Upcoming survey of homeless in Denver reveals community's biggest housing hurdles

A new report being released on Wednesday will give a more in-depth look on the barriers the homeless population in Denver faces when trying to get housing.

For the past year, Housekeys Action Network Denver has been collecting data from hundreds of people living on the streets to understand the needs and priorities when it comes to public housing. The non-profit surveyed over 820 people in the report.

"All this together gives us a picture of what is the state of housing both in our nation and locally here in Denver," said Terese Howard, an organizer with HAND. "What kind of housing do houseless people actually want and need, and what peoples' experiences are trying to access housing?"

Tom's lived out on Denver streets for four years. He said while he and his homeless neighbors have many needs, he agreed that housing is the number one priority.

"I signed up at Stout Street Clinic about four years ago," Tom told CBS News Colorado. "We're coming up on four years, and I've checked my status since then and when I checked they had no recollection or recording of my name. It shouldn't be that hard -- every little thing about this whole thing is so backward."

Tom said legal needs and access to food stamps are top necessities. The report also found that the top motivators for people wanting housing are safety, freedom and community. A vast majority of those surveyed also said that affordability is the biggest barrier to accessing it.

"Seventeen percent of our respondents could afford nothing and needed housing to be free, but the rest could afford something and most needed it to be under $10,000, which are not prices that we see here in Denver right now," Howard said.

The majority of those surveyed also lack faith in the housing system, in part because of the years-long waitlists, and housing lottery odds and Tom agrees.

"It's been so difficult for so long now that even if something did change, it would take a while for people to believe in it and even have hope in the system," Tom said. "I mean I've lost complete hope."

Howard hopes all of the candidates running for mayor will take the time to look at this survey and use the data to come up with viable solutions. The full survey will be published Wednesday at 5 p.m.

For more information visit: https://twitter.com/HousekeysAction