Denver set a record for homeless deaths last year, and the mayor plans to stop the trend
Incoming Mayor Mike Johnston declared a state of emergency on homelessness last year as an unprecedented number of people living on the streets were dying.
DENVER — As incoming Mayor Mike Johnston was declaring a state of emergency on homelessness last year and launching an effort to significantly reduce the unsheltered population, an unprecedented number of people living on the streets were dying.
At least 311 homeless people died in Denver last year, more than any other year, according to city officials and organizations that serve the unsheltered. Most died from drug overdoses, but infectious disease, environmental exposure and blunt force trauma also contributed. The previous year, 263 people died, according to the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, which conducts an annual survey.
Johnston is tackling an issue that has confounded communities across the country. Like Johnston, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass ran on a campaign to significantly reduce the number of people living on the streets, and she declared a state of emergency on her first day in office. But her Inside Safe plan has been met with mixed results, as an estimated 46,000 people bed down in tent encampments each night.
Advocates for the homeless say Johnston's plan to house 1,000 unsheltered residents within his first few months in office and another 1,000 by the end of this year, could go far to reduce deaths fueled by the rise in fentanyl and other deadly street drugs that have proliferated in the area.
The mayor's plan provides addiction and mental health counseling and treatment, as well as job training and other services aimed at helping them gain stability.
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