The city even released a "Newcomer Playbook" to guide other cities through the step-by-step response to the migrant crisis used by Denver, by offering onward transportation, shelter and food.
"It serves as a framework for supporting new arrivals in your city," the playbook reads. "We are thrilled that you are interested in creating a welcoming environment for migrants in your city."
The mayor's own revised playbook for pulling Denver through the migrant crisis this year has a $90 million budget. So far, he has secured $44 million by pulling money from a major renovation project and adding reimbursements from the federal government.
On April 22, council put the mayor closer to securing the remaining $45 million, approving $42 million in budget cuts by voting unanimously to advance two bills.
One takes $6 million from completed infrastructure and park improvement projects that had money left over. The other cuts $32 million from two dozen city agencies, including $8 million from the police department, $4 million from the sheriff's department, $2.5 million from the fire department and $164,000 from the mayor's office.
According to councilmembers Kevin Flynn, who represents southwest Denver, and Shontel Lewis, who represents northeast Denver, constituents had been calling, worried these cuts would make their neighborhoods unsafe. At the meeting, Flynn promised that the cuts will not dramatically affect public safety nor cost any officer their job.
"To the national media that have been reporting that we are defunding the police, we are not. If we were, I wouldn't be voting for this, frankly," he said. "Every police officer will still be on duty, every firefighter, every sheriff's deputy we could possibly hire will still be paid."
The mayor's $90 million plan "has the least footprint on city services that we could imagine," he added
Council will vote one more time on the bills, with those votes expected on May 6. If they're approved, the $45 million will be available for the mayor's plan as soon as May 10, according to the Department of Finance.
Johnston plans to start offering job training in addition to migrant case-management services that can connect migrants to employers, apartments and onward travel. On April 24, the council's Business and Workforce committee approved a two-month, $2.3 million contract that will put Centro de los Trabajadores in charge of training migrants for jobs as part of the WorkReady program.
In early April, Johnston introduced that program as a way of training migrants while they wait for work authorization. Many migrants are hoping to get work authorization by applying for asylum and then waiting four to five months, at which point the government allows them to work while they wait for a judge to hear their case.
According to Tony Anderson, chief workforce development officer for the Denver Department of Economic Development and Opportunity, the $2.3 million contract will only train 500 migrants from May 1 to June 30.
"We have individuals here that are somewhere along that 150-day waiting period where we're saying you can't legally earn money or work," Anderson told the committee. "We think WorkReady can provide some real value in that time to prepare for work."
The program will start off with a "comprehensive skills assessment and really make sure we know who these individuals are, what their previous experience is, what skills they have, what their desired career path is," Anderson explained.
Migrants will get matched up with a job coach; learn what they need in order to get certified in workplace inspection, first aid, CPR or early childhood care; and even get classes in English and financial and digital literacy.
The program is already set to receive a donation of 750 laptops, Anderson told the committee, though he didn't identify the giver. Centro de los Trabajadores will either host migrants at its day labor center at 2830 Lawrence Street or visit them at shelters and train them there.
"This won't look like unpaid labor," he promised.
On the same day, council's Safety and Housing committee approved a $1.4 million contract for ViVe Wellness to keep providing case management services for migrants through the rest of the year. ViVe Wellness and Papagayo have been the two primary nonprofits helping the city connect migrants to housing and jobs.
The contract will also pay ViVe Wellness to offer migrants rental assistance, onward bus travel to different cities and "employment support," according to the contract. ViVe is already helping the city operate a migrant shelter at the Denver Community Church, a congregate shelter for migrants.
On the same day, council's Safety and Housing committee approved a $1.4 million contract for ViVe Wellness to keep providing case management services for migrants through the rest of the year. ViVe Wellness and Papagayo have been the two primary nonprofits helping the city connect migrants to housing and jobs.
The contract will also pay ViVe Wellness to offer migrants rental assistance, onward bus travel to different cities and "employment support," according to the contract. ViVe is already helping the city operate a migrant shelter at the Denver Community Church, a congregate shelter for migrants.
The Comfort Inn in Montbello is one of two migrant shelters that closed around the beginning of April.
Bennito L. Kelty
About 41,000 migrants have come to Denver since December 2022, "and more than half of them are likely still here in Colorado, mostly here in the metro area," said Evan Dreyer, the mayor's deputy chief of staff, while updating the Safety and Housing committee.
Earlier this year, Johnston estimated that $180 million in budget cuts would be required to continue serving migrants at the rate Denver did in January, when a long cold spell led to 5,000 migrants staying indoors at city-funded and -operated shelters.
The mayor responded by cutting rec center and DMV hours, among other services, in order to reduce the potential budget shortfall to $120 million. The mayor's new plans replace cuts to public services with internal cuts to departments' budgets for new hires, travel for conferences and unused Zoom accounts, among other things.
The mayor is also cutting migrant services and closing shelters. The city is currently operating two non-congregate shelters in converted hotels for migrants, one congregate shelter and the Mullen Home, which is a family shelter; by this summer, the two non-congregate sites will close, according to Sarah Plastino, director of the city's newcomer program.
The residents at those two non-congregate sites will be put into leased units with the help of rental assistance from ViVe and other nonprofits, she told the Safety and Housing committee. After that, migrants will all go to congregate shelters, where they'll have no more than three days, down from as much as 42 days.
With the money that Johnston has already budgeted for his new migrant plan, he's started the Denver Asylum Seeker Program, which will offer job training, six months' rent at an apartment, food assistance and help with filing asylum claims. The program will be open to only 1,000 migrants at a time, including those already in the city's hotel shelters.
