DoBetterDNVR: This Social Media Account Shines an Uncomfortable Light on the City

"Anti-homeless," "horrible human being" and "uneducated white guy" are just a few of the things that the women behind @DoBetterDNVR have been called.

"Very dehumanizing of you," writes one user in the comments section of a February Instagram post. "Freak. Voyeur. Anti-christ," another person blasts in a series of direct messages to the @DoBetterDNVR Instagram page, which features content captured on the streets of Denver by residents and is followed by nearly 42,000 people.

Then there are the threats: "Let me find this camera guy," said one person in a January reply, which landed in the @DoBetterDNVR's "Hall of Shamers" IG highlights. "I'll fk you up."

A pair of DMs from September 2023 read: "If I ever see you filming folks minding their own business like this you're gonna lose your phone. ... I don't care if it's 'legal' or whatever justification you have. If I see it, you're gonna see me."

It's because of messages like these that the women of @DoBetterDNVR, who also run an X account, do not reveal their identities to the public.

"Not many people know I run this account," says the DoBetterDNVR founder, who currently runs the IG side of things. Her "close friend" began handling the X page last fall as their IG following and social footprint "grew very rapidly," the founder says, speaking in phone calls and emails with Westword.

"My close friend who runs @DoBetterDNVR’s X account has been by my side this whole time as a camp scout and sounding board," she explains. "I was already overwhelmed trying to balance my full-time paid job, my personal life and running the IG account, so I asked my friend if she was interested in running the X account to help expand @DoBetterDNVR’s reach. She gladly accepted and is quickly growing @DoBetterDNVR on X. We talk daily about the @DoBetterDNVR accounts to share intel, news and updates."

Before DoBetterDNVR appeared, the slogan "We Can Do Better" was used to defeat a 2019 proposal that would have reversed Denver's camping ban. The @DoBetterDNVR founder says there's no connection between that anti-Initiative 300 campaign and her current project.

"We are trying to inspire positive action and change the narrative around what's actually compassionate," she says. 

Over the years, the account holder says, she would regularly see encampments, drug sales and use around the city, while also hearing "frequent stories from friends, family and neighbors about crime." As a self-proclaimed "Denver girl" and lifelong Coloradan, she says she loves being here but hates what she's been seeing — so she decided to do something about it.

"No one was doing anything about the problem, and I thought by getting the word out, it might motivate someone to do something," the founder says. "Truthfully, I had no idea what @DoBetterDNVR would become when it was started."

The account was launched in June 2021, according to the @DoBetterDNVR founder, and originally run by a number of "admins" using different IG handles, including @DenverDeservesBetter, @SaveDNVRnow and @DumpsterFireDenver.

"It became @DoBetterDNVR in July 2023, when I became the admin," the founder tells Westword. "This account had 3,000 followers when it became @DOBetterDNVR."

Now, the IG has over 41,600 followers, and the X account, launched last November, has a little over 2,300. "Both IG and X intel and picture/video submissions are through DMs," the founder explains. "We typically ask for major cross streets and some context for the pictures and videos."

The Denver mayor's office, which is called out regularly by the @DoBetterDNVR pages, says it doesn't trust the account founder's verification process — blasting her pages as "inaccurate" and "irresponsible." Social media users have also accused the accounts of failing to fact-check, while also being "cruel" toward people who are unhoused.

"There are many trusted forms of news sources in our city we rely on to share pertinent information about our administration’s efforts," Jordan Fuja, Mayor Mike Johnston's press secretary, tells Westword. "We do not include a nameless Instagram account to be a source of truth. It is apparent in the posts with inaccurate information this account irresponsibly shares to their many followers."


@DoBetterDNVR has gone after Johnston and his House1000 plan repeatedly in social media posts, going so far as to dub him "Meth Camp Mike."

"Mayor Johnston has been successful at luring people inside with the offer of free hotel rooms and tiny homes," its founder says. "The downtown corridor does look much better; however, this has come at a high cost to Denver taxpayers, and I know that corners were cut to meet his December 31 House1000 deadline. Not to mention, Mayor Johnston is also about to bankrupt Denver by creating an unsustainable system."

The founder accuses Johnston's House1000 plan of operating under the "misguided belief that we primarily have a housing problem." For her, the real issue is substance abuse, which is a problem that the mayor is doing "nothing to address," she says, adding that he's also ignoring community safety.

