Mayor Johnston,
We wanted to respond to a couple things you said in our meeting June 3rd that we did not get a chance to respond to.
When we asked what we should tell the countless houseless people we are speaking with (many of which former hotel shelter residents who have been kicked out and now stay near these hotels, but also others all over the City) who are being moved along by police, having all their property taken, and suffering on the streets with no ability to even have a tent, your response was “We did make a commitment that there would not be encampments in or around those hotels…so I do imagine that there will continue to be that enforcement in those places.” You went on to talk about how “more rooms will become available as people move into housing.” Yet, many of these people are former residents of these very rooms and are banned from these shelters. This includes an elderly woman who is on oxygen, kicked from the shelters and now on the streets in this area. Where are these people supposed to go? Your direct answer to our question of where people should camp was “I don’t know.” You need to understand, roughly 50 people are living outside near the Doubletree and are suffering from not being allowed to have tents, tarps or any protection from the elements. They are suffering from the City taking their shopping carts with all their property – blankets, clothes, medications, documents, etc. This includes one man who was kicked from the Doubletree to the streets with an infection in his leg who died on the streets from sepsis shortly after. Have you simply given up on promises you made at the beginning of your time in office not to sweep people to nowhere?? Let us be clear, it is worse now for houseless people on the streets than it was before you came into office.
You went on to talk about Rapid Rehousing as a means to move more people into housing and open up more non-congregate shelter spaces. In this you talked about how “we can use fewer resources on folks that are lower acuity… if you want to do two years of Rapid Rehousing for everybody we will support 1/10 of those we can if we can find folks who can survive on 3 months of Rapid Rehousing before they can transition into housing on their own.” This is extremely disturbing!@$ What you are saying here is that housing resources will be prioritized for the people who have less need for support and can therefore pay for their own housing after just a short time with assistance. This means people who are more vulnerable, disabled, need long term assistance are left on the streets or in shelters because they not able to ‘pull themselves up by their bootstraps’ and pay for market rate housing!@$ This method of prioritization is the exact opposite of what we have been asking you for: prioritization of the most vulnerable, not the most visible. Now you are prioritizing the numbers on a dashboard over the most vulnerable. It is all about the numbers and not about the need!$!
It is true that Rapid Rehousing is best fit for people who just need a little support to get on their feet. This is what all the training on Rapid Rehousing instructs and what is clear from the data. Giving a year or a few months of rental assistance to people who do not have the means/ability to pay rent after that time, unless you are then giving those people permanent housing vouchers, does not keep people in housing. As is shown in this analysis of a recent Rapid Rehousing initiative, only 10% of people ended their time able to pay for housing on their own, and 90% would have landed (or did land) back houseless if not for getting prioritized for a permanent housing voucher or permanent supportive housing unit. The ‘success’ of this Rapid Rehousing initiative was entirely based on the use of permanent housing assistance after their time in Rapid Rehousing. Since you are not allocating long term housing vouchers or units to people in Rapid Rehousing when their time is up, likely around 80% of these people are headed back to the streets sometime after you end their housing assistance.
We are asking you to change this trajectory and not let hundreds of people you have counted as housed land back in houselessness! Extend people’s time as needed until you make the needed investments in long term vouchers or better yet Social Housing (starting by the use of GO Bond Funds for a revolving loan fund to kick start Social Housing in Denver). If money is tight, shift money from police and stadiums and the like and use that money to keep people in housing. You do not want your “All In” initiative to become the “All back out” initiative…
And please instruct police NOT to terrorize people living outside – even if its an area you promised NIMBY neighbors would be “clear of camps.” Last I checked, being able to cover yourself from the rain or heat while you try to sleep is more important than NIMBY’s not seeing poor people…
Sincerely,
Housekeys Action Network Denver
Mutual Aid Monday
And community members
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