DENVER — Wednesday marked one year since Mike Johnston took over as the mayor of Denver, and addressing homelessness has been his "most pressing concern."
A report released this week breaks down the numbers of his "All in Mile High" initiative.
According to the report, 1,673 people experiencing homelessness were moved indoors during Johnston's first year of leadership.
"583 people are in permanent housing. And amazing, 84% of all those that we've served are still successfully being served by these programs," Cole Chandler, director of homelessness initiatives with the Colorado Department of Human Services, said.
The next goal — bring another thousand people indoors this year.
"A lot of our focus really this year, is on building the systems, building the sustainability of what we've set up, and really achieving operational efficiency. And so a lot of what that means is delivering really high quality services at the all in Mile High sites, improving our case management timelines, improving our timelines to getting people into permanent housing so that we can backfill those units and get more and more people into them," Chandler said.
Denver7 did reach out to Mayor Johnston for a statement, but did not get one.
In the report, he shared a message that said in part:
"These efforts have transformed downtown Denver. The sprawling tent encampments are gone. Sidewalks are clean and passable. In converted hotels and new micro-communities, many of our unhoused neighbors have found not just shelter, but renewed hope. As one of the few major cities to reduce unsheltered homelessness in 2023, Denver has set a national example. But we know our work is far from over."
You can read the full letter from the mayor and more details of the report here.