"Now that Mayor Johnston has already moved people with serious untreated drug addictions into neighborhoods, he needs to focus his attention on protecting the residents and businesses near these hotels and tiny home villages," the founder says. "He also needs to pivot the approach within the hotels and tiny home villages to ensure the safety and rehabilitation of the residents living there."

“South Broadway is one of the best places in #Denver to eat, drink, and shop!” ~MethCampMike
Who runs this dude’s social media? 🤡 https://t.co/UWXICGsjtN pic.twitter.com/q49YFFTcCO

— Do Better Denver (@dobetterdnvr) February 13, 2024

The mayor's office is well aware of the attempts by @DoBetterDNVR to disparage Johnston's efforts and House1000 plan, and there are several things his press team wants people to know.

"Through House1000, the city has not only housed more than 1,200 individuals who were living on the street, but each of those people now has access to 24/7 on-site support — including support for drug misuse, mental health care, workforce support and case management," Fuja says. "More than 95 percent of the people in the program are still safely indoors. It’s up to all of us in Denver to spread truth and kindness. It’s also critical any person who claims to be a news source to do diligent research before sharing information."

Cathy Alderman, chief communications and public policy officer for the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, believes @DoBetterDNVR has done more harm than good.

"I think we’re really disappointed in the content they put out because it perpetuates stereotypes and the stigmatization of people experiencing homelessness," she says. "We are also disappointed that they don’t offer solutions or highlight the effective programs that have helped many members of our unhoused community obtain housing and the services they need to remain housed. I’d suggest that 'do better Denver' could do better itself by being more thoughtful and solutions-oriented." In response, the @DoBetterDNVR founder tells Westword she believes "drug use in our public spaces should be stigmatized" and claims she talks about solutions frequently on her page. "We should be looking to repeal and reform HB19-1263 so that we can get these struggling individuals into drug treatment," the founder says, referencing a 2020 state law that "defelonized" single-use drug possession in the Centennial State.

"I can’t imagine being someone who finds their situation one that is 'spotlighted' by the account," Alderman says. "It’s so invasive and intentionally disrespectful to film people who are struggling just to try to score headlines or social media views."

The @DoBetterDNVR founder thinks CCH has a lot of nerve to criticize its pages, saying it "may have some of the worst stories I've heard" from people. She points to incidents from last year where people died in CCH housing, saying: "I think CCH should do better."

As for "being disrespectful" to people living on the streets, the founder says that @DoBetterDNVR does, in fact, have rules and standards about posting.

"No uncovered dead bodies, minors, urination/defecation, extreme/bloody violence or sexual acts," she says. "My aim is to show the grim reality of what is happening in Denver while keeping the content appropriate for wider audiences."

In one case, a follower submitted a video of two people apparently having sex on Colfax Avenue near Pennsylvania Street at dusk. "They were partially covered by a blanket, but you can see a lot in the video," the founder says. "People are laughing while they watch this happen twenty feet away. A jogger runs by the couple in this fourteen-second clip." She didn't post that, or another one submitted last month that reportedly shows a couple having sex while a "lookout" keeps watch.

"Lots of submissions of mostly/completely naked people," the founder continues. "A video I got around the time Triangle closed was of a man running naked down Broadway in the middle of the day (though he was wearing mismatched socks). Another video of an older woman on top of a building in Uptown who got completely undressed during the middle of the day. Unfortunately, I have received pictures of uncovered dead bodies, as well."

Her most-watched video? A clip of a homeless man reading a copy of Westword as a fire burns next to him on a bench, which has racked up over 745,000 views on IG.
"It was a follower submission from back in November 2023, and on this day, I remember the temperature being in the 50s," the founder says. "I think the juxtaposition of a man, casually reading while burning a fire on a public bench in downtown Denver, was really shocking for people to see. But also, it could just be that videos with fire tend to get a lot of views."

The founder accuses her critics of being "tacitly in favor of perpetuating, enabling and concealing the deep societal problems on our streets," which she is trying to highlight with the @DoBetterDNVR pages.

"I think that most people are probably too busy to think about it until it personally impacts them," she tells Westword. "We crowdsource intel and pictures/videos to portray an accurate picture of the issues in our city. Highlighting these incidents sends the message that the current solution is not compassionate or humane. As a city, we need to DO BETTER."

Speaking to her critics directly, the founder asks: "When did Denverites become so complacent that they could pass by a lifeless person on the sidewalk, briefly wondering if they are dead or alive, and then continue on with their day as if nothing has happened? People need to stop living in denial and take action for positive change. These issues only get worse when people accept human suffering, death and trauma as normal."