Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right now on Colorado's Morning News. Affordable housing continues to
be a struggle in the Denver area, but a new
rental community adding to the number of units available for
residences a positive and the net on the right.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Side and joining us now on the ka Common Spirit
Health Hotline to talk more about it is Denver Mayor
Mike Johnston. Mister Marrett, Thank you so much for your
time this morning.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Good morning, How are you doing well?
Speaker 4 (00:19):
Doing well?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
This week we celebrated the grand opening of Northfield Flats
in the Central Park neighborhood. Can you tell us a
little bit more about that building and what else is
being done in order to push for more affordable housing
options in the city.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Yeah, it's a great.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
Example of exactly what we want to do when we
talk about affordable housing. I think sometimes people have a
misperception of the affordable housing is for you know, folks
come out on homeless. That's for people on there and
their toughest spots, and it's really time and this was
opened up in Northfield up in the Central Park area.
It serves folks who work at the airport, who work
in those retail shops and the restaurants in that neighborhood,
and it's just seamlessly integrated in to the neighborhood. You
(00:54):
drive by and there's apartment buildings all around. You couldn't
tell which ones are market which ones are affordable. But
if you're in a market you're paying twenty five hundred
dollars a month. If you're in one of these units,
you're paying fifteen hundred. Got great amenities, access to public transit,
and you know, if you're someone working baggage at the
airport or working at the Mete Theater, you now a
place where you can stay in Denver and stay affordably.
(01:15):
And so that's what we want a lot more of,
is making sure our workers in the city can stay here.
It's another two hundred units we're going to be on path.
We think open three thousand, you know those units this year,
and we think that's the key to making this city
that we love, one that people can still afford to
live in if they're hard workers here.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Any other initiatives like that for other locations within the
city to build something similar to what you're doing with
Northfield Flats, Oh.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
We do.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
We have gosh, probably twenty or thirty of these going
all around the city, and so we'll open about you
that was almost two hundred units. We're opening up to
three thousand total this year, so we'll have another fifteen
or so of those it'll come open or have over
the course of the year, and then we'll keep trying
to find more and more partners to help develop more
of these.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
And in a lot of these buildings, it'll be mixed income.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
You might have one hundred units and seventy of them
are regular market rate, and you just have twenty years
thirty the units in that building that are set aside
to be affordable. So then you know you'd have doctors
living in the market unit and a nurse living in
the unit that's subsized across the hallway. And so we're
trying to do a lot more of getting away from
what people think of as affordable housing forty years ago
and moved towards more just beautiful apartment buildings.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
We're inside. You got some units that are market and
some that are affordable.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Mister Mayor, we're now into the month of December, which
is the last final month, and trying to wrap up
the all in Mile High initiative, or at least the
hopes of getting two thousand people into housing units. Where
do we stand on that and when it comes to
just the homelessness issues that continue in the city.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Yeah, you know, we're really excited about the progress there.
We've already cleared over two thousand. We're almost at twenty
two hundred people that we've moved off the streets and indoors.
Also important that we've closed all twenty of the large
encampments around the city and more and more of those
folks are now moving through our system and into permanent housing,
and so that's a real success for us.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
You might have seen the reports this week.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
That nine one one calls and criminal reports are down dramatically.
They're down about sixty six percent at any of these sites,
and so we think our supports have gotten better.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
People are using the resources more.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
We still have all of downtown in central Denver without
any encampments in them, and we're working every day to
house more and more folks that are what I call
ones and twos. If you got two guys sleeping under
a bridge or in an alleyway somewhere. We're getting those
folks now off the streets and into housing. So we're
making real progress. We're pushing hard by the end of
the year to try to get every one of the
(03:25):
veterans we have on our streets who want housing access
to housing. So we're optimistic in the next few weeks
we could get the largest city to get to what
we call functional zero, which means every veteran that needs
a bed has access to one.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
What are the current numbers? I think the last time
you did the point in time count was August if
I recall, and it was up from what it was
the year before. Do we know the current numbers now
and where are the numbers heading at this point or
is it stasis?
