Denver Mayor Johnston kept his promise to hit a paper target and give the illusion of fixing the homeless problem by allegedly sheltering 1,000 people by New Year’s Eve at a cost of $45 million taxpayer dollars.
Well done you, Mayor!
We look forward to the firsthand reports from PeakNation™ about the remarkable difference it’s made having 1,000 less people shitting on the sidewalks and cleaned up campsites — no more drug addicts and mentally ill loitering about terrifying children and grown men.
Problem solved, and at a cost of $45,000 per person to make these dashboard numbers seem impressive.
Hits refresh pic.twitter.com/NBX2yXRzO3
— Mayor Mike Johnston (@MikeJohnstonCO) December 31, 2023
You do the math, and add a healthy helping of humanity, because Johnston and his bureaucrats sure can’t if they think this is an achievement worth celebrating.
Zero effort was made to stabilize this vulnerable community other than to shove them behind closed doors temporarily, so the good progressives of Denver no longer must witness the suffering of the widespread drug addiction they helped create with the legalization of powerful drugs.
The outcome of a mental health crisis caused in part by drug addiction is no longer assaulting innocent bystanders, but probably just each other in Johnston’s micro ghettos.
So, what did Johnston’s numbers game really achieve other than bogus hype?
More room on the sidewalks for the Denver metro area’s exploding homelessness problem that continues to grow because of drugs and mental illness.
This is what was left behind for neighbors at the #denver Arkins camp downtown after Mike “housed” the remnants to meet his goal. I spy 2 gigantic propane tanks. What do you spy? 👀 pic.twitter.com/HjuL0ctHBu
— Do Better Denver (@dobetterdnvr) January 1, 2024
According to the most recent numbers by HUD, Colorado had the 4th largest increase of homelessness in 2023 by nearly 39%, with more than 4,000 additional street dwellers.
In a nutshell, Johnston’s experiment temporarily took care of about one-quarter of the state’s growth with minimal impact on the bottom line of 14,500 homeless folks who call Colorado’s great outdoors home.
In metro Denver, according to Axios, homelessness grew by 46% “outpacing all major metro areas except for Chicago.”
Why it matters: The increase is troubling and indicates the crisis is reaching potentially historic levels in metro Denver.
By the numbers: Denver ranked fifth among major metro areas with the most people experiencing homelessness, with 10,054. New York City topped the list with 88,025 people.
If Johnston doesn’t want to win the mantle from John Hickenlooper and become known as the mayor who ballooned homelessness, he best knock off the numbers hype, roll up his sleeves, and address the underlying problem of drug addiction and the mental illness its causing.
And with the approaching legalization of mushroom tourism, the problem’s only going to, ahem, mushroom.
With respect, dude, spending $45,000 per homeless person for a very temporary solution that addresses none of their underlying issues doesn’t sound like success. It seems like hiding the problem until it inevitably spills back out on Denver neighborhoods
— Dambudzo Marechera 🇮🇱 (@momwaswrong) January 1, 2024
That plastic bag ban won’t even put a dent on this mess.