Denver ties shelter funding to performance, safety
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Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios
Mayor Mike Johnston's administration is overhauling how it pays for All In Mile High (AIMH) shelter sites while sharpening its focus on safety at the city's largest facilities.
The big picture: The Department of Housing Stability (HOST) on Tuesday outlined a new performance-based contracting strategy to Denver City Council, alongside proposed agreements for seven AIMH sites serving people experiencing homelessness.
Why it matters: The plan governs how more than $60 million in taxpayer money will be spent over the next three years to preserve the mayor's signature homelessness initiative amid tightening city budgets.
State of play: The new strategy means if providers don't meet four performance metrics, they won't receive full payment, HOST deputy director Jeff Kositsky said Tuesday.
- Metrics include hitting 90% occupancy for available units and ensuring people at shelter sites are accessing case management.
The intrigue: Proposed service providers were required to include a safety plan — a major priority after alarming incidents at sites operated by the Salvation Army.
Context: HOST presented spending proposals for seven sites, including two former hotels and five locations with tiny homes.
- The contracts collectively account for just over 700 beds.
Between the lines: Bayaud Enterprises, St. Francis Center and Urban Alchemy were picked in a competitive bidding process to run the city's largest, 24-7 shelters to replace the Salvation Army as operators.
- HOST wants to pay Urban Alchemy $30.4 million over three years to operate the 289-unit Aspen site, and $20.1 million to St. Francis Center to run the 182-unit Stone Creek hotel during the same span.
- Those agreements include security costs, Kositsky added.
By the numbers: It will cost the city $93 per night on average in 2026 for the seven contracts presented Tuesday, an Axios Denver analysis finds.
What's next: The contracts discussed Tuesday will be formally presented for approval at a city council meeting later this year, Kositsky said.