Denver has closed the last of its immigrant shelters as the number of people who traveled to Denver after illegally crossing the border has dwindled.
Over the past 18 months, some 42,000 immigrants from central and south America traveled to Denver, forcing the city to cut services and freeze hiring in some areas in order to come up with the funds to pay for their care.
Early in the crisis, Denver decided they would pay for the immigrants' shelter, food and onward travel to other cities, a point of tension between Colorado and officials where they ultimately ended up.
After closing the hotel-turned-shelter, the city moved the immigrants occupying it to apartments or transitional housing, according to a Monday update from city officials.
Officials have closed other immigrant shelters and publicly said the city had slashed the shelter stay to 72 hours. At one point, however, the city temporarily paused “exits” for those already in the system and enforced the 72-hour limit on new arrivals.
Officials said the last shelter's closure signals a new phase, in which the city's focus has pivoted to providing more assistance to a smaller number of immigrants. The city is also providing support through a program designed to help immigrants seeking asylum find above-minimum jobs.
The immigrants have arrived in Denver in surges, punctuated by lulls that last from weeks to months.
At the height of the last influx earlier this year, the city was sheltering about 5,000 immigrants, many of whom crossed the southern border illegally.
Denver has learned a lot in how to respond to another surge, according to Denver Human Services Spokesperson Jon Ewing, who noted that the city has adjusted to the needs on the ground.
“At one point, the two weeks/six-week shelter model fit well with what we were seeing, but as the market for work for people without legal access to employment dried up, we decided to launch something more comprehensive for the hundreds still in our shelter system,” Ewing said. “We’ve tried to adapt by providing services that make sense for whatever situation we’re experiencing.”
“Right now that isn’t an issue. We’re currently seeing an average of six arrivals per day. In June, we received four charter buses from Texas. In December, that number was 144,” he said.
Ewing said with its experience and the infrastructure set up throughout the city, Denver can much more easily ramp up its efforts to care for a large volume of people should the need arise.
The crisis has cost city taxpayers more than $72 million — Denver has so far received only roughly $17.3 million in state and federal reimbursements.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration has allocated less money to Colorado in the latest round of federal funding for the illegal immigration crisis that Denver officials have struggled to respond to and which has cost the city tens of millions of dollars.
And just like year, other cities are poised to get more funding than Denver. The Federal Emergency Management Agency set aside $9.7 million for Colorado, which is split evenly between the city of Denver and the state, FEMA data shows.
Last fiscal year, Colorado entities received more — $10.6 million. Denver’s share was about $9 million.
The illegal immigration crisis has diverted money away from other spending areas even as Denver's response to homelessness has run over budget.
In June, the Denver City Council learned Denver had spent $65 million more than budgeted for the year.
City officials have warned that sales tax revenue may fall below forecasts prompting a request for city departments to make 5% in cuts so the city can deliver a balanced budget in 2025.
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