One year after migrant emergency declared, Denver tackles long-term response plans

Denver has received more migrants per capita over the past year than any other large U.S. city that doesn’t flank the southern border.

In what Denver city staff is considering the fourth wave of record arrivals, Mayor Mike Johnston is pushing for not only more money from the federal government but steps to ease the process of integrating the migrants into their new communities, whether that is Denver or elsewhere.

“When I look back at the last year, my overwhelming sentiment is one of pride at what the city has done,” Johnston said. But, he added: “It is both a huge crisis for us to face and somewhat remarkable in that of the (more than) 30,000 that have come through, we’re down to maybe 300-400 that have ended up without a place to stay.”

One year ago then-Mayor Michael Hancock declared a state of emergency, calling on local, state and especially federal partners to provide resources. But the assistance has been scarce and people who need help have kept coming.

Shelters are reaching capacity, though no one has been turned away. City staff members are working overtime in multiple jobs and nonprofits are struggling to meet the demands while their leaders are feeling disconnected from decisions. People staying in shelters have reached their time limits and set up camps outside, further exacerbating a homeless crisis in the city.

The city has spent more than $35 million on its response (including to buy 14,800 tickets to other cities), according to Denver Human Services spokesperson Jon Ewing, only a fraction of which the federal government has agreed to reimburse. The highest costs have been for personnel costs at 39% of that money, followed by facilities, including hotel, costs at 23%.

It’s a situation Johnston inherited without long-term solutions, particularly as a city contract to outsource migrant sheltering and services was nixed at the last minute, shortly before Johnston took office, due to concerns about the ethics and practices of the selected company GardaWorld.

Now, his administration is in discussions with local nonprofits and private companies as potential providers for a new contract for next year, which Johnston and many of the city’s partners hope will alleviate at least some of the issues they’ve faced. A City Council vote is still required for contract approval. The city also hired more than 200 people earlier this month to work as on-call staff in the make-shift hotel shelter.

If Denver doesn’t receive more federal support, Johnston said, the city could be looking at spending an unplanned $100 million in 2024 — about $2 million per week — and “we wouldn’t be able to survive that.”

As of Friday morning, the city had helped 31,721 migrants since the first buses of migrant arrivals a year ago, the latest publicly available data show — about 4.4% of Denver’s population. That’s more per capita than Chicago (almost 1%); New York City (1.8%); Washington, D.C. (1.8%); Los Angeles (0.03%); and Philadelphia (0.2%), according to data compiled by the Denver mayor’s office. More than 3,300 are currently in six shelters, higher than the then-peak in October.

The majority of the migrants coming into Denver and other big cities over the past year hail from Venezuela, overcoming treacherous journeys to escape political, economic and humanitarian crises, and they’re seeking legally granted asylum. The first bus of about 100 migrants pulled into Denver on Dec. 7, 2022, and since then, the buses have continued over multiple surges, in some cases because they chose to come here and in others because they were sent.

Johnston and other mayors cited lengthy delays in getting work authorization approvals in a letter they sent to federal officials in November. Meanwhile, Johnston said, employers have jobs they want to fill and people who want the jobs but can’t work them. Some migrants who have been able to find labor jobs while undocumented are being exploited with their wages stolen, he said.

While the federal government earlier this year granted Venezuelans temporary protected status — a move Johnston applauded — allowing migrants to get expedited work authorization, it only applies to those who have lived in the U.S. since July 31.

The Denver mayor is also calling on the federal government to speed up its adjudication process for asylum cases to 30 days. Johnston recalled meeting a migrant last week who had paperwork showing he was admitted to the country over a month ago but his asylum court date isn’t until April 23, 2027, and he can’t work until then.

And Johnston wants a “coordinated entry system,” similar to what the government established for Ukrainian and Afghan refugees to determine where to send people around the country.

The city implemented a temporary moratorium on requiring families with children to leave shelters after a certain amount of time to avoid forcing people to live on the street. But that hasn’t been the case for individuals who face a two-week time limit. That’s resulted in hundreds of migrants living outside in tents.

The change for families, though not unwelcome, highlighted a challenge for nonprofit leaders working with migrants who say they aren’t informed about the city administration’s decisions ahead of time and say the mayor’s office hasn’t been involved in their biweekly discussions on long-term solutions during the crisis.

Jennifer Piper of the American Friends Service Committee said the disconnect leaves a lot of uncertainty for both nonprofits and city staff about timelines and changes to shelter protocols. It also complicates working with faith communities or even private landlords who want to offer short-term shelter options for migrants because the efforts are not coordinated.

The city’s upcoming contract is intended to help with those concerns, but Piper worries about how long it’s taking as migrants continue to arrive.