Editorial —
Denver’s new Mayor Mike Johnston, upon assuming office earlier this year, declared that his top priority was housing the homeless. It is not clear whether the politically correct term is “homeless” or the newer “unhoused,” but either appears allowable for the time being. On Johnston’s first day in office, he declared a state of emergency around homelessness and prioritized housing 1,000 homeless people in his first year as mayor. He had learned, as so many politicians had under COVID-19, that you can do things under an emergency that you could never get away with in “normal” times.
Not to let grass grow under his feet he went on a tour of the city’s 74 neighborhoods hoping to find 200 public plots to place “tiny home” communities where people experiencing homelessness could be housed. As he said, “This is what we think is the most important crisis the city is facing.” But with only a month to go only about 250 people have boarded under the program so far.
It may come as a surprise to some newcomers to Denver that housing the homeless has not always been the top priority of a city with now over 711,000 people. “The greatest good for the greatest number” is definitely not a guiding principle of the new progressive Johnston administration.
Of course, there have always been unhoused people in Denver since its founding in 1858, but the so-called homelessness crisis did not reach full public awareness until the 1980s with the dropping of certain housing programs by the Reagan administration and the widespread deinstitutionalization of the mentally challenged. Even then the crisis did not seem so overwhelming that all other city businesses had to grind to a halt.
Denver’s first progressive mayor, Frederico Peña, convened a taskforce in 1984 which led to city funding for a non-profit organization called the “Coalition for the Homeless.” John Parvensky, who would become the head of the organization for 37 years, joined in 1985. It had at the time a $100,000 budget and a staff of six. Parvensky has been deemed one the most successful modern Denver entrepreneurs growing his homelessness business to 750 employees and 2,000 volunteers and a budget of over $126,000,000 when he retired.
He was able to do this all while increasing the number of homeless to a little over 3,600 when he left. Following the footsteps of Parvensky, an energized younger staff at the Coalition headed by the new President and CEO Britta Fisher, have managed to grow homelessness in Denver in a single year by an impressive 31.7% to just under 4,000. Even more impressive is her growth in homelessness for the first timers by 120.4%. Even the late Bernie Madoff would have had to give a tip of the hat to that achievement.
Luckily at the right time, the homeless have a true advocate in the city’s new mayor, Mike Johnston. Not since Mayor John Hickenlooper and his “10 Year Plan to End Homelessness” have the homeless had such a champion. But even John Hickenlooper was not willing to suspend all work on any other of the city’s concerns in the name of growing the all-important homeless segment of the population. As Johnston stated, “We took the oath yesterday to commit on taking on this problem.” The new mayor correctly understood that the city could not rely on existing Denverites facing hard times to sufficiently increase the homeless. No, if homelessness was going to continue to be a growth industry in Denver, we needed to attract homeless from all across the country. What better way than to guarantee any person coming to Denver a home as the mayor did. Moreover, Mayor Johnston has promised “funding for wrap around services and it will come from the existing Homelessness Resolution Fund.” In addition, money forecasts will come from Proposition 123, the “Colorado Affordable Housing Financing Fund” which is expected to bring in $300,000,000 annually.
Mayor Johnston sagaciously understands that Denver is at a competitive disadvantage in attracting the homeless due to, at times, brutal winters in Colorado. Thus, we must look abroad for assistance in growing homelessness in Denver. Foreword thinking Mayor Wellington Webb back in 1998 declared Denver to be a “sanctuary city” for illegal immigrants with Executive Order 116. Mayor Hancock cleared any ambiguity over the executive order when he declared that Denver welcomed the “sanctuary city” designation. This allows the “Queen City of the Plains” to partner in a bipartisan manner with Democrat led cities in Texas, like El Paso, and Republican Governor Greg Abbot’s Operation Lone Star to bus homeless illegal immigrants from all over the world right to our doorsteps.
True, we need to share the bounty with other sanctuary cities like New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles, but there are tens of thousands pouring over the border every day. President Biden and Secretary of Homeland Security Mayorkas have promised to keep the border open as long as humanely possible.
Denver, in welcoming thousands of new homeless customers from across the country, and the world, will dwarf the 1,000 people that Johnston claims he will be housing this year. We have a modest proposition that Denver needs to require the Coalition of the Homeless to go public on the New York Stock Exchange. While homelessness has been a major growth industry in Denver over the last 40 years, its salad days are far from over with Mayor Johnston at the helm. That way the individual investors in Denver could join Mayor Johnston in celebrating the New Year and look for positive returns for years to come.
— Editorial Board