The neighboring cities of Denver and Aurora have begun planning their spending for the upcoming year — and how they're allocating taxpayer dollars highlight their different approaches to homelessness, a crisis that has soared in the last several years despite significant resources poured into it by local governments.
Denver, which has adopted a "housing-first" approach, plans to spend $57.5 million on combatting homelessness in 2025, while Aurora is taking what officials call a "tough love" approach that will cost about $5.9 million next year.
While the two cities have divergent approaches to homelessness, both saw an increase in homeless people this year compared to last year.
In Denver, an annual survey counted 6,539 homeless this year, compared to 5,818 last year, which means the city added more than 700.
In Aurora, the same count showed 697 homeless people, an increase of 125 from the year before.
The spending translates to about $23,700 per person in Denver and almost $8,500 per person in Aurora.
The spending plans are proposals, which means they could change before the respective cities' councils adopt them. Additionally, the numbers presented as budgets for homelessness may not be comprehensive, given that tackling homeless often means the interjection of various agencies and programs run by several departments.
One more caveat: Aurora is a city, while Denver is both a city and county. The resources available to Denver are therefore more expansive than in Aurora.
'Tough love' with a HEART
The City of Aurora has embraced what Mayor Mike Coffman called a "tough love" approach to homelessness. In the coming year, the city seeks to crack down on homeless encampments and establish a new court — called HEART — specifically to address low-level offenses by homeless people.
In conjunction with this approach, the city hopes to build a homeless navigation campus, meant to be a "one-stop shop" for services for homeless people.
The city's proposed 2025 budget of $5.9 million to address homelessness includes funding for the navigation campus.
In addition, another $220,000 will go toward the HEART court through the city's judicial budget.
In the city’s proposed budget, much of the funding for homeless services — some of which comes from marijuana tax dollars — will shift to supporting the homeless navigation campus, a former hotel the city bought in late May for $26.5 million.
Once established, the navigation campus will consolidate services for homeless people in one location, a model similar to that of the Colorado Springs Rescue Mission. The center will be the culmination of a year-long exploration by city officials who also traveled to Texas, where they researched strategies to reduce homelessness.
City officials are negotiating a lease agreement and operating agreement for the campus, which is scheduled to be formally approved on Sept. 23.
Each year, the city will put aside $1.5 million in reserve funds to go toward major maintenance on the property, such as roof replacements, according to officials. This does not apply to everyday maintenance, which will be the responsibility of the campus operator.
The money will roll over into following years if it remains unused, officials said.
At the next city council meeting, lawmakers plan to formalize an official campus operator and lease agreement. Officials hope to have the center up and running in 2025.
Other funding specifics will be figured out once the operator is in place and the center is operational. While the city is putting funding toward it, there is also an “expectation” laid out in the operator agreement that the provider will fundraise to help with operating costs, city officials said in a budget presentation meeting on Tuesday.
Housing first
Compared to Aurora’s “tough love” approach coming to fruition, Denver’s “housing first” homelessness approach is already in full swing.
In announcing Denver’s proposed $1.76 billion spending plan for 2025, Mayor Mike Johnston hinted at substantial homelessness spending, though he said budget overruns should not be seen next year.
The mayor said much of the overspending this year was associated with capital purchases, such as buying land and equipment for "tiny" home developments or "micro-communities."
“I think it was a two or three-year effort before I arrived to create the tiny village in Park Hill — and that was 40 units. We brought on 1,200 units in just under six months. That's an incredible amount of infrastructure of capital," he said.
Denver is on track to spend $155 million on homelessness since Johnston took office — $65 million more than originally disclosed. Despite the spending, January’s point-in-time count showed the city saw only 150 fewer "unsheltered" homeless people when compared to last year's count — data that puzzled one councilmember and led another to accuse the Johnston administration of having a "spend first, ask questions later mindset."
Much of the money the Johnston administration spent went to opening five non-congregate shelters and three outdoor “micro-communities,” where the city has brought residents of homeless encampments that the administration had swept.
Since Johnston took office in July 2023, the city has moved 1,950 homeless people off the streets to transitional housing. Of that total, 709 homeless people have transitioned to "permanent" housing, according to city data.
Despite the rise in homelessness, Johnston's administration defended its strategy and insisted that its "success" mirrors cities like Houston. A spokesperson insisted that Denver saw one of the most significant reductions in "unsheltered" homelessness nationwide and that its gains are on par with Houston — widely regarded as a national leader in tackling homelessness — over six months, the time between when Johnston took office and the point in time count conducted in January.
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