Denver launches migrant support program in shift from short-term shelter
After months of responding to its growing migrant community by sheltering new arrivals for limited periods of time, Denver has begun rolling out a new strategy designed to help people transition into more stable lives in the city by providing six months of housing, job training, language instruction and legal support in filing asylum claims.
After months of responding to its growing migrant community by sheltering new arrivals for limited periods of time, Denver has begun rolling out a new strategy designed to help people transition into more stable lives in the city by providing six months of housing, job training, language instruction and legal support in filing asylum claims.
Nearly 800 people were enrolled in the program as of Wednesday, with more expected to be added by the end of the month, Jon Ewing, a city spokesperson who manages communications for Denver’s newcomer response, said Wednesday.
Denver, New York and Chicago have been struggling to accommodate migrant populations that have grown considerably over the past two years. The cities have been housing people in hotels, tents and other makeshift shelters and scrambling to assemble social safety nets without devastating their budgets. Chicago and New York have put stricter limits on how long people can stay in shelters and begun evicting those whose time is up.
“Our goal was to take what people saw as a crisis and turn it into an opportunity," Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said in an interview Wednesday. "We have people arriving in the city who desperately want to work, who have skills and talent and discipline. We have employers in the city who are starving to find employees, and they desperately want to hire them. What we wanted to do was to take those people that are looking to work and connect them to the training and the skills centered on jobs where we have the greatest need. So what we did is create this first-of-its-kind program in the country, which is this asylum-seeker program.”
A volunteer with Juntos Center helps Venezuelan migrants apply for asylum and work permits in Denver, Colo., on Feb. 5.Helen H. Richardson / The Denver Post via Getty Images fileThose enrolled in the Denver Asylum Seekers Program are migrants who were in Denver’s shelter system as of April and are applying for asylum, in which there is a six-month wait for work permits after they file applications, Ewing said.
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