Denver Mayor Mike Johnston schedules first homeless encampment cleanup due to rat infestation [PAYWALL - ARTICLE INSIDE]

Mike Johnston's administration is moving ahead with its first homeless encampment cleanup scheduled for Friday because of a rat infestation, but Denver's new mayor acknowledged the city does not yet have a place for the people that must relocate to move into.

“This is the challenge of our current scenario,” Johnston said while speaking to reporters on Wednesday, “which is we don’t yet have units up and ready that we can move them to.”

The predicament demonstrates the need for his long-term plan, Johnston said, which is to amass supportive housing and to shift to a process of “decommissioning” encampments, rather than "sweeping" them.

His goal, he said, is to end the cycle seen in past years in which Denver’s encampment sweeps merely shuffled homeless residents from one city block to another. Instead, his priority is to simultaneously match people with a housing unit as their encampments shutter.

The mayor promised to personally visit any site the city decides to clean up before any encampment is closed.

Johnston’s administration agreed to clean up the site because of a significant rat infestation.

“So, we were very worried about the health and safety of the folks who were in that encampment as well as the surrounding neighborhood,” he said.

The city is providing all encampment sites seven days notice of a cleanup. It has partnered with a nonprofit experienced in conducting outreach with people living in encampments, he said, and has focused on informing people about the housing units the city is planning to provide in the future. The city is also deploying a wellness vehicle to provide mental and physical health support that “will be making regular visits” to encampments, he said.

Under a settlement agreement following a lawsuit, Denver must give at least seven days’ notice before a large-scale cleanup. However, the city can conduct the cleanup sooner if a public health or safety risk exists.

Since the seven-day notice is already required, the Johnston administration is merely following the timeline stipulated under the settlement. However, if the encampment faces a public health risk, then the Johnston administration has decided against conducting an earlier cleanup, which is permissible under the settlement.

It's not immediate clearly how many cleanups took place this year, but a recent audit said that, from Jan. 1 through June 30 of last year, the city completed 58 cleanups and canceled seven. Citing the city's database, the audit said cleanup dates listed several locations for a total of 74 locations cleaned. During the same period, the city's outreach teams visited active encampment sites more than 2,000 times and had nearly 13,000 encounters with homeless people.

Johnston was scheduled to visit the encampment on Thursday, but, as of Wednesday, he was not planning to attend the cleanup on Friday.

Last week, the mayor said Denver will not be closing encampments unless it meets at least one of three criteria: A significant public health or safety risk, infringement on a public right of way, or infringement of private property.

For encampments that don’t fit that bill, the city is focused on building relationships with the people living there and preparing them to move into supportive housing units when they become available, his administration said.

Johnston's main goal remains connecting people living in “unsheltered” homelessness — a term used for people sleeping outdoors or in public spaces — with housing units that also provide “wraparound” support services, such as behavioral health treatment and workforce training.

On his first full day in office, Johnston declared a state of local emergency regarding homelessness and announced a plan to move 1,000 people off of Denver’s streets and into housing before the year’s end. His team is trying to source four types of housing to meet that goal, with a priority on individual and private units. Those types of housing are rental units, hotel conversions, land for micro-communities — such as tiny homes — and industrial buildings.

There is progress in acquiring those spaces, the mayor said.

The administration is in the midst of “an intense sourcing” push and people are approaching the administration with potential sites for use in the initiative. The list of potential units is in the thousands, a promising start even if the majority turned out not to be a right fit, Johnston said.

Last week, the city announced the first acquisition that will be used to support his initiative with a hotel conversion that will bring in nearly 200 units of supportive housing.

The city announced plans to convert a Best Western hotel in northeast Denver into permanent supportive housing. The sale price of nearly $26 million will be covered through $11 million in DHA Delivers for Denver (D3) bond funds and a $16 million bridge loan.

“The acquisition of hotels for conversion to supportive housing helps expand the pipeline quickly by leveraging existing buildings,” HOST Executive Director Laura Brudzynski said in a news release.

As for funding his full initiative, Johnston said the city has applied for a state grant to support a navigation center and formally registered its intent to use Proposition 123. Johnston told The Denver Gazette the total cost, or estimated range, is not yet available. He has previously said the number could be significant based on what combination of supportive housing units the city secures.

When asked for his response to concern that scaling back sweeps leads to encampments sprawling or worsening in condition, Johnston said the administration is monitoring the issue and started trash collection at sites to help manage cleanliness. Johnston reiterated that not all trash is generated by people living in the encampments, but sometimes caused by people donating supplies that can’t be used.

“We’re watching carefully the number of encampments and the size of encampments,” he said.