Housekeys Action Network Denver (HAND) supports for the following proposed budget amendments, and to ask for City Council’s “yes” votes.
- TRUA – This rental assistance is vital! The increase in funding should actually be much larger to meet the need, but at the very least, this small increase should be passed to help keep people in their homes. Last year, TRUA was given a historical amount of money and STILL ran out halfway through the year. With Denver looking at one of its highest rates of eviction in 2025, our community depends on this funding. Our members suffered when funds ran out last year and we must respond accordingly.
- Basic Income – Basic income makes a huge difference in many of our members’ lives. If they lose this, they lose critical stability which has helped them meet their basic needs. No one was, or should ever be, expected to be able to secure housing on the market while receiving just $1000 a month – what this income does is enable people to meet needs like transportation, food, family time, and other critical needs. Imagine not having money for these things…Let’s value people as people. (Also, if the Mayor wants to defund this due to a lack of housing connections, he should defund his All-In plan as well, as shelter is not housing and the majority of those in this program that are moving into housing are doing so through Rapid Rehousing funds, which end in a year and will result in most of them being back out on the streets).
- Pause the police academy classes in 2025 – This is absolutely needed! With the rate of police murders and abuse, something must be done to stop this – that “something” should not be further investing in the harassment of civilians, but instead, addressing long-standing internal issues first.
- Study on cost-benefit of arresting low level crimes – This study would be hugely impactful. Our members have a lot of personal experience with the costs that rack up from ticketing them and prosecuting them for petty offenses, such as public urination – something that houseless people are much more likely to be charged with than housed people. It costs the City thousands of dollars to put them in jail and go through the courts when people can’t pay their fines.
- Defund SET & move houseless outreach to HOST – We have already sent you detailed information on what SET does and why they should be defunded and moved to HOST to conduct real outreach as it is falsely stated they do – read more here.
- Safe RV parking site – RV dwellers are being constantly harassed, moved along, and having their homes stolen by the City. The ‘vehicle junker’ or better named ‘poverty tow’ bill that passed council last year has made RVs illegal in Denver and enabled sanctioned City seizure of people’s homes. Far too many of our community members have lost their RV homes and been left to the streets. A safe parking site would help many folks otherwise trying to navigate this chase around Denver. It is important to note, though, that this site must:
- Be 24/7, not just overnight,
- Allow the vehicle to stay even if it has expired tags, and
- Allow them to stay even if it is not fully running.
Not making these accommodations will lead to most of these RV residents being back on the streets.
- Additional Services for Doubletree – We have talked with a great many residents of Doubletree and the other hotel sites and the need for additional services could not be more clear! That being said, resident direction on needed services MUST be used to decide how these funds will be used.
- Increase STAR funding – STAR, as it was originally intended as a non-police crisis response team, is badly needed and should have its capacity increased! Our members have waited on STAR to respond for multiple hours, and in some cases, found they never responded at all due to shortage of staff and hours. At the same time, it is critical that STAR be restored to its original intent such that police do NOT accompany STAR on these calls. Our members have experienced and witnessed police coming with STAR multiple times, including one time where a woman who was just stressed while losing her home had 6 cops surround her with the STAR team and lead her instead into a deeper crisis response. No more police with police-alternative STAR!
We ask that City Council support our community by voting YES for these budget amendments, and then work to ensure they are properly implemented.
Sincerely,
Housekeys Action Network Denver
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