Denver will cut DMV, recreation center hours to pay for migrant crisis

Denver will cut DMV, recreation center hours to pay for migrant crisis

Some Denver Motor Vehicle offices will close for a week at a time, recreation centers will reduce their hours and the parks department will slash spring recreational programming by 25% to help offset the fast-rising costs of sheltering migrants in the city. Efforts to trim city spending will be visible in other small ways. too. … Read more

Pressure from Denver migrant crisis shows up in City Council funding bills

Pressure from Denver migrant crisis shows up in City Council funding bills

The Denver City Council on Monday approved a $25 million agreement with a company that provides hotel rooms for migrants who have arrived in the city from the southern border. Most of that money — around $17.5 million — has already been spent, according to the city’s Department of Finance. The agreement modified an existing … Read more

Denver council bans homeless sweeps in freezing weather; mayor veto possible

Denver council bans homeless sweeps in freezing weather; mayor veto possible

A month after coming together to unanimously approve the final contracts that supported Mayor Mike Johnston’s House 1,000 initiative, a divided Denver City Council dug in its heels on Monday on a bill that — for now at least — will prohibit some city agencies from clearing homeless encampments during freezing weather. The measure, which … Read more

Denver airport’s new security checkpoint expected to speed up lines

Denver airport’s new security checkpoint expected to speed up lines

Denver International Airport is about to get a boost in its oft-maligned efforts to keep up with sky-high passenger traffic when the first of two new state-of-the-art security checkpoints opens inside the main terminal in less than two weeks. The sleek 17-lane West Security Checkpoint is in the northwest corner of the terminal on Level … Read more

New Denver parks coming to Westwood, Globeville, Green Valley Ranch

New Denver parks coming to Westwood, Globeville, Green Valley Ranch

Denverites’ decision five years ago to bump up the city’s sales tax rate, creating a wellspring of funding for parks, is finally ready to bear fruit — in the form of grass, gardens or other greenery — in neighborhoods across the city. Or in the case of a west Denver neighborhood that’s been hungry for … Read more

Denver auditor says training, data issues delayed residential permits

Denver auditor says training, data issues delayed residential permits

Review errors, unreliable data and poor oversight in Denver’s planning department exacerbated permit delays for home construction projects and renovations as wait times grew significantly during and after the pandemic, a new city audit says. Between 2020 and the first part of 2023, average wait times for residential project permits grew by 75%, or 113 … Read more

Denver City Council approves $89 million deal for former Post building

Denver City Council approves  million deal for former Post building

Denver city government took a big step Tuesday toward turning the former downtown headquarters of The Denver Post into a courthouse when the City Council approved an $88.5 million purchase agreement for the building at 101 W. Colfax Ave. A city master plan projects it will need an additional 280,000 square feet of space for … Read more

Denver rent assistance program gears up for big year as evictions surge

Denver rent assistance program gears up for big year as evictions surge

On a December morning, dozens of people cycled through the benches outside Room 163 of the Denver City and County Building. A few cradled children, and some looked at the floor. Deja Balles held a document from her landlord. It demanded just shy of $2,700 in back rent for October, November and December. Like the … Read more

Denver City Council poised to limit homeless camp sweeps in freezing weather

Denver City Council poised to limit homeless camp sweeps in freezing weather

The Denver City Council is poised to put much stricter limits on when city agencies can clear homeless encampments during the cold weather months. A bill that would prohibit the Denver Department of Public Health and Environment and other city agencies from removing shelter from public places when the outside temperature is forecast to be … Read more

Denver begins cleanup of Zuni Street migrant encampment

Denver begins cleanup of Zuni Street migrant encampment

A fence enclosed the hundreds of tents lining the blocks around Zuni Street and Speer Boulevard on Wednesday morning as Denver police guarded the area and outreach workers helped the migrants who have been living there get ready to leave. The city of Denver on Wednesday began the process of shutting down the makeshift campsite … Read more