Homelessness is a social issue felt all over the country and all over the world. Though on a relative basis, the United States has a low rate of homelessness as compared to the rest of the world, it is still a concern that should be addressed and is being addressed. Homelessness is a particularly urban phenomena in the US, with 71% of the homeless living in urban areas and only 9% in rural areas (University of Denver). The fact that this is a problem found mainly in urban areas, means it becomes the responsibility of these large municipalities to manage the homeless on top of maintaining all the other services that a large city government is responsible for. Denver, Colorado has the eighth highest homeless population of metropolitan areas in the United States (National Alliance to End Homelessness). While these numbers are still minuscule in comparison to New York or Los Angeles, homelessness in a city with temperatures averaging below 20 degrees Fahrenheit overnight during the winter months makes the situation particularly interesting (“Average Temperature for Denver, CO”). After seeing rises in the amount of homeless people in the city over the past 20 or so years, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and the city government have made eradicating homelessness a top priority. Through many of their programs, and with the help of private charities, they have been able to reverse the trends reduce the number of homeless people living in the Denver metropolitan area.
The causes of homelessness in Denver are, for the most part, no different than those causing homelessness around the rest of the country. These causes are, nonetheless, important in understanding and addressing the problem of homelessness as a whole. The most commonly reported reasons for homelessness reported in Denver are loss of a job (28%), housing costs (23%) and the breakup of a family (20%)” (Denver’s Road Home). The loss of a job and the cost of housing are inherently related because without stable income, one cannot secure housing.
Taking a look at the history and background in the city is crucial to understanding how we have come to the point we are at today. Though there was growth in Denver over the past 20 years, the jobs that came along with it were in the form of higher waged information technology jobs that many of the people susceptible to homelessness are not qualified for. In this way, Denver is distinctly different from a city like Detroit where the city is likely to see unemployment and contraction for years to come. The tremendous growth during the 1990s was attributed mainly to the technology boom and the rise in tourism spending at ski areas surrounding Denver. Denver’s growth and emergence as the new “gateway to the West” was accompanied by, not surprisingly, a population boom. The population of Denver and its surrounding area reached 2.5 by 2005 (The Denver Commission to End Homelessness). This rise in population without a quick enough boost in supply of housing created a shortage in the housing market. With this shortage came higher prices. Couple this increase in population with the fact that higher wages were being garnered by new employees in Denver and a recipe for disaster develops for the homeless. “In a 1994 report on poverty in Denver, the Piton Foundation found that poverty had increased in three out of four Denver neighborhoods during the decade of the 1980s and that the disparity between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ in the city was increasing” (Conrad, Matters, and Hanrahan 54). With higher income comes the demand for nicer housing, and with that demand comes a redevelopment and conversion of lower end housing into luxury living has come at the expense of the people that depended on these subsidized housing projects. This process, otherwise known as gentrification, has very negative consequences for the country’s poorest residents in major cities from New York to Los Angeles. “It is estimated that since 1974, Denver has lost almost 3,000 Single Room Occupancy (SRO) units to redevelopment” (The Denver Commission to End Homelessness).
The economy did eventually take a dip after the dot-com boom in 2001 and into 2002, which would come to affect the people living from paycheck to paycheck. It’s important to remember, however, that anything can affect someone living on the verge of homelessness. The rise in the cost of housing was already addressed, but other emergencies such as medical ones can come cause very serious problems for individuals and their families. With a serious illness or disease comes first the loss of a job, and then high medical costs that deplete the savings left for these millions of Americans. Many people are forced into homelessness as a result of a divorce or a death in the family where their main source or complementary source of income is instantly gone and they are left to fend for themselves. Following the dip in the economy in Denver, there has been some modest growth including some job growth. Unfortunately, the 2,100 jobs that Denver metro area gained in 2004 represented only a small portion of the 69,000 jobs lost in 2002 and 2003. Many of the jobs that were created, though, were low skill and low paying entry level jobs in the service industry (The Denver Commission to End Homelessness). As a result, it is now the case in Denver that 40% of the homeless are actually working (Denver’s Road Home). These people, though earning a minimum wage, are not ultimately receiving what could be considered a “living wage,” or enough to completely support themselves.
