Department of Housing Stability holds panel discussion to address homeless crisis in Denver

Denver's Department of Housing Stability, held its first-panel discussion Friday for an opportunity to hear about the state of the homeless and housing crisis.

The meeting addressed, the "unprecedented" funding the state has secured to tackle it and how the city's new population of migrants fits into the plan.

Britta Fischer is the executive director and has been since the department opened three years ago. A seemingly impossible role she took on at the height of the pandemic.

"Just in those three years, we've seen 5,000 households that have regained stable housing with investments that we've made through community partners like those you see seated here. We've seen more than 2,000 affordable homes built or preserved and 225 supportive housing units or apartment homes with supportive services. And I think that's really key," Fischer said.

Fischer continued addressing the statistics saying, "When we talk about what works that is one of the big things are supportive housing, and we now have a pipeline of 1,500 more units to come. And I think that is a tremendous asset to our Denver community."

Friday's panel of experts included those managing the homeless crisis at a state, regional and local level. It's what helped Denver leverage funding for critical housing projects and even more importantly, data collection.

Data collection on the homeless population has been unreliable until recently. There are now more than 100 agencies across the Denver Metro area collecting and entering data on the local homeless population.

"What we've been able to do the last couple of years because of the coordination and collaboration and dedication to understanding the issue, is the homeless management Information. That is used by providers in the region and what they do is, in real time are inputting data. It's almost like a student information system, electronic healthcare records. And what we're able to do, we can pull up a year, we can pull up a month we can look at the region. So, it allows us to really see in real time what we actually need the planning for," said Dr. Jamie Rife, the Executive Director of the Metro Denver Homelessness Initiative.

Data collection is among one of the most important drivers for response to the homeless crisis, but the number one driver is funding.

"We want to leverage additional funds to have more supportive housing which is housing resources wrapped with services and then housing navigation for people who have been in encampments," Fischer said.

Fortunately, for the first time, there seems to be enough funding to tackle some of the state's big needs when it comes to homelessness and housing.

"I can give an example that, through four of the bills that came through Governor Polis's priorities, the Affordable Housing Transformational Task Force and the Colorado state legislature last year, we have $200 million of the American Rescue Plan Act specifically targeted toward resolving homelessness, and building out that continuum throughout communities in Colorado," said Kristin Toombs, director of the state's office of Homeless Initiatives. 

"We are talking hundreds of millions of dollars in the American Rescue Plan Act funds that we have not had invested in these important issues before," Kristin Toombs said. 

Denver along with other cities will have to apply for funding, which is needed now more than ever. The city's new population of migrants are straining current resources and there is no end in sight to the flow.

"Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people arriving, and that's more than we had margins for in the homeless sheltering system so that is why we have had to set up additional shelter for folks coming in," Fischer said.

Right now, it's not clear how the migrant population fits into the funding and resource plan for Denver's homeless.

"That's being worked out now between the different communities like Denver in particular and the state around what resources are available, what of the current funding, new funding, new funding is available and can be used for the newly arriving immigrants," Toombs said.

Denver's previous 10-year plan to end homelessness failed, but Friday's panelists said while there's no program in writing this time, they're confident another 10 will do the trick.