Corrections to Mayor Johnston’s State of the City Address

Corrections to Mayor Johnston’s State of the City Address 

On July 21st, Mayor Johnston gave his 2025 State of the City Address. In order to respond properly to this address, we have copied the sections of the address transcript that are relevant to houselessness, bolded and underlined parts, and made corrections/comments highlighted in yellow after. 

Throughout this address, note the similarities to Trump’s executive order on houselessness, which came out 3 days after Johnston’s speech. 

We need honesty from the Mayor to admit reality. And we need a Mayor to prioritize long term housing for those most in need – not policing people out of sight, forcing them to not use cover from the elements, and pushing people into shelters and calling it housing.  

Read the full State of the City address here 

“On the first day of our administration we declared a state of emergency on homelessness. We did it because we had people dying on the street in record numbers, we had large encampments spread around the city, we had thousands of tents blocking access to post offices and churches and hospitals, strangling businesses and frightening residents” (Notice that Mayor Johnston uses the same language and logic here as Trump in his executive order on homelessness). 

“We started there because it was a humanitarian crisis threatening the lives of people living on the streets, and it was an economic crisis threatening the city’s post-COVID recovery” (the drive is to get houseless people out of sight to stop “scaring people”).

“So we went to work. In the first 180 days we acquired 1,000 units” (False – actually almost all of these units were acquired or in the process of being acquired prior to Johnston’s coming in office. The hotels, with the exception of the family hotel and the Radisson which was only leased for a year, were all bought with ARPA dollars before Johnston was elected. Only the micro communities, which only total 185 units, were developed from Johnston’s initiative) “of safe, dignified transitional housing.” (It’s a stretch to call these hotels and micro-communities “safe” or “dignified”! Multiple people murdered, raped by staff, no guests allowed, random room checks, asbestos, and more…. Furthermore, this is not transitional housing, these sites are what is legally called “non-congregate shelter”. Residents have no housing rights, must follow strict shelter rules, and can be kicked out on a whim by staff.) “We stopped sweeping encampments from one block to the next,” (False – sweeps through enforcement of move along orders for resting in public space has increased over 50% since January 2024 when the Mayor “finished” the first phases of “house 1000” initiative. The reason there are no visible encampments or visible sweeps now is not because everyone is off the streets or because there are no more sweeps, it is because houseless people are being swept constantly now every day, mostly as individuals and small scattered groups – forced to get out of sight and prevented from ever even putting up a tent or visible structure for protection from the weather) “and started moving people into housing in record numbers” (False – as noted, non-congregate shelters are not housing, and that is where the majority of people in the Mayor’s All In initiative were moved into. The numbers of people moved into actual housing in the period since Mayor Johnston has come in office is actually roughly the same (In 2021 MDHI reports 540 people getting housing through One Home, and in July 2023-2024 the Mayor reports 585 people moved into housing.) as it has been in recent past years before Johnston’s reign of power.) “We decentralized support services so people could access help wherever they lived” (What does this even mean?? There was no central location of support services that moved to scattered services after Johnston came in office. If he is referring to services coming to the All In hotel and micro community sites, yes some services such as the medical van and other such care has come to these sites, but these services were already mobile services that met people where they were at so this is not new). 

“Now, at the halfway point, we have done something historic. In the last two years street homelessness in Denver has dropped by 45%” (False – there were hundreds of houseless people on the streets that were not counted because sweeps by police and other enforcers have moved them into hiding where they were not counted. Plus, there were 750 people in the cold weather emergency shelter that night who would normally be on the streets but accessed shelter just for these cold nights. That alone doubles the street homeless count from 785 to over 1,500. This would mean there was a slight increase in street houselessness since 2023 (by about 75 people), not a reduction. It is also critical to note here that Johnston left out the fact that while the count shows a decrease in street houselessness, it shows a 12% increase in the total houselessness population in one year. Houselessness is increasing, not decreasing.) “ — the largest multi-year decrease in unsheltered homelessness of any city in American history.  We’ve closed every large encampment in the city, and re-opened sidewalks to pedestrians and businesses” (This means increased police moving along houseless people trying to rest on these public streets so that business people can use the sidewalk without poor people in sight).  “We have moved 7000 people off the streets and moved 5000 people into permanent housing” (This 5000 number is of all people getting into housing from all houseless situations including streets, congregate shelters etc over the past 2 years – not just from the All In program the Mayor initiated. It also includes temporary housing through rapid rehousing so that is not 5000 people permanently housed. 5000 in two years is a normal number of transitions into housing for any year – even before Johnston came into office. “And we became the largest American city ever to end the cycle of street homelessness for veterans” (This data is especially about veterans who are counted as homeless on the streets, not including veterans who are in shelters. There are many veterans still houseless living in shelters or others who happen to be counted in a shelter but who actually stay more on the streets than the shelters, and all these veterans are not counted here – as if only visible veterans on the streets matter – if they continue to suffer in the shelters, who cares!) 

