Homelessness Around Denver and Colorado At-Large IN MAY, THE METRO DENVER Homelessness Initiative issued two reports important on homelessness in the Denver metro area and across Colorado. DONALD BURNES VICE PRESIDENT BOARD OF DIRECTORS DENVER VOICE The first report, “Colorado’s State of Homelessness Report 2026,” was compiled from data in the Colorado Homelessness Management Information System. The second focused on results from the Point-InTime survey conducted in late January. The results of these two reports were a bit surprising because, compared with past increases, there seems to be a leveling off overall. COLORADO STATE OF HOMELESSNESS REPORT Since the state report has more information and covers all of 2025, I want to focus on it in this month’s column. In 2025, 53,776 people experienced homelessness (PEH). Compared to the final count in 2024, there was a .7% decrease in overall numbers. There is more data from this report worth mentioning. People of Color, including those who are Indegenous or Black, continue to be substantially overrepresented in the numbers of PEH. For example, the percentage of Black people experiencing homelessness is about 3.5 times the comparable percentage in the general population. Youth homelessness is more than 10% higher than it was last year. The number of family households increased by 12.1%, while families now represent 37.6% of all persons served, and they make up the vast majority (69.2%) of households in homelessness prevention programs.” People aged 62 and older now account for 10% of the total PEH population. As the report indicates, “Our current emergency shelter infrastructure was not originally designed for the complex needs of older adults…. Increasing rates of cognitive decline require specialized, low-stress environments that standard congregate shelter settings cannot always provide.” THE STATEWIDE RESPONSE Although the report identified factors that affected our ability to respond to the statewide homelessness issue, two stood out: First is the housing affordability gap. According to the report, “housing affordability remains the primary driver of homelessness. A statewide shortage of affordable and family-sized units creates a ‘bottleneck,’ making it difficult for individuals to exit the system even when they have a housing voucher in hand.” The second is rising eviction pressures. The report states: “Rising eviction filings in 2025 are a direct contributor to system inflow. This economic pressure is pushing families and individuals into the response system for the first time, often overwhelming emergency resources. Evictions are often the result of the inability to pay rent or rent increases that are outpacing wage growth.” According to the report, between 2023 and 2025, eviction filings increased by 58.7%. Throughout the state, agencies and organizations have developed a wide variety of programs to offset the impact of housing affordability, rising eviction pressures, and other barriers that force people into homelessness or prevent them from moving into housing. According to the state report, the various programs and projects around the state impacted 27,448 people. Unfortunately, programs and services across the state had no impact on over 26,000 PEH. Toward the end of the report, there is a statement in bold: “Colorado’s homelessness response strategies are working, but they are currently operating at a fraction of the scale required to resolve the crisis. To build on the progress made in 2025, we must pivot from crisis management to sustained housing investment.” CONCLUSION The total number of PEH appears to have leveled off substantially, at least compared with the last several years of steady, significant increases. However, increases in youth homelessness and among those 62 and older may be adding pressure to upgrade services. Budget deficits won’t help with that. The steady increase in eviction filings is also a great cause for concern, as our ability to help offset some of those evictions will be limited due to budget concerns. Finally, the deficit in housing bed capacity is significant. While not well fleshed out, Mayor Mike Johnston’s $100 million housing proposal, as presented to the Denver City Council, was an important step forward. For that plan to fail in a city that has regularly approved such initiatives suggests that support for major improvements in how homelessness is addressed may be weakening. Doesn’t all of this promote the need to change the narrative? Isn’t it imperative that we persuade more of our fellow citizens to understand that our unhoused brothers and sisters are really our brothers and sisters? Don’t they deserve the same kind of safe, stable, secure housing that most of us have? Everybody is someone’s somebody. Donald Burnes has co-authored four books on poverty and homelessness, and has studied poverty and homelessness-related issues and policies for more than 40 years. Burnes joined the Denver VOICE board of directors in June of 2025. He received his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, a master’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis, and a PhD from Columbia University Teachers’ College. PUZZLES PUZZLES COURTESY OF STREET WISE 1 14 17 20 23 28 33 36 40 42 49 53 56 61 64 ACROSS 1. Astronaut’s insignia 5. ___-Seltzer 9. Sand bar 14. Bon ___ (Grammywinning indie band) 15. Demographic aft er Millennials, for short 16. Paint layers 17. Dry as dust 18. Hoot 19. More than unpopular 20. Button alternative 23. Nanny 24. Ease 28. Originally named 29. Contender 32. Corporate combination 33. No-goodnik 35. Skincare brand 36. Questioned aft er the fact 40. “To the best of my memory,” in a text 41. Remove the smell from, say 42. Volunteer, e.g. 45. Mete (out) 46. Masthead VIPs 49. Arranged neatly 51. Emphatic denial 53. Device used to fi nd buried bombs 56. ___ Island National Monument 59. Algebra or trig 60. Conceal 61. Flinch, say 62. Purple smoothie ingredient 63. Chapters of history 64. Face coverings 65. Aft er-bath powder 66. Many wines DOWN 1. Maxima maker 2. Street crosser 3. Colorful wrap 4. Pancake of the Southwest 5. Farming-related 6. Luau souvenirs 7. Result of a tie? 8. Montezuma, for one 9. Plot 10. Rime 11. Bit in a horse’s mouth 12. Certain pasttense verb that’s an anagram of the same verb in present tense 13. Kind of trip 21. Police, in slang 22. ___ de guerre 25. Look up and down 26. Irregular verb spelled the same but pronounced diff erently in the past and present tenses 27. Have a go at 30. “Never ___ sentence with a preposition” 31. Infl exible 33. Name in the spice aisle 34. Continental currency 36. Pen or ten follower 37. “Cogito, ___ sum” 38. Relating to the earliest part of the Stone Age 39. Glove material 40. Exiled Amin 43. Keats and others 44. Room with an easy chair 46. Total 47. Th ingamabob 48. Emphasize 50. Prepare to frame again 52. Yellowish shade 54. Immigration policy for DREAMers 55. Footnote abbr. 56. “Uhh...” 57. Grazing ground 58. Musical syllables 57 58 59 62 65 43 44 50 54 55 60 63 66 37 41 45 51 52 46 47 48 29 30 31 34 38 39 21 24 32 35 2 3 4 5 15 18 22 25 26 27 6 7 8 9 16 19 10 11 12 13 DENVER VOICE JULY 2026 13
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