More money for rental assistance, Basic Income Project among $29 million in Denver council requests to mayor

The Denver City Council have requested more than $29 million in changes to Mayor Mike Johnston’s proposed 2025 budget, submitting a list of priorities that would require major juggling in what is projected to be a drum-tight financial year.

Council members sent a letter containing their laundry list of suggested changes to the mayor’s office on Friday. It details 22 requests that a majority of council members agreed Johnston should make to his $1.76 billion general fund spending plan for next year before it moves forward for council approval next month.

Some of the largest changes the council requested are likely to be familiar to anyone who followed the tug-of-war between the council and Johnston over his 2024 budget a year ago.

Council members want Johnston to increase his commitment to an eviction prevention assistance program by $5 million.

“In response to the historic eviction crisis in Denver, this funding addresses the needs of over 36,000 individuals at risk of homelessness,” reads the letter, signed by council president Amanda Sandoval and president pro tem Diana Romero Campbell. “While this amount falls short of the $34.1 million needed to maintain the Temporary Resource and Utility Assistance (TRUA) program at inflation-adjusted levels, it is a critical step towards stabilizing residents in their homes as new housing units are developed.”

Johnston’s first draft of the 2025 budget calls for $20 million for the TRUA program, with a chunk of that being pulled from contingency funds expected to be left over at the end of this year. Johnston also plans to spend another $2 million on legal defense services for people already involved in the eviction process.

But the council’s request for more funding sets up a struggle that could mirror what played out in the city budget process last fall. Johnston budgeted just $12.6 million for the TRUA program in his initial 2024 budget — but eventually allocated a total of $29.1 million in a compromise with council members, who were pushing to dip into the city’s strategic reserves if the mayor could not find that money elsewhere.

This year, a majority of council members are also backing a change that would dedicate $2.5 million to the Denver Basic Income Project. That program, which is operated independently of the city, has provided more than 800 people who are homeless, or recently have been homeless, with direct cash support that they can spend as the wish. Support varies, but many of those enrollees receive a combined $12,000 over a 12-month period.

Mayor Michael Hancock dedicated $2 million in federal pandemic recovery funds to the program in 2023. Johnston did not budget any support for it in his 2024 spending plan but ultimately did contribute another $2 million after the council requested he do so last year.

Now, Johnston is digging in his heels.

He’s weighing funding priorities as he attempts to pay for the housing and homelessness programs he views as the most likely to succeed in a city that, as of January, counted 6,539 people as either living in shelters or on the streets.

“So when we have scarce resources around things like rental assistance and rapid rehousing and rental subsides, we’re trying to prioritize the highest return on investment and highest impact strategies that we know of,” Johnston said of the Basic Income Project in an interview last week. “I think the data is not yet clear about the net impact on this as a housing strategy.”

A study of the Basic Income Project’s impacts over its first year of payments showed a significant increase in the percentage of recipients who were in housing after receiving cash for 10 months, compared to the time of enrollment. At the 10-month mark, 45% of enrollees reported being in housing compared to just 8% at enrollment, according to the results of voluntary surveys.

The number of participants who fill out surveys dropped substantially over the study period. After 631 completed surveys at enrollment, just 396 did so at the 10-month mark.

The council referenced those findings in its letter to Johnston and pushed him to keep the city involved in the project as it continues a three-year study period.