Speaker 4 (03:48):
It was actually down, so we were down about fifteen
about thirteen percent.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
A year over year overall.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
But what we saw was massive change in the places
that were targeting. So we really focused in year one
on getting theseing campment's closed and getting people.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Out of tents.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
We saw about a fifty percent decline in the number
of people that were intents and encampments around the city.
And we also really focused on families this year and
that was really exciting.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
We have an eighty three.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
Percent reduction in just one year and the number of
families that are homeless, so we're making really great progress
on those. Now we see more folks that might be
living in cars. That's an area we're focused on now
as well as again these people that are on in encampments,
but they are just small pockets of one or two
people around the city, and so that's our focus now.
It's fine in these smaller groups and getting them house
but headed in the right direction. We were at fourteen
(04:32):
hundred two years ago. We dropped to about thirteen hundred
this year. It's the first time in the history of
the account that the city's population has actually declined. So
I think that was a real traumatic turnaround for us, and.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
One we're proud of, mister Mayer. We didn't have a
chance to chat last week for Thanksgiving holiday, but there
is a story that we need to address that's gotten
national attention as of late. As President Electrump's pick for borders,
our Tomholman has been saying that he's willing to put
you in jail over your vow to protect migrants in
the city. Are you worried about any of those possible
consequences from the statements you've made.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
Yeah, I'm not, and you know, I've tried to be
real clear about what we're saying here, which is, if
we are talking about addressing folks who are violent criminals
in the city and deporting those.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Folks, we have been doing that. We will keep doing that.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
We will partner with the administration to identify violent criminals
and deport them. We think that's common sense, and we'll
keep doing it. You know, if we are talking about
other changes to policy that make it easier for folks
get access to the work authorization, we will help do that.
We obviously are not going to get into a military
conflict with federal government. We're not going to deploy our
police department or anything else against them. What I did
(05:36):
say is I do think it would be a major
breach of law. It would be illegal, it would be
a moral it would be on American And if Trump
does what he says, which is, if he's going to
deploy the one hundred and first Airborne into Denver to
round up twelve year old girls out of eighth grade
history classes and deport them, how do you not think
anyone in the US signed up for that or anticipated that.
Most Republican senators have said they would vehemently oppose that.
(05:58):
So I think that's the language we're worried about. We
do not think that proudly serving American soldiers signed up
to round up kids from middle schools around Denver, and
so we don't think they should do that, and we
wouldn't support that. But if they're talking about focusing on
violent criminals, will be happy to help. We've been doing
that previously, we do it going forward.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Quick follow up. I'm kind of sure I know the answer,
but I'll ask anyway, says Tom Holman. Anybody potentially that
will be with him and part of the new movement
going in with him. Have they reached out to you all,
just even have a conversation, clear the air or talk more.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
They have not, But you know, again, I'm always open
to talking, always open to working together. I reach out
to the Governor of Texas in the past on this stuff.
So we're I think we're looking for common sense solutions.
I think Denver rights are, but I think focusing on
violent criminals is a reasonable strategy. You know, what I
just remind people is that you know, sixty five percent
of the folks that are on document and are working
right now in jobs, and thirty percent of them are children.
(06:49):
And so that is the major bulk of the population.
If you're focusing on violent criminals, great, that's you know,
less than one percent of the population of migrants and
of residents, and so that's a very different strategy.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
That's when we could partner on.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
It's a roundup of people that are on the job,
people that are in school. So I don't think makes
sense for any business owners in the country or any
school teachers.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Mister Marrier, two part question for you, both positive and negative.
Because Broncos Monday night win was awesome to see and
all the shots that we saw Monday night football really
put a nice shedding, nice light on the city when
we saw the skyline and the holiday lights and things
like that. But locally, we also saw something that was
flying in the sky a banner that said Mike Johnston
(07:28):
Heart's crime. Your response to both of those pretty much.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
The second one I had to laugh at. Yeah, I
know there's an effort by a white supremacist and Fellen
who is working on hard I think, to try to
raise drama about our leadership. I'm always happy to be
in the side fighting against white supremacist and Fellon, so
I'm not too worried about that effort. But the Broncos front.
