Hundreds of people gathered Saturday outside the Denver City and County Building to honor almost 300 unhoused individuals who died this year in the Denver metro.
The vigil, hosted by the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless each year on Winter Solstice, is the only memorial service many unhoused people will ever get. But this year, alongside mourning and honoring the dead, the event also represented hope, because the number of unhoused people who died this year is down for the first time in almost a decade.
鈥淚t's the first time that we鈥檝e seen a decrease since I've been doing this work for nine years,鈥� the Coalition鈥檚 Cathy Alderman said. 鈥淭here's a glimmer of hope in there. We need to keep moving in the direction that we're moving.鈥�
The Coalition released its annual to coincide with the vigil. It found the number of deaths fell from 311 in 2023 to 294 in 2024. Alderman said other findings also indicate that Denver homelessness could be trending in the right direction, as long as the progress is not derailed by impending state budget cuts and an incoming presidential administration that historically has clashed with homeless advocates.
In one of the study鈥檚 most significant trends, overdose deaths among unhoused people stopped increasing this year. Last year, the number of unhoused people who died from overdose deaths increased by almost 20% from the previous year. Deadly overdoses now have not only plateaued, but slightly decreased.
However, not all findings were hopeful. Overdoses remain the leading cause of death for the unhoused in Denver, accounting for 68% of the deaths in this year鈥檚 study. The study also showed that suicide rates among unhoused individuals more than doubled from 2023 to 2024. Suicide accounted for almost 5% of the deaths this year.
鈥淭hat means that hopelessness has taken over,鈥� Alderman said. 鈥淧eople are staying in the cycle longer, and they鈥檙e succumbing to it. So that tells me we have a lot more work to do.鈥�
Alderman said the jump in suicide rates correlates to the increasing number of people across Colorado, including in the Denver metro, who are becoming stuck in a cycle of chronic homelessness. Chronic homelessness is when an individual experiences homelessness for at least a year over a three-year period, and it can include both sheltered and unsheltered people.
Despite the alarming increase in suicides, Alderman is hopeful overall. She credited Denver officials for making historic progress on the city鈥檚 homelessness issues over the last year and a half.
Since Mayor Mike Johnston launched his administration鈥檚 All In Mile High initiative last summer, officials have moved 2,233 people off the streets and into shelters. Of those, 82% remain either in shelters or have found permanent housing. As part of that, the Johnston administration announced this week it had successfully sheltered all of Denver鈥檚 unhoused veterans.
鈥淲e can see the formula for what it takes to end street homelessness, and it's actually the formula that we deployed with veterans,鈥� Cole Chandler, Mayor Johnston