Though there are undoubtedly many similarities, the demographics of Denver’s homeless are distinctly different than those in other parts of the country. This is, of course, a result of the demographics of the city as a whole. Though minorities in Denver are overrepresented, the “color” of homelessness is different there than it is in most other major cities where a more diverse population exists. In Denver, 59.4% of the homeless are white. Though whites are underrepresented (they make up over 90% of the population there), they are still a majority of the homeless. African-Americans and Hispanics make up 14.8% and 25% of the homeless population respectively, making them considerably overrepresented. In more diverse cities, however, minorities actually make up the majority of the homeless – which really illustrates the inequality across racial groups more clearly.
In Denver, as in all other cities, homeless people tend to have issues with substance abuse and often time have mental and physical disabilities. Statistically speaking: 27.5% report substance abuse problems, 21.5 report some form of mental health problems, 2% report having HIV/AIDS, 4.5% report a developmental disability, and 18.9% report a debilitating medical problem (University of Denver). All of these averages are well above the national average, indicating that there is a connection between these attributes. Homelessness can be caused by any number of issues. Understandably, these key characteristics are important in figuring out the best ways to address the issue at hand and start figuring out solutions. Though Denver is not one of them, many cities have treated homelessness and panhandling as criminal offenses, rather than looking at the core reasons as to why people are homeless. In Denver, many non-profits and government organizations (which will be addressed later) have tried to attack homelessness from the core by addressing the causes instead of traditional approaches of treating the homeless as burdens that must be dealt with as cleanly and efficiently as possible.
The costs of homelessness are also important to take into account in any analysis of its impact on the community. Though homelessness is a social issue, it would be foolish to ignore the fact that this is also an economic issue that has economic implications for all those living in Denver. The taxpayers of Denver and any other major American city become responsible for taking care of the people that are unable to support themselves, and in many instances they are more likely to cost more money than the average citizen. For example, the cities of New York and Philadelphia estimate that the average homeless person consumes $40,000 in social services per year. According to the office of Denver city councilman Chris Nevitt, a night in jail costs $174 per arrest, a month in an emergency shelter costs $775, two meals a day costs $2.66. These costs start to add up once you realize that they are reoccurring events. The typical stay in one of those emergency shelters, for example, is 6 months – or $4,650 (Denver’s Homelessness Plan).
What’s really expensive, however, is the cost of medical care for these people. In 2003, Denver Health, the largest regional provider of health care to the poor, spent $42 million in providing services solely to people who are homeless. Those who only access healthcare through the emergency room do not receive follow up care or services beyond immediate intervention” (Denver Commission to End Homelessness). Since hospitals are required to serve people regardless of their ability to pay, they are treated and then the cost is forced onto the taxpayer. Homeless individuals average two visits per year to emergencies rooms, each of which cost $1,000 (Denver’s Homelessness Plan). The Denver C.A.R.E.S. detox center aims to cure chronic alcohol and drug abusers. The average for a year is about 80 nights, at an annual cost of $23,600 per person. A hospital stay averages almost $30,000; in 2004 1,074 homeless people were admitted for hospital stays in Denver (Denver Homeless Plan). Since most homeless come in through the emergency room, they do not receive follow-ups with their doctors and many are susceptible to returning for the same issues repeatedly. On the flip side, many of the homeless have a lack of knowledge when it comes to hospitals and in many cases they do not know about certain diseases or conditions they’ve developed until it is too late. For this reason, the costs are often higher because they wait until it reaches an emergency state. This is a problem for the uninsured in general, but the problem is exacerbated by the homeless because they are even more discouraged that the average Joe to seek medical attention as soon as symptoms begin to appear.
Homelessness, as stated, has been on the rise in the Denver since the 1980s. As a result, the public agenda has been changed significantly to correspond with the increasingly problematic situation. The program that served as the immediate predecessor to the current program was the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative (MDHI), which was established in 1997. With 150 stakeholders, the program was an early attempt at quelling the increases in homelessness in and around Denver. The key foci of the program included “Strengthening partnerships with the Denver Commission on Homelessness; Designing and implementing the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS); Gathering and Analyzing Data through the Homeless Point-In-Time (PIT) Survey; and Establishing priorities for homeless in the Denver metropolitan area” (The Denver Commission to End Homelessness). By 2003, the Bush Administration’s Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) encouraged communities around the nation to participate in 10 year plans to eradicate homelessness. That same year, a new mayor and 10 new city-council members were elected; an indication that the people of Denver expected and anticipated fundamental changes in the way the city was handling its most pressing issues.
