Denver mayor opens 215 units of housing, pushes for $100 million sales tax hike

Denver officially opened more than 200 units of affordable housing from an old hotel, a project that used $13.6 million in federal funding.

Mayor Mike Johnston said the new housing is part of a larger regional solution to homelessness, which spiked this year, based on an annual count, despite tens of millions of dollars allocated by the administration on the crisis.

The building, now called Renewal Village at 200 W. Warner Pl., is the site of the former Clarion Hotel Denver Central. This is the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless’ third conversion of a hotel to permanent housing.

In June, the Denver City Council donated $3.1 million to the conversion, which helped rehabilitate 107 of the rooms. The former Clarion Hotel is the subject of a $100,000 fundraising effort by the coalition to provide move-in items. So far, people have donated $63,000.

All told, it has 215 housing units.

Part of Johnston's goals is to build or preserve 3,000 affordable housing units citywide. According to the city dashboard, the city has opened 12 such developments, bringing 529 units online.

A spokesperson from the mayor's office said the dashboard does not give a full picture of housing units in the city because the Department of Housing Stability uses different metrics than the administration.

"Today is an incredible example of what is possible in Denver and across the state when we have real collaboration from all of our amazing partners," Johnston said. "Today will be an incredibly important groundbreaking... The 215 units that provide people access to the affordable housing they need with the supportive services that they want."

Johnston said the Renewal Village is a "key step" in addressing homelessness and housing affordability, describing the crisis as a regional problem requiring regional solutions. Renewal Village was made possible by a collaboration between Adams County, the state, and federal partners, he said.

The mayor also argued anew for his proposal to increase sales taxes and generate $100 million for affordable housing. The proposal, which will appear on the ballot in November, would catapult the city atop the jurisdictions with the highest sales taxes in metro Denver.

Some councilmembers pushed back against the proposal, but the body ultimately voted to send the question to voters. A few councilmembers — Amanda Sawyer, Flor Alvidrez, Kevin Flynn and Stacie Gilmore — opposed it.

Councilmember Jamie Torres opted to support the measure after a string of amendments. The final vote was 9-4.

"We view this as exactly the kind of opportunities we want to see the city do more and more of," Johnston said. "These are the very reasons we're pursuing this affordable Denver fund on the ballot this November... It's a chance to support more efforts like this that provide long-term permanent housing with the supportive services people need."

Officials said U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette played a critical role in finding money for the project.

"Homelessness was the top issue. I knew this from before, but it's only gotten worse and worse over the years," she said. "I started working with Denver, the Coalition for the Homeless, and other allies to see how I could augment their funding."

Johnston promised to end homelessness in the city in his first term as mayor. Last year, his administration moved more than 1,000 homeless people out of the city's streets into shelters. He promised to replicate that this year.

According to the city's dashboard, almost 1,900 people have been sheltered through the city program. Of that number, 209 are back on the streets, 41 are in jail, and 17 are dead.

The city doesn't know the whereabouts of 72 others.

Despite Johnston's campaign and the significant resources poured by the administration into the problem, Denver's homeless population grew, according to an annual point-in-time count.

The mayor and his staff defended the administration's strategy and likened Denver's "success" to Houston's, which is considered to be a national leader on the issue.

“The argument that our strategy isn’t working is factually wrong,” spokesperson Jordan Fuja told The Denver Gazette.

Denver, which is on track to spend nearly $155 million on the mayor's homelessness campaign, saw its total number of homeless people balloon from 5,818 last year to 6,539 this year. And 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."

Data from the Coalition for the Homeless shows that the Houston-Harris County area reduced its "unsheltered" population — individuals who live in public spaces, such as parks and under bridges — by 135.

Denver reduced this population by 150.

While the two areas both saw increases in the total population, Denver's increase was bigger at 721, a 12% increase from the year before.

The Houston-Harris region, meanwhile, saw only 10 more homeless people in 2024.