“The first phase was about closing encampments, removing tents, getting people connected to services, and we’ve seen the impact that has had on our city. But many of those still living on the streets often have the highest needs, struggling with serious mental health or addiction challenges” (Notice the similarity here in Johnston’s comments with Trump’s focus on houseless as mentally ill and drug addicted.) “We know that the best path forward is not an endless cycle of being on the streets, going to the hospital, and landing in jail, but connection to high-quality and long-term support services” (Yes, but unfortunately Johnston has not invested in this and instead expects the Roads to Recovery program to get people in programs that already existed and are full.)

“We also know that too many families are laying awake at night in fear that they may end up on the streets because they simply cannot afford to pay the rent in Denver. Nearly half of Denverites can’t afford to live in the city they call home, and we know we need to bring on close to 5,000 units of housing every year to meet our long-term needs” (At this rate it would take 12 years to have enough housing affordable to all the roughly 60,000 cost burdened and houseless people in Denver, and that does not include keeping up with the continual increase in need with rent increase and houselessness. And for this to work the majority of these would need to be under 30 and 50% AMI). “If we don’t make progress now, this challenge will be an existential threat to families” (It already is! We have at 200 families on the family SHELTER WAITLIST right now!!$# Those are just the ones on the list, many more families get dropped from the list, can’t get a hold of shelter staff, or don’t even try. Note how Johnston talks about mentally ill and drug addicted individuals as our main houseless population, and then talks about families only at risk of homelessness. In fact it is the exact opposite! There are more houseless families with children in Denver right now than individuals with mental health or drug addiction on the streets.) “to business and to economic growth. That is why we launched our middle class housing program that will make bringing on housing for working families easier and quicker” (The data is clear that the most housing need is at 0-50% AMI – people with no money, government income or part time work, or people with full time low wage jobs – not middle class people at 60% AMI or higher. But regardless, Johnston is focusing public dollars on housing for people in these higher incomes instead of the social housing asked for that would include all incomes but prioritize no-lower incomes and keep the housing public for the people.)

“We have made dramatic progress on homelessness, and on violent crime.” (Houseless encampments are not the cause of the majority of violent crime, yet the Mayor talks as if that is the case. The reduction of houselessness is factually not the cause of a reduction in violent crime, yet he talks as if it is. Closing camps is closing off public space for houseless people and is unjust and deeply harmful.) “But that is not enough, we all share the belief that our city streets need to be safe for all of us. That means an expectation that our residents are following the law and that the law will be enforced.” (Notice the similarity here with Trump’s language in his ex order on homelessness – the focus is on enforcing laws against visible houseless people). “Now that encampments are gone and violent crime is among the lowest this century, we are turning our focus to the quality of life crimes – like theft or public drug use – that impact many of us on a daily basis” (What he is saying here is that major violent crimes are not so much the issue now, so now they will focus on enforcing crimes of poverty like stealing bread to eat, using drugs in public because you don’t have a home, sitting on the sidewalk, using a blanket to stay warm, etc. This has been his focus the past year and a half, and it is extremely concerning for him to say it outright here! What happened to Johnston’s promises to not sweep houseless people from block to block?? Now he is sweeping houseless people every day without anyone seeing…and sweeping more people into jail too. The enforcement of these “quality of life” crimes against houseless people leads to egregious violations of human rights, illegal searches and seizures, theft of houseless people’s property, and abuse by City agents including police but also DOTI, SET, and other enforcers.)

“But for those who refuse services and continue to commit crimes, we will hold them accountable, and work with our partners in the criminal justice system to direct them toward services and treatment as part of their sentence.” (This is literally what Trump is ordering! Forced treatment for houseless people. The assumption is if you are houseless and committing ‘crimes’ like sleeping with a blanket, or stealing food, you have a mental health or drug addiction and should be forced into treatment. Johnston and Trump’s words are almost identical here.) “We believe Denver can be compassionate and safe, and we are prepared to deliver both.” It’s not compassionate to criminalize homelessness and to equate the unhoused with the increase in violent crime. It’s not compassionate to disparage homeless people as the cause for all the cities problems and suggest that eliminating the homeless camps is the reason for a reduction in violent crime when homeless people themselves are victims of violent crime by gangs and drug Cartels. It’s not compassionate to tell the poor and the unhoused that you’re not welcome here, you don’t belong here and we don’t wanna see you hanging around downtown. 

It is not safe to force people into hiding, take their property, and not allow them to use a tent in the rain, hot or cold. It is not safe to put people in hotel shelters where staff are raping residnets and people are being murdered. It is not safe to allow shelters to kick elderly people with disabilities to the streets for using weed gummies, or take people’s medications in the shelter, or allow rats and bed bugs to spread. This is not delivering compassion or safety.