Was a fantastic night. I mean, I think that was
one of the best Broncos games I can remember in
(07:56):
a long time. I think I haven't been as happy
on that past mems as I was since Pebo through
the Marius Thomas for eighty yards against the Steelers.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
And so just a.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
Fantastic night for Denver football. And yeah, we do love
what Monday Night football.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Does for the city.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
Is you got, you know, fifty million people around the
country looking at the skyline and saying, gosh, that's a
great place for me to either go visit or take
my family for vacation, or maybe.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
I should want to live there someday.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
So it was a great profile of city and great
profile of the Broncos, and we're proud on both fronts.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
A quick follow up to that, are you saying that
this person, the white supremacist alleged and felon, this is
somebody you think is behind the banner?
Speaker 3 (08:29):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (08:29):
Yeah, I think it's the same effort, and so I
think that's I think that's what they've been engaged in.
I think they were working on other protest efforts against me.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
And you know that's fine. I realized these jobs are.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
Not without people to get upset. But this is not
a serious individual. This is a felon and a white supremacist.
I'm not going to waste a lot of time.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
On Denver Mayor Mike Johnson real quick and wrapping up
with you. Will you be taking part in the Parade
of Lights this weekend?
Speaker 3 (08:53):
We are.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
I will be there Saturday night for the Prey to
Lights and my family. Folks should come and is a
fantastic chance to come to downtown Denver and see all
them amazing stores that are reopened. We got about a
third of the sixteenth Street Mall now reopened. It is
a really fun gathering, so bring your family, come on down.
Love to see a Saturday.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Night Denver Mayor, Mike Johnson, thank you, Thanks so much.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Joll
Right now on Colorado's Morning News. Affordable housing continues to
be a struggle in the Denver area, but a new
rental community adding to the number of units available for
residences a positive and the net on the right.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Side and joining us now on the ka Common Spirit
Health Hotline to talk more about it is Denver Mayor
Mike Johnston. Mister Marrett, Thank you so much for your
time this morning.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Good morning, How are you doing well?
Speaker 4 (00:19):
Doing well?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
This week we celebrated the grand opening of Northfield Flats
in the Central Park neighborhood. Can you tell us a
little bit more about that building and what else is
being done in order to push for more affordable housing
options in the city.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Yeah, it's a great.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
Example of exactly what we want to do when we
talk about affordable housing. I think sometimes people have a
misperception of the affordable housing is for you know, folks
come out on homeless. That's for people on there and
their toughest spots, and it's really time and this was
opened up in Northfield up in the Central Park area.
It serves folks who work at the airport, who work
in those retail shops and the restaurants in that neighborhood,
and it's just seamlessly integrated in to the neighborhood. You
(00:54):
drive by and there's apartment buildings all around. You couldn't
tell which ones are market which ones are affordable. But
if you're in a market you're paying twenty five hundred
dollars a month. If you're in one of these units,
you're paying fifteen hundred. Got great amenities, access to public transit,
and you know, if you're someone working baggage at the
airport or working at the Mete Theater, you now a
place where you can stay in Denver and stay affordably.
(01:15):
And so that's what we want a lot more of,
is making sure our workers in the city can stay here.
It's another two hundred units we're going to be on path.
We think open three thousand, you know those units this year,
and we think that's the key to making this city
that we love, one that people can still afford to
live in if they're hard workers here.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Any other initiatives like that for other locations within the
city to build something similar to what you're doing with
Northfield Flats, Oh.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
We do.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
We have gosh, probably twenty or thirty of these going
all around the city, and so we'll open about you
that was almost two hundred units. We're opening up to
three thousand total this year, so we'll have another fifteen
or so of those it'll come open or have over
the course of the year, and then we'll keep trying
to find more and more partners to help develop more
of these.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
And in a lot of these buildings, it'll be mixed income.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
You might have one hundred units and seventy of them
are regular market rate, and you just have twenty years
thirty the units in that building that are set aside
to be affordable. So then you know you'd have doctors
living in the market unit and a nurse living in
the unit that's subsized across the hallway. And so we're
trying to do a lot more of getting away from
what people think of as affordable housing forty years ago
and moved towards more just beautiful apartment buildings.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
We're inside. You got some units that are market and
some that are affordable.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Mister Mayor, we're now into the month of December, which
is the last final month, and trying to wrap up
the all in Mile High initiative, or at least the
hopes of getting two thousand people into housing units. Where
do we stand on that and when it comes to
just the homelessness issues that continue in the city.
Speaker 4 (02:33):
Yeah, you know, we're really excited about the progress there.
We've already cleared over two thousand. We're almost at twenty
two hundred people that we've moved off the streets and indoors.
Also important that we've closed all twenty of the large
encampments around the city and more and more of those
folks are now moving through our system and into permanent housing,
and so that's a real success for us.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
You might have seen the reports this week.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
That nine one one calls and criminal reports are down dramatically.
They're down about sixty six percent at any of these sites,
and so we think our supports have gotten better.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
People are using the resources more.
Speaker 4 (03:04):
We still have all of downtown in central Denver without
any encampments in them, and we're working every day to
house more and more folks that are what I call
ones and twos. If you got two guys sleeping under
a bridge or in an alleyway somewhere. We're getting those
folks now off the streets and into housing. So we're
making real progress. We're pushing hard by the end of
the year to try to get every one of the
(03:25):
veterans we have on our streets who want housing access
to housing. So we're optimistic in the next few weeks
we could get the largest city to get to what
we call functional zero, which means every veteran that needs
a bed has access to one.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
What are the current numbers? I think the last time
you did the point in time count was August if
I recall, and it was up from what it was
the year before. Do we know the current numbers now
and where are the numbers heading at this point or
is it stasis?
Speaker 4 (03:48):
It was actually down, so we were down about fifteen
about thirteen percent.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
A year over year overall.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
But what we saw was massive change in the places
that were targeting. So we really focused in year one
on getting theseing campment's closed and getting people.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Out of tents.
Speaker 4 (04:01):
We saw about a fifty percent decline in the number
of people that were intents and encampments around the city.
And we also really focused on families this year and
that was really exciting.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
We have an eighty three.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
Percent reduction in just one year and the number of
families that are homeless, so we're making really great progress
on those. Now we see more folks that might be
living in cars. That's an area we're focused on now
as well as again these people that are on in encampments,
but they are just small pockets of one or two
people around the city, and so that's our focus now.
It's fine in these smaller groups and getting them house
but headed in the right direction. We were at fourteen
(04:32):
hundred two years ago. We dropped to about thirteen hundred
this year. It's the first time in the history of
the account that the city's population has actually declined. So
I think that was a real traumatic turnaround for us, and.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
One we're proud of, mister Mayer. We didn't have a
chance to chat last week for Thanksgiving holiday, but there
is a story that we need to address that's gotten
national attention as of late. As President Electrump's pick for borders,
our Tomholman has been saying that he's willing to put
you in jail over your vow to protect migrants in
the city. Are you worried about any of those possible
consequences from the statements you've made.
Speaker 4 (05:02):
Yeah, I'm not, and you know, I've tried to be
real clear about what we're saying here, which is, if
we are talking about addressing folks who are violent criminals
in the city and deporting those.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Folks, we have been doing that. We will keep doing that.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
We will partner with the administration to identify violent criminals
and deport them. We think that's common sense, and we'll
keep doing it. You know, if we are talking about
other changes to policy that make it easier for folks
get access to the work authorization, we will help do that.
