Mayor Mike Johnston talks housing affordability, homelessness, Trump

Mike Johnston took the stage at Denver’s historic Paramount Theater last week for his first State of the City address, just days after celebrating a full year as mayor.

He was in a reflective mood, discussing progress on homelessness and other issues since taking office on July 17, 2023, after winning a 17-member mayoral race. He also gave a taste of the future, including pitching his recently announced sales tax increase to fund affordable housing initiatives — a proposal that is facing questions from the City Council on its way to the November ballot.

Johnston, 49, recently spoke with JS to dive deeper into his first year and discuss what lies ahead, including whether he still sees his goal of ending street homelessness in four years as realistic considers.

In the interview, he also spoke about shortcomings in his otherwise stimulating homeless initiative, called Everything in miles high, which has moved more than 1,600 people into hotels and other temporary accommodation, and how this relates to broader affordable housing goals. Some of that will depend on whether the Denver City Council and voters will favor his proposed 0.5% sales tax, which would raise an estimated $100 million a year.

Below are several excerpts, with his answers lightly edited for length and clarity. Context has been added where necessary.

Q: What would you say has been your greatest success in your first year as president?

I think this has been our breakthrough success on homelessness.

Q: Where do you think you fell short in your first year?

I think there are some things that aren’t done yet, but that we still want to do and will happen soon. I also think there are some safety precautions in place at our All In Mile High locations that we should have been stricter on when we first started bringing people there. The two lives we lost at the DoubleTree hotel are certainly two I will never forget – and that is a decision I would like to have back.

Context: On March 16, Dustin Nunn, 38, and Sandra Cervantes, 43 – two people living in one of the city’s homeless initiative’s hotel shelters, a former DoubleTree at 4040 N. Quebec St. – were shot and killed. It was later revealed that the shelter’s operator, the Salvation Army, had not yet billed the city for any security measures in the building.

Q: Critics have pointed out that people sheltered through the All In Mile High program are more likely to end up back on the streets than they are to move into more stable housing. What do you think is keeping more people from moving out of shelters and micro-communities and into more permanent housing? How can you increase throughput?

First of all, I agree with that criticism. I think they’re right and we’re deeply committed to getting better at that.

The main focus for this year is increasing that throughput – having better case management systems in each of these locations so that we know who each person is, we know what their needs are and we give them the right service from the right provider offer. at the right time.

And we also know that part of that need is making sure there’s more affordable housing available for them to move into. So we knew the first step was to get people off the streets and into temporary housing. The next step has always been more permanent, affordable housing – and that need doesn’t just exist for people emerging from homelessness, it also exists for teachers, nurses, clerks and grocery store workers across the city.

And these units take a little longer to develop, longer to build, and more resources. That’s why we’re so focused now on affordability, at scale – that will be our biggest need. But a big part of this will be that we continue to get better at case management with our providers in these locations.

Q: Do you still believe you can end unsheltered homelessness in Denver by the end of your first term?

I have to say I’m more optimistic about that possibility than I was a year ago. I’m so proud of what we’ve built together as a city, and we’ve put the infrastructure in place to show that we can get thousands of people off the streets in one year.

I think we’re on track this year to end street homelessness among veterans, which is generally the first major benchmark on the road to getting there. And yes, we think we can make homelessness short, rare and a one-off. That’s really what the field defines as ending street homelessness, or what is sometimes called “functional zero.” It is the idea that if 30 people become homeless in one month, 30 people will also leave the country in the same month.

I think we have a real path to get there in three years. In fact, we are ahead of schedule compared to where I thought we would be with our efforts on veteran homelessness. That has been an encouraging feature. If you build this infrastructure and you have the housing units there and you have the support services, then you can close those camps, move them into housing and keep the camps closed.

So we think we’ve shown that this cycle works. We just need to do more of it, better and faster. And that is the road ahead.

Q: Your predecessor, Michael Hancock, called working with then-President Donald Trump’s administration one of the biggest challenges of his 12 years in office. Are you preparing for the possibility of a second Trump term if he wins this fall?

I am not. I’m preparing for the chance to avoid a second Trump term.

What I like about this work is that it is impartial. We’re just here to solve problems – and problems don’t have a partisan label. Either the solutions work, or they don’t work. But when you have a president who makes it a priority to divide the country and make war on parts of the country, it becomes very difficult to do business.

I just remember, for example, in the first term he wrote an executive order banning federal subsidies to any city with sanctuary status. It would have been every federal dollar denied to a vast majority of the nation’s largest cities who don’t believe there’s any point in deporting someone with a broken taillight.

So I would hate to see this city or this country get caught up in a lot of unproductive fighting when we could be doing much more important things, like how we can work together to solve the affordable housing problem, or public health challenges safety or homelessness.

Context: Shortly after taking office in 2017, Trump issued an executive order aimed at denying federal grants to cities like Denver that did not fully cooperate with federal immigration authorities. The order faced legal challenges before it finally came to fruition rescinded by President Joe Biden in 2021.

Question: What keeps you awake at night?

That’s one of them (a second Trump term). The affordability of the city also keeps me awake at night. Public safety keeps me awake at night. Every time there is a murder, violent crime or death in the city, I literally get a text from our police chief and the team. And so that’s the last thing I read at night, or the first thing I read every morning. Every time that happens in a neighborhood, I feel it.

I think these are the biggest. The good news is that while that keeps me up at night, the days are filled with memories of the incredible resilience, passion and spirit of the people in the city.

Q: What’s at stake if housing costs continue to rise in Denver?

I think about this one a lot. I think it would be a dramatic change in what it feels like to live in Denver because of who can live in Denver.