911 calls to Denver homeless shelter dropped after city took over security

DENVER — Denver’s homeless hotel shelters used to be a magnet for 911 calls. New data from the Denver Police Department shows that seems to have changed. 

When Denver converted the former Double Tree hotel on Quebec Street to a homeless shelter late last year, it quickly became clear there was a safety problem. Mayor Mike Johnston admits that.

“We saw things we were worried about then,” Johnston said in an interview with 9NEWS on Wednesday. “We had real safety concerns. That’s why we took dramatic action to change course on that.”

From Jan. 1 of this year through March 17, there were 211 911 calls to the shelter.

That’s an average of 2.7 calls per day over the two-and-a-half-month-long period.

Then the city of Denver took over handling security from the Salvation Army.

Data from the Denver Police Department shows calls for service through the rest of the year dropped by nearly two-thirds.

From March 18 through Dec. 3, there were 240 911 calls.

That’s an average of less than one call per day.

“Now to have dropped the number of 911 calls by 66% shows that these sites are far safer and that’s what we want them to be,” Johnston said. 

We do know that police respond to the Double Tree sometimes on their own, without a 911 call from a citizen. It’s called a police-initiated response. It often happens because they are already at the location and see something they need to take care of. There were hundreds of those responses over the first three months but don’t have data from Denver Police for that from the second half of the year.

Back in March, Denver added security cameras, placed guards at doorways and began controlling who could come in and out of the shelter. None of those measures were in place when the Salvation Army was running security for the first two and a half months of the year.

“There were a bunch of safety changes we felt we needed to make to protect folks inside and outside,” Johnston said. 

On March 16, two people were found dead at the hotel. Police are still investigating it as a double homicide. No one has been arrested and as far as we know there are no suspects. That week alone, people made 18 calls to 911 for help.

Compare that number to this past week when there were only eight calls for service.

“I think I’m glad that we pivoted as aggressively as we did,” Johnston said. “I definitely wish that we would have done it sooner, but those were lessons we learned along the way.”

Seven people died at the hotel shelter from December of last year through the end of March of this year. In the eight months after, one person has died there. The Denver Office of the Medical Examiner said the majority of those deaths were overdoses.

The number of people exiting the hotel shelters and moving to permanent housing rose significantly in the second half of the year. For the first time now, the number of people who moved into permanent housing now surpasses the number of people who have been in hotel shelters for more than 30 days.