At the end of the year, HUD sponsored a regional conference and training in Denver for 10 year plans. Eight standing Committees were formed to research and give recommendations to the Denver Commission to End Homelessness (created by newly elected mayor John Hickenlooper) in the areas of: Community Education and Public Relations, Community and Economic Development, Emergency Shelter/People Living in Public Places, Housing and Supportive Services, Panhandling and Public Safety, Zoning, Fundraising, and Community Awareness and Marketing (The Denver Commission to End Homelessness). By 2005, two years later, Denver had become a model city and the city council and Mayor John Hickenlooper had drawn up and approved “Denver’s Road Home: Denver’s Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness”. The city’s potential solution was the result of community input, which was encouraged throughout the creation and implementation of the program. Over 350 stakeholders took place in commissions and over 500 people helped the Denver Commission to End Homelessness draw up what would become “Denver’s Road Home.”
Proponents of the plan said that the plan was the right thing to do both ethically and economically. It was estimated that through the 10-Year-Plan, the city could reduce the number of homeless individuals on the street and spend less money at the same time. The estimation was that the cost would be $7.7 million in the first year and $12.7 million per year thereafter. Prior to 2005, the city was spending $70 billion per year to take care of its homeless (Denver’s Road Home; FAQs). By attacking the problem at its core before it got too out of control, city planners estimated costs could be kept dramatically lower.
The program established 8 core goals. The first was to develop 3,193 permanent and transitional housing opportunities. In the first two years, 789 new units of housing were developed, which was well ahead of schedule (Denver’s Road Home). The main objective of this goal was to combat the original crisis discussed: the lack of affordable housing because of a shortage in the housing market. Though there has been an increase in the number of homeless individuals in Denver since the 1980s, there have been almost no increases in the number of beds at homeless shelters in that time. The second goal aimed to solve this problem. Titled “Shelter System,” its aim is to increase the amount of safe and legal options for the homeless at all times during the day. The estimate at the beginning of the program was that there was a need for 1,453 additional shelter beds (Denver’s Commission to End Homelessness). This goal is one that would need to be phased out over time instead of increased indefinitely. Ideally, there would be no need for shelters in the future should there be access to affordable housing for the homeless. The third goal is “Prevention” which seeks to stop homelessness before it begins by identifying and attacking the causes of homelessness outlined earlier. The fourth goal is to “provide better access to supportive services that promote long-term stability.” The fifth goal deals with public safety. The goal should “improve public safety by increasing homeless outreach efforts to reduce panhandling, loitering and crimes against people.” This goal ties directly to the fourth goal since giving better access to the supportive services makes people less likely to resort to crime. The sixth goal is “Education, Training and Employment.” Though this is always a concern, recent efforts have been relatively successful. If the government can get these people working, it will ultimately mean less long term costs for them. At the end of last year, for example, Denver’s commission appealed to “dozens of downtown restaurants to hire the homeless” (Rocky Mountain News). Goal seven should “build community awareness and support for coordinated responses to eliminate homelessness in 10 years”. Goal eight strives to “Reform Denver’s zoning, building and development codes to facilitate an adequate supply of emergency and affordable housing” (National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2006). This, again, ties back to gentrification and zoning issues that occurred during the 1990s that ended up pushing lower-income people out. So far, many of the city’s goals are ahead of or on schedule. In a public letter, the mayor wrote that “2,455 homeless people have been assisted in finding work. And 1,667 individuals accessed public benefits and treatment services” (Denver’s Road Home).
Progress is clearly being made. According to Mayor Hickenlooper’s office, in its first two years, Denver produced “an 11% reduction in overall homelessness and a 36% decrease in chronic homelessness. And, panhandling on the 16th Street Mall dropped by 92 percent” (Denver’s Road Home).
For all that the local government in Denver has been able to do, there are plenty of private charities and programs on the local, state, and national levels working with the government to help eradicate poverty. After all, the 10-year-plan was dependent upon the generosity of private donors and programs that organize them. The Colorado Coalition for the Homeless is known nationally for the work it has done to help reduce homelessness, with most of its work concentrating on Denver – the state’s largest city. The program, established in 1983, was one of the forerunners for establishing short and long-term goals to “reverse the trend towards homelessness and remove its causes” (Brickner 63-64). Through the Colorado Coalition, more that 2100 people have been placed in affordable housing and more than 12,000 homeless patients were treated in 2007 through their Healthcare Programs (“Colorado Coalition for the Homeless”). Some programs aim to help certain subsets of the homeless population. Peak Urban Denver, for example, helps homeless youth by setting up links between school programs and establishing housing for the runaway youth (Burt, Pearson, and Montgomery 153-154). The program received funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as early as 1997. They “partnered with the Urban Peak Housing Corporation, the State of Colorado, the Denver Department of Human Services, and HUD to provide 12 unites for young adults who were addicted to drugs or alcohol, 16 units for young adults with disabilities, and 35 units for youth who were aging out of foster care” (Burt, Pearson, and Montgomery 153).
It is also important to recognize that homelessness is inextricably connected to the city’s image. In 2008, the Democratic National Convention for the nomination of then Senator Barack Obama took place in Denver. As Beijing did before the Olympics that same month, the city prepared well ahead of time in preparation for its chance to showcase itself to the world. The city “arranged for free movie passes and bingo games to get them off the street, as well as temporary housing and free tickets to the zoo and Museum of Nature and Science” and in some instances they even gave them vouchers for free haircuts (LA Times; 8/20/08).
The city opened up an emergency shelter that is usually reserved for very cold times during the winter, though with less homelessness they didn’t expect to open it ever again. Roxane White, Denver’s manager of human services said that the effort by outreach workers to persuade the homeless to come in during the convention was strictly for security reasons – they are not just trying to “spruce up” the city (Denver Business Journal). The source of much of the controversy is Denver’s “Come On In” program, which encourages service organizations to move their programs inside to encourage the homeless to be inside where it is warm and they can have access to clean water and toilets. Some, such as Mackenzie Liman of Food Not Bombs, which still serves meals in an outdoor park, contest that the move was simply to clean up the city (Rocky Mountain News). As with anything else, a balance must be struck between parties on both sides.
Though Denver still ranks among the top 10 cities in number of homeless, there is certainly hope in the Mile High City. By emerging as a model city for the rest of the country with it’s 10-Year-Plan, Denver and its mayor are finally committed to ending a dark period in Denver’s history. Denver’s climate and demographics make it distinctly different from the rest of the country’s major cities, making its attack on homelessness a unique challenge. Regardless, by working together with cities around the state and around the country, the programs in place have created positive changes. Though it may not be possible to completely eradicate it, homelessness is certainly decreasing – finally.
Works Cited
Average Weather for Denver, CO – Temperature and Precipitation.” National and Local Weather Forecast, Hurricane, Radar and Report. Weather Channel, 2009. Web. 01 Dec. 2009. .
Brickner, Philip W. Under the safety net the health and social welfare of the homeless in the United States. New York: Norton, 1990. Print.
Burt, Martha R., Carol L. Pearson, and Ann Elizabeth Montgomery. Homelessness Prevention, Strategies And Effectiveness. New York: Nova Science, 2006. Print.
Colorado Coalition for the Homeless. “Overview.” Colorado Coalition for the Homeless – National Coalition for the Homeless. Colorado Coalition for the Homeless. Web. 03 Dec. 2009. .
Conrad, Kendon J., Michael D. Matters, and Patricia Hanrahan. Homelessness Prevention in Treatment of Substance Abuse and Mental Illness Logic Models and Implementation of Eight American Projects. New York: Haworth, 1999. Print.
“Denver CARES Detox – Teen Drug Programs.” Main Page – Teen Drug Programs. Residential Treatment Centers. Web. 06 Dec. 2009. .
The Denver Commission to End Homelessness. Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness: A Report to the Citizens of Denver, CO. By Denver, CO. Community Council. Web. 30 Nov. 2009. .
