City of Denver says migrants are facing evictions at a growing rate

DENVER (KDVR) — The city of Denver’s Newcomer Program for newly arrived migrants is facing new challenges with evictions.

The city of Denver says it is focusing on 15 unnamed apartment complexes with a high concentration of migrant evictions. As of mid-July, there had been $455,557.94 in rental assistance, $11,721.39 in utility assistance and $1,500 in relocation assistance.

Jon Ewing, marketing and communications specialist for Denver Human Services, said those numbers are even with the city not having any migrant buses in the last two month. Funds are continuing to be stretched thin.

“At this moment, I don’t believe there is a single person staying in our newcomer shelter. We have another site that’s with families and young kids and there are around 100 people there, but in January we were at around 5,000 in the shelter.”

Ewing said one of the main contributors to why these migrants are seeing evictions is simply the high cost of living in the city and lack of work authorizations.

As of Aug. 8, 2,744 work authorization applications had been submitted, but there are many more who want it.

“It’s all timing and everything along those lines, but even then, even after you help 2,700 people with work authorization, even after you get 800 people in the asylum program, you still have hundreds of people who don’t have that quick path. And so it is something that’s creating instability,” Ewing said.

Eviction aid group sees rising numbers

The program director for Colorado Housing Connections, a local eviction assistance nonprofit, said these numbers just prove a larger issues. Patrick Noonan said the program has been stretched thin for a while now.

“It’s been a challenging year. As it relates to eviction filings, we’ve seen numbers march up since last year’s record high. For Denver, that’s 32% higher than last year, and across the state, it’s over an 11% jump,” Noonan said.

The city agrees, saying only 4% of those who have received rental or utility assistance have been migrants.

“This has been a concern of ours for the entire population of Denver,” Ewing said. “It’s probably not lost on anyone, but the cost of living and people’s incomes have not matched over the last few years. Cost of living has dramatically outpaced income.”

To get ahead of these evictions, the city has offered financial coaching and prevention workshops, including the following from the update the Human Rights and Community Partnerships group gave to Denver City Council on Tuesday:

• Financial Empowerment/Eviction Prevention Workshops : To date, 472 individuals have participated in workshops about budgeting, banking, credit, eviction prevention and wage theft.
• One-On-One Financial Coaching Outreach: The team has connected with 260 DASP (Denver asylum seeker program) participants to begin scheduling one-on-one financial coaching sessions. So far, we have conducted 9 coaching sessions and are continuing to schedule appointments.
• Apartment Complex Outreach: Fifteen apartment complexes identified as having a high concentration of newcomers have been contacted to partner on creating a process for referring residents to the navigation line and connecting with those at risk of evictions.
• Evictions Flyers and Outreach Plan : Eviction flyers and posters were created to target 15 apartment complexes that have a high concentration of newcomers. Flyers and posters are printed and will be distributed.

The city said without a work authorization expansion and a decrease in the cost of living, they do not expect eviction numbers to lower.

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