Homelessness in Denver ticks up for third straight year, despite fewer living on streets

Data: Metro Denver Homeless Initiative; Note: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, no unsheltered count was conducted in 2021.; Chart: Alayna Alvarez/Axios

While homelessness in Denver increased for the third consecutive year, there's a silver lining — fewer people are sleeping on the streets, according to data released Wednesday.

Why it matters: This year's 12% uptick is a slowdown compared to the 21% rise between 2022 and 2023. However, the unhoused population continues to grow despite roughly $2 billion spent on addressing the crisis in the Denver metro area between 2021 and 2023.

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• Meanwhile, the city of Denver will spend around $155 million on Mayor Mike Johnston's homelessness campaign between July 2023 and the end of this year.

By the numbers: At least 6,539 people were experiencing homelessness in Denver County during the region's annual homeless census in January, per Metro Denver Homeless Initiative's (MDHI) new report.

• That's up from 5,818 people last year.

Yes, but: Denver saw the largest year-over-year drop in unsheltered homelessness since MDHI started recording county-specific data, according to the mayor's office, which is claiming victory for the reduction.

• Of the unhoused people in the county during the count, 1,273 were unsheltered, with the remainder in some form of shelter. That's down from 1,423 unsheltered people last year, or about 11%.
• Denver also saw unsheltered family homelessness plummet by 83%, from 103 in 2023 to 18 in 2024.

Context: Sheltered means people staying in emergency shelters or transitional housing. Unsheltered includes those living in places like cars, parks or on sidewalks.

State of play: The improvements in Denver's sheltered population come as Johnston reached his goal of moving more than 1,000 unhoused people indoors since he took office in July 2023.

• About 35% of people sheltered through his efforts — 583 of 1,673 — were in permanent housing as of July 15, the last time city data was updated.

The latest: As of Wednesday, there are approximately 117 tents in the city, a 52% reduction from the 242 tents counted in January, the mayor's office said in a statement.

Zoom out: Across metro Denver's seven counties, 9,977 people were experiencing homelessness, per this year's point in time count. That's a 10% jump from last year, but down steeply from the nearly 32% increase in 2023.

• The number of homeless families metro-wide has significantly risen by nearly 50%, from 2,101 to 3,136.

What we're watching: Johnston's administration is trying to ramp up permanent housing options for unhoused people living without shelter.

• His ultimate goal is to end Denver's homelessness crisis by 2027. In an interview last month, he told Axios Denver he is "more optimistic" about achieving that than he was a year ago.
• In a statement Wednesday, Johnston said his administration is "building an infrastructure ... to attack this issue for years to come."

The fine print: Metro Denver's annual "point-in-time" count is described as a snapshot of the homelessness issue on one day every winter, where individuals living on the streets and in homeless services programs are tallied.

• The survey is considered an imperfect tool by some advocates, largely believed to undercount the number of people experiencing homelessness.

Editor's note: This story is developing and will be updated.