Denver’s plan to solve homelessness expected to top $150 million

DENVER — We always knew Denver’s plan to solve homelessness wouldn’t be cheap. For the first time on Tuesday, we learned just how expensive it is. The mayor’s office told city council its House 1000 and All In Mile High programs are costing tens of millions of dollars more than the public was originally led to believe.

The total cost of the mayor’s homelessness initiative has been a bit of a secret. No one knew, or at least no one would say until Tuesday.

“It looks to me like we are spending between Jul. 15, 2023, and Dec. 21, 2024, $155 million on this,” said Denver City Councilwoman Amanda Sawyer. 

It took some math from councilmember Amanda Sawyer and a deep dive from 9NEWS into the spreadsheets to put everything together, but it’s now known the City of Denver plans to spend around $155 million on Democratic Mayor Mike Johnston’s homeless initiatives between July of last year and the end of this year.

That’s a lot. In fact, it’s about $65 million more than what Mayor Johnston told the public it would cost when he held two press conferences last year.

“This total cost is about $48 million,” Johnston said at a press conference last year. 

$48 million was budgeted in 2023. The following year would be cheaper, Johnston said. 

“We’ve laid out a $39 million budget,” Johnston said at a press conference detailing his 2024 budget. 

That adds up to a total of $87.8 million budgeted over two years. Now it’s known the city plans to spend around $155 million in that time.

Here’s a breakdown of the costs:

• More than $100 million will be spent on expenses for hotels that have been bought or leased and converted into shelters.

• More than $35 million will go toward building and running micro-communities around the city.

• Another $14 million will be spent on miscellaneous expenses like programs to put people in permanent housing.

“We’re getting to a point where we understand now what this program costs moving forward year-over-year,” said Dr. Jamie Rife, Executive Director of the Denver Department of Housing Stability. 

Rife says the expected yearly operating cost for the homeless programs has also grown. The city now expects to spend $57.5 million every year to try and solve homelessness.

“If we serve 2,000 people, which is what we anticipate serving, that is about a per person cost of $28,750 per person,” said Rife. 

Much of the $155 million the city is spending are one-time costs, including things like buying hotels and pallet shelters. However, when you look at the mayor’s press conference from September of last year, his presentation clearly outlines that those costs were part of the budget that now seems to be tens of millions of dollars over.

The mayor’s office on Tuesday also asked council members for another $17 million for costs that they said were unexpected and not a part of the original budget including things like repairs to the hotels that were more expensive than anticipated. Most of the funding would come from federal dollars. 

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