Denver Mayor Mike Johnston Highlights Progress on Homelessness and Immigrants

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston delivers his first State of the City address at the Paramount Theater in Denver on July 22, 2024. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston celebrated Monday the progress his administration has made on some of the city’s biggest challenges in his first year in office, while also championing the first major initiative of his second year: a sales tax increase to address affordable housing.

The mayor delivered his State of the City address a year and five days after he was sworn in. It was a speech with few announcements of new programs, though Johnston previewed a few — including new foot “trust patrols” that police will use to reduce crime in neighborhoods and a volunteer initiative led by his wife, Courtney.

Instead, Johnston, 49, used the speech to emphasize the importance of parts of his agenda he has rolled out in recent months, including the property tax, and to take stock of his first year.

Johnston spoke of a homeless man he met last year who was living in a tent with visible rat bites on his back. The mayor’s All In Mile High initiative has now moved more than 1,600 people out of illegal encampments on city streets and into shelters and housing units, he said.

“Over the past 12 months, Denver has housed more people per capita faster than any other city in America,” he said.

The initiative is still in development, and there are questions about how to permanently house all those people. While downtown streets are largely clear of camping, people have set up tents in other parts of the city, including along the South Platte River.

Johnston also spoke about the people the city helped as tens of thousands of migrants came to Denver over the past year, some of whom stayed. The Denver Asylum Seekers Program, which his administration launched this spring, aims to support about 800 people and their families with food, shelter, job training and legal assistance for six months while they wait for temporary work authorization from the federal government.

“Our work is not done, but our progress has been dramatic,” Johnston said of his administration’s two signature programs so far. “Our successes here have opened new opportunities for even greater impact in the year ahead. In each of these struggles, we see the need to do more work.”

Johnston also looked ahead, asking Denver residents for help, both by donating their time and their tax dollars.

Earlier this month, Johnston and his City Council supporters unveiled what they’re calling the Affordable Denver sales tax measure. The 0.5 percent dedicated sales tax would raise an estimated $100 million a year, which would fuel a series of affordable housing efforts. They would work over the next decade to help the city reach a goal of building or securing 45,000 additional homes and apartments that are affordable to people struggling to stay in Denver.

But whether the city can scale its efforts to that level depends on voter support.

“If we want to keep the (single) mom and the grandma and the college graduate in Denver, we can — but we have to choose it and fight for it,” Johnston said. He pivoted to what was the most urgent request of his speech, naming the initiative: “This November, I’ll ask you to choose it by putting an affordable Denver on your ballot.”

In a departure from his predecessor Michael Hancock, who delivered his final State of the City address in 2022 at the Montbello Recreation Center and has tended to select city buildings for the annual address, Johnston delivered his speech Monday in a private venue. He spoke from the stage of the historic Paramount Theatre, 1621 Glenarm Place.

The nearly 100-year-old Art Deco theater is just steps away from the ongoing renovation project of Denver’s 16th Street Mall.

One of Johnston’s main focuses since he was on the campaign trail has been revitalizing downtown and breaking the “doom loop” of visible homelessness and crime, combined with sharply reduced office-worker foot traffic in the wake of the pandemic. In May, Johnston announced plans to expand an obscure special taxing authority for downtown that he and his supporters expect could generate $500 million in new public investment in downtown over the next decade.

On Monday, Johnston noted that by the time he delivers his State of the City address next year, most of the 16th Street Mall will finally be renovated, with construction fencing removed. But that project is just one part of his vision for the city’s core and what he thinks major public investment can bring to the area.