Officials in Denver metro area warn incoming migrants to set expectations, plead for more federal dollars to support shelter services

Families of migrants were embracing the warmer fall temperatures Wednesday afternoon outside one of Denver's city-contracted shelters.

"I will have been in Denver for about a month," said Andrea, who chose to keep her real name and identity anonymous.

Andrea told CBS News Colorado she and her three children and husband do not know what to do after their time runs out in the shelter. 

Right now, migrants with children are only given 37 days to use the city's shelter services before they have to look for other housing.

"I only have 11 days left and then I have nothing," she said.

Other migrants, like Carolina, were luckier in finding somewhere after their shelter stay ran out.

"Here, I have 13 days left, but thanks to some help, I found an apartment," she said.

However, both mothers and more migrants at one of the area shelters told CBS News Colorado, that while they are grateful for the help they have received from the city, the conditions inside their temporary home have not been great. 

They say they have experienced cramped living conditions as well as people getting increasingly sick.

"We're sharing a room with up to nine people because you have to share with another family," said Andrea.

"People aren't treated well," said Carolina. "We don't eat well. They don't give us [adults] lunch. For lunch, they give the kids a juice, a cracker, or milk and they tell you, you have to eat it because that's all they have."

A spokesperson for the city's human services department says adults are provided at least two meals a day and children are given three inside the migrant shelters. They also have not received any reports about widespread illnesses.

Still, they understand the shelter and services they have been able to offer incoming migrants and their families continue to be strained, as arrivals continue to trickle into the Denver metro.  

"We need people to know what we can provide for them and what we cannot before they get here. We don't want someone coming here with bad expectations. We don't want them coming here in the dead of winter if we can't do more than what we're doing now," said Jon Ewing, spokesperson for Denver Human Services.  

Earlier this month, the city began working to get flyers distributed to Texas border towns in the hopes of notifying incoming migrants what resources are available.  

"What we're telling them is the exact same thing we tell people when they get here, which is you're going to have 14 days in a shelter facility if you're an individual. You're going to have 37 days if you're family, but our resources our strained beyond that," said Ewing. "We will do what is in our power, but we only have so much space. We only have so much funding and we only have so many affordable housing units in Denver.

Ewing says these flyers are not being used to deter migrants from coming into the metro, but they hope this will help better manage expectations before they arrive.

"We want to make sure that they're getting the correct information, and that they're getting it from us," said Ewing.

Another hope for the city in addressing the migrant crisis is more federal assistance. That is why Mayor Mike Johnston is leading a coalition of mayors from Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, and New York City to urge the Biden Administration to offer more support.

Among the coalition's asks are for the administration to provide $5 billion in federal dollars towards the migrant crisis. 

They also want to accelerate the work authorization approval process so migrants can work sooner. 

Additionally, they want to see a regional migrate coordinator position created, which would work with the federal government, nonprofits and state and local officials.

"I understand that one can't come here and demand, 'I need you to help me, to help get me housing,'" said Andrea. "Because we have to recognize that we are migrants... but let us receive help."