Mayor Johnston’s “Homelessness Progress Dashboard” states that 7,985 houseless people were permanently housed since he came into office. To understand this number, though, it is important to understand what it counts and how it compares to past years.
Let’s dig into the details here.
The Mayor’s Homeless Dashboard states that ‘housed’ here includes the following—
Permanent Housing: owned housing, rental units, permanent supportive housing, long term care facility or nursing home, and permanent reunification with family or friends.
Stable Housing: foster care, host homes, residential project or halfway house, temporary reunification with friends or family, transitional housing, and hotel/motels paid for by client.
The Mayor Dashboard number (currently 7,985) only counts houseless people housed from City funded programs. This does not necessarily mean the housing the person moves into is funded by the city, such as when people get vouchers which are almost all federally or state funded, but rather just that the person was in a city funded shelter or connected to housing from the streets by a city funded outreach worker. The shelters also have other funding streams beyond the city, but these are the places or programs the city is investing in and therefore counting as their housing successes.
Metro Denver Homeless Initiative is responsible for tracking this kind of houseless and housing data for Denver total. They do this through a federally required database called the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS). Whenever someone who is in HMIS (which includes most houseless people but not all) moves into housing from houselessness, MDHI tracks this information. Here is the data showing housing rates for the past 5 years:
MDHI
Year Clients Households
2021 6,540 4,366
2022 7,624 5,251
2023 9,247 5,887
2024 9,537 6,412
2025 9,929 7,036
These numbers show us a pattern of slightly more households housed each year. This could be related to the increase in houselessness year over year, additional housing resources, or other causes. The number also shows us a much larger jump in individuals housed vs households housed since 2023. This likely reflects the significant increase in family houselessness in these years. (This is our assessment of causes, not MDHI’s). A likely cause here is that more people are being housed because more children are going through houselessness. There has been a steady increase in households housed since 2021, but this increase remains at between approximately 900 more a year to about 600 more a year, with recent year closer to 600 increase. This shows a consistent pattern of houseless housing rates – not an increase under Mayor Johnston.
The housing numbers from the Mayor’s dashboard also come from HMIS data – the same data MDHI’s numbers come from but as noted the difference is the Mayor’s numbers only include houseless people in programs the City funds. Here is the data from the City dashboard:
Mayor Dashboard
2024 3,395
2025 3,253
Total since July 2023 to June 2026 7,985
These numbers show roughly ⅓ of people housed in Denver each year are housed from city funded programs. The other ⅔ are housed from non-city funded programs or without going through any program. It is important to understand also that the majority of these city funded programs are not new under Mayor Johnston but have been in Denver funded by the City for many years. The only new shelter programs that have come on since Johnston was in office were some of the non-congregate shelters and a couple micro communities. Currently there are 3 non-congregate hotel shelters, and two micro communities left that were added since Johnston came in office (as he opened and than closed some shelters). (The non-congregate hotel shelters were acquired with ARPA dollars prior to his coming in office, and these two micro communities were acquired once he came in office.) All the rest of the city funded shelters have been around for years funded in part by the city.
Federal cuts in housing assistance had an impact in reducing the City’s access to housing vouchers in 2025 and 2026. However, these vouchers only make up a few hundred of the City housing placements – not the majority. And the City did not make up for lost housing vouchers with any local housing resources.
So have the new shelters and outreach programs brought online since Johnston came in office helped people get housed? Yes, there have been people who got housing from these programs and we are all glad for this. But the number of people housed has not created any significant jump in housing rates for the City of Denver. The data shows that Denver’s rate of houseless housing continues at a normal rate for the past 5 years. Furthermore, the rate of exists from these non-congregate shelters to the streets or unknown locations (usually the streets) is almost equal to those who exit to housing!&% 47% of people are kicked out of or leave these shelters to go right back to the streets. Almost half of all residents.
It is also important to note that some of those counted as housed are housed temporarily through Rapid Rehousing. Rapid Rehousing moves people into private housing and pays for 1 year or sometimes more of housing costs. The Mayor’s RR assistance has only been for a year (with a few people extended, but also with the Mayor pushing to reduce the time even less than a year) whereas some other Rapid Rehousing is for 2 or more years. Mayor Johnston has depended heavily on Rapid Rehousing to house people, but this housing is only for a year and often ends in the person being kicked back to non-congregate shelter or even the streets. Data on Rapid Rehousing exits is still not transparent so we cannot give full accurate information here, but we can note from experience that many people we know land back in houselessness after their time in Rapid Rehousing.
The data makes it clear, there has not been any notable increase in houseless people housed under Mayor Johnston or due to his “House 1000” or “All In” initiatives.
This is important to understand when hearing the Mayor’s recent claim to success from the 2026 Point in Time Count. The 2026 PIT counted a 12.5% decrease in houselessness in Denver over the past year and a 64% decrease in street houselessness. There has not been a decreased count since 2017. Mayor Johnston is claiming this as his success. But how do these PIT numbers relate to the housing data? The housing data shows no significant increase in houseless people housed in 2025. And the Mayor’s dashboard also shows no increase, rather a slight decrease, in people housed in 2025. So if the Mayor has been so successful in reducing houselessness this year, where have all those houseless people gone if not to housing?
The primary answer: scattered into hiding due to increased policing. Under Johnston in the past 3 years he has increased enforcement of anti-houseless laws (i.e. camping ban, trespass, etc) by 150%. Where before Johnston houseless people used to be able to put up a tent to stay dry and have privacy, now the minute you try to set up a tent enforcers are on you telling you to take it down. Houseless people are pushed more and more into hiding (as well as jail, detox units, hospital, death, etc) – meaning they are not counted in the PIT count. These two data points – the normal housing rate and the increase in policing – show that the deceased houseless count in 2026 is not due to more people being housed, but due to more people being pushed into hiding on the streets of Denver or out of Denver.
In conclusion: Denver is not making progress housing houseless people. Denver is continuing the same low patterns of housing it has for years and increasing policing of houseless people in sight to push people into hiding and make the appearance of reduced houselessness. We still need real housing for all as badly as ever and we need the City to back off people on the streets and allow them to survive as human beings must!
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