a way to prioritize," he explained. "The mayor's office has done the same thing. We've made cuts, we're making freezes, we're cutting contracts, we're stepping back the things we were planning to do."
Creating goals for 2024 was a way "for us to step back and say, 'All right, what is absolutely critical for us to accomplish our citywide priorities and our department-wide priorities?'"Johnston noted.
New Denver Housing Initiative
Although Denver's migrant crisis grabbed headlines last month, Johnston said that homelessness is still a priority. During his press conference, the mayor introduced a new name for the House1000 initiative, which was his mission of getting 1,000 people off the streets and indoors by the end of 2023. This year, the city will have the "All In Mile High" initiative, according to the mayor, with the goal of getting 2,000 people indoors by December 31, 2024.
Last year, Johnston announced that the city would fund House1000 in 2023 and 2024 from the $250 million budget of the Denver Department of Housing Stability. The mayor didn't clarify how All In Mile High would be funded or how much extra money it would require compared to House1000. The Mayor's Office did not immediately respond to a request for more information.
Johnston did not announce any plans to build or buy new units, such as the repurposed motel and hotel rooms that became key to Johnston declaring a victory with House1000 in 2023. However, two more micro-communities will open within the next month in the Golden Triangle and Overland neighborhoods, he said.
Last August, the city was expecting to have ten micro-community sites, but only one opened by late December, in the Central Park neighborhood.
More so than House1000, the All In Mile High initiative will prioritize getting people out of transitional housing and into permanent housing while also getting more people off the streets and into existing transitional units, Johnston noted.
"The folks that are currently in that transitional housing, we will want to move up and out into long-term rental housing, where they're independent and self-sufficient," he said. "So our focus is to both move folks out of the current system and through the pipeline and bring new folks in."
At the same time, the city expects to continue discharging 350 migrants a week from shelters, though it won't be able to move them into permanent housing like homeless residents.
The city expects about 4,000 migrants to exit shelters in March, according to Human Services Department spokesperson Jon Ewing. However, Denver officials have "no way of knowing when arrivals might tick up again or when we have a major weather event that lasts for a week," Ewing notes, which could both slow down the number of exits and increase the migrant shelter population.
Denver had an overnight cold-weather shelter activation going from February 14 through February 17, giving migrants and homeless residents the chance to stay put in shelters. Another overnight cold-weather activation will go into place from Tuesday, February 27, through February 28, with nighttime lows currently predicted to hover around 20 degrees.
Denver had an overnight cold-weather shelter activation going from February 14 through February 17, giving migrants and homeless residents the chance to stay put in shelters. Another overnight cold-weather activation will go into place from Tuesday, February 27, through February 28, with nighttime lows currently predicted to hover around 20 degrees.
A bipartisan border security bill that would have allocated $1.4 billion to local migrant programs died in the United States Senate on February 6. According to Johnston, he expected more funding from the federal government.
"Our big surprise was the lack of federal resources," Johnston said, but he acknowledged that "the state has been a great partner" in the migrant crisis.
"We'll keep working with them and with our state legislature on ways they can help," Johnston said. "Denver is still carrying an overwhelming share of the statewide impact [of the migrant crisis], and we would love to see additional support. They've been very responsive and helpful."
"Our big surprise was the lack of federal resources," Johnston said, but he acknowledged that "the state has been a great partner" in the migrant crisis.
"We'll keep working with them and with our state legislature on ways they can help," Johnston said. "Denver is still carrying an overwhelming share of the statewide impact [of the migrant crisis], and we would love to see additional support. They've been very responsive and helpful."
Johnston also announced the creation of Tiger Teams, specialized interdepartmental groups that will focus on solving specific issues like migrant arrivals and homelessness and meet regularly with the mayor. A Tiger Team is already working on the migrant crisis, he said.
Generating a "vibrant downtown" was part of Johnston's goals, as well, but the city needs "to identify funding sources to be able to support organizations" and work on "a shared vision on what we want to get done," he said. The city will also utilize more public dashboards with quarterly updates on progress toward its goals, similar to the online dashboard used to track House1000 progress and migrant arrivals to shelters.