We obviously are not going to get into a military
conflict with federal government. We're not going to deploy our
police department or anything else against them. What I did
(05:36):
say is I do think it would be a major
breach of law. It would be illegal, it would be
a moral it would be on American And if Trump
does what he says, which is, if he's going to
deploy the one hundred and first Airborne into Denver to
round up twelve year old girls out of eighth grade
history classes and deport them, how do you not think
anyone in the US signed up for that or anticipated that.
Most Republican senators have said they would vehemently oppose that.
(05:58):
So I think that's the language we're worried about. We
do not think that proudly serving American soldiers signed up
to round up kids from middle schools around Denver, and
so we don't think they should do that, and we
wouldn't support that. But if they're talking about focusing on
violent criminals, will be happy to help. We've been doing
that previously, we do it going forward.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Quick follow up. I'm kind of sure I know the answer,
but I'll ask anyway, says Tom Holman. Anybody potentially that
will be with him and part of the new movement
going in with him. Have they reached out to you all,
just even have a conversation, clear the air or talk more.
Speaker 4 (06:27):
They have not, But you know, again, I'm always open
to talking, always open to working together. I reach out
to the Governor of Texas in the past on this stuff.
So we're I think we're looking for common sense solutions.
I think Denver rights are, but I think focusing on
violent criminals is a reasonable strategy. You know, what I
just remind people is that you know, sixty five percent
of the folks that are on document and are working
right now in jobs, and thirty percent of them are children.
(06:49):
And so that is the major bulk of the population.
If you're focusing on violent criminals, great, that's you know,
less than one percent of the population of migrants and
of residents, and so that's a very different strategy.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
That's when we could partner on.
Speaker 4 (06:59):
It's a roundup of people that are on the job,
people that are in school. So I don't think makes
sense for any business owners in the country or any
school teachers.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Mister Marrier, two part question for you, both positive and negative.
Because Broncos Monday night win was awesome to see and
all the shots that we saw Monday night football really
put a nice shedding, nice light on the city when
we saw the skyline and the holiday lights and things
like that. But locally, we also saw something that was
flying in the sky a banner that said Mike Johnston
(07:28):
Heart's crime. Your response to both of those pretty much.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
The second one I had to laugh at. Yeah, I
know there's an effort by a white supremacist and Fellen
who is working on hard I think, to try to
raise drama about our leadership. I'm always happy to be
in the side fighting against white supremacist and Fellon, so
I'm not too worried about that effort. But the Broncos front.
Was a fantastic night. I mean, I think that was
one of the best Broncos games I can remember in
(07:56):
a long time. I think I haven't been as happy
on that past mems as I was since Pebo through
the Marius Thomas for eighty yards against the Steelers.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
And so just a.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
Fantastic night for Denver football. And yeah, we do love
what Monday Night football.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Does for the city.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
Is you got, you know, fifty million people around the
country looking at the skyline and saying, gosh, that's a
great place for me to either go visit or take
my family for vacation, or maybe.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
I should want to live there someday.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
So it was a great profile of city and great
profile of the Broncos, and we're proud on both fronts.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
A quick follow up to that, are you saying that
this person, the white supremacist alleged and felon, this is
somebody you think is behind the banner?
Speaker 3 (08:29):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (08:29):
Yeah, I think it's the same effort, and so I
think that's I think that's what they've been engaged in.
I think they were working on other protest efforts against me.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
And you know that's fine. I realized these jobs are.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
Not without people to get upset. But this is not
a serious individual. This is a felon and a white supremacist.
I'm not going to waste a lot of time.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
On Denver Mayor Mike Johnson real quick and wrapping up
with you. Will you be taking part in the Parade
of Lights this weekend?
Speaker 3 (08:53):
We are.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
I will be there Saturday night for the Prey to
Lights and my family. Folks should come and is a
fantastic chance to come to downtown Denver and see all
them amazing stores that are reopened. We got about a
third of the sixteenth Street Mall now reopened. It is
a really fun gathering, so bring your family, come on down.
Love to see a Saturday.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
Night Denver Mayor, Mike Johnson, thank you, Thanks so much.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Joll
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