A homeless encampment near 50th Avenue and Dahlia Street in Denver on Oct. 4, 2023 (KDVR)
DENVER (KDVR) — Denver leaders seem to be at odds about the budget for the city’s homeless initiative. With more money being requested, there are still a lot of questions about the cost.
During the city’s finance and governance committee meeting Tuesday night, three bill requests were proposed to move federal funds to the All In Mile High program, which is Mayor Mike Johnston’s unhoused initiative.
The Department of Housing Stability asked for funds from Denver’s American Rescue Plan Act, FEMA and COVID response to be directed to their homeless response.
The goal of the funds would be to help improve security around shelters, including money for surveillance cameras.
Dr. Jamie Rife, the executive director of the Department of Housing Stability, proposed the plan alongside existing cost projections of the city’s All In Mile High program.
“We are looking at how do we improve different things like doors and security at the site so we actually can decrease the overall security cost. So, those are some things we need to retrofit. Parts are surprisingly long lead times right now on some of these, so it’s taking a little bit longer than expected to literally get them into the sites. So yes, we anticipate that will decrease,” said Rife.
Rife provided numbers saying some 911 calls around encampments are down 36% and public safety has improved.
The meeting focus took a turn when council members were at odds with presenters about where the initial budget dollars were going in the first place.
Though the full total was left off the presented slides, councilmember Amanda Sawyer calculated that as of July 2023 to December 2024, the expected cost was to be about $155 million.
About $57.5 million of that would be annual recurring expenses and broken down it’s about $28,750 per person per year.
Sawyer questioned why the excess funds couldn’t just be moved to the city general fund and then moved to the homeless budget if needed or even benefit other city programs, meanwhile housing stability leaders said immediate access to funds would be important in unexpected circumstances.
“Are those dollars going to continue to be allocated to All In Mile High, in which case they would come through as contract amendments in different forms, or are those dollars going to be returned to the general fund to be used for other purposes across the city?” Sawyer said. “Because there are things our residents are giving up for this program at $155 million-ish in 18 months, and so if there’s money to be saved there, that could be invested in other ways, I want to know about it.”
Those behind the homeless initiative were quick to point out that they’re not asking to reduce any other city department’s budget, but only to reallocate federal dollars.
Overall, they said about 2,000 people are expected to be housed each year.
