08 29 25 Denver Mayor Johnston on the All In Mile High program and city furloughs

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chad Bauer in for Marty and Gina Today, a new
report on Denver's All In Mile High initiative says that
Denver's progress on reducing unsheltered homelessness and encampments offers a
promising path for other cities. Here to talk about that
and other issues, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, Good morning, mister Mayor.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Mortan Chat. Thanks for having me so.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
I know you guys are very proud of this program,
but is it nice to hear validation from outside sources
such as the Urban Institute when it comes to the
All In Mile High initiative.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
You know, we are excited about that. They're considered the
gold standard for research around homelessness all over the country.
And for them to say they think Denver is the
is the new model for how to show this problem
is solvable is meaningful for us. And obviously we're clear
the work's not done. We're just as hungry to finish
the job as we were to start the job. But yeah,
for us to see that now you know, two years in,

(00:52):
we've cut street homelessness almost by fifty percent, and we
know we've eliminated with the largest city ever to eliminate
street homelessness for veterans. We don't have anyone who served
our country who has to sleep on the streets. And
you know, that's the largest multi year reduction of any
city in American history. We know that it's working, and
we got more work to do. So we're just committed
to the next stage of the work as to this
first stage. But the shows that we're showing that this

(01:13):
problem is solvable.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
And so what remains your biggest challenge or obstacle when
reaching your goals for this program?

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yeah, And I want to say to folks who are
still frustrated, I agree with you. I see what you see,
which is we don't have any encampments really in the city.
Right two years ago the problem was fifty sixty seventy
ten encampments. Those are all closed. Now we have are
folks that are just seriously mentally ill or have real
addiction needs, who are wandering up and down Broadway or
cool facts and used in drugs in public, are passing

(01:42):
out in front of someone's business, and now those are
all Our next focus is getting those folks into services.
So we've launched a program called Roads to Recovery, which
is trying to get everyone onto a road to recovery,
whether that is voluntary treatment or mental health support. But
it's also saying they're to certain behaviors we won't tolerate
in Denver anymore. And so you can't sit in front
of someone's business and use drugs in public or per

(02:04):
sell drugs, and you know, we will do more enforcement
on those, and then we'll work to get people into
supervised treatment or support, and if they commit crimes and
up in our county jail, we actually have treatment and
addiction support units in our jail where they can get
treatment too, and then connect them to housing and work.
And so whatever someone's road is, we're going to make
sure they find their way into treatment and support and

(02:25):
try to get their lives back together because we know
that's what they want to but that's what the city needs.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
And mister Mahor's announced, i think a week or two ago,
that the Salvation Army will stop operating three hotel shelters
at the end of the year. So what on your
end is your process to find a new partner and
when you're going through that, whether you approach the contract
requirements differently.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Yeah, great question, Chab. We've actually been looking at this
for about six months. So we've had an open process
at RFP and we've had multiple organizations that are applying.
We have some locally we think have done a really
great job they are ready to step up. We have
some nationally to have proven their results in other places
and want to come to Denver. And so we already
had some great folks in the pipeline to do that,

(03:06):
and so and does offer us a chance to reset.
You know what those expectations are, which is to make
sure everyone knows that they have an obligation if they're
in one of our units, to be working towards getting
a job, to be getting access to treatment, to be
following the rules and being a good citizen and member
of the community. And so we will step up those
expectations on everybody and really expected whoever the provider is

(03:28):
is getting having a contact with every single resident every
single week around their path to getting permanent housing and
getting a job.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
And we're at that time of the year budget season,
and I know the city Council has asked for more
transparency when it comes to the finances of the all
in Mile High program, and so with that, will you
provide that and also, how do you see the funding
for that with all the challenges in the budgetarya area
that you guys are facing.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
Yeah, we're going to have unprecedented levels of public engagement
with the council this budget cycle wan we've ever had before.
We'll do three different rounds of public briefings with the
council before we start the hearings. We'll do three complete
rounds of private briefings from a meeting with every single
city council member individually, three different times, and then we'll

(04:14):
have a full forty hours of budget hearings and we'll
do another round of follow up meetings of council members
after that, and so we'll be at fifty sixty meetings
both public and private, with the council members by the
time the budget is closed, and so we were excited
to fully engage them. I think the one thing that
was unique about obviously the layoffs announcements. Those are really
important private events for people who were affected, and we

(04:37):
didn't think it was appropriate to share information about specific
people or departments before those individuals need themselves, and so
that was the only thing we didn't share before announcement.
All the rest of the materials we'll share with them
regularly on private briefings before any of it goes public.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
And today is a furlough day for the city. Can
you explain a little bit about what that means for
employees and customers.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yeah, it just means that employees don't get paid for
today's work, so they have been of a forced day
off or that they don't get paid for. And so
we're doing two of those over the course of the
year where the most of the traditional walk up services
at the city will be closed today, the DMV or
the permitting office, all the emergency services of course, all

(05:22):
of our police and fire and sheriff and all those
folks are always on twenty four seven no matter what,
so none of those change. But it would be like
a holiday except for those city employees that god, they
don't get paid, so obviously tough day for them, but
we're grateful for what they've done to step up to
help make it possible for us to balance the budget.
And this is one of those practices that we've used.

Speaker 1 (05:43):
And with the Broncos, mister Mary, we're in the kind
of that lull period a little bit more than a
week before their first game, and any why we have
this downtime, any sort of announcement you would like to make,
not just.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yeah, okay, we are working very hard at it. I'm
super excited for the start of the season, as I
think everyone is, but I can't wait to see a
whole victory against the Titans next weekend.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
Andver Mae, Mike Johnson, as always, thanks so much for
your time and enjoy the holiday weekend.

Speaker 2 (06:12):
Thanks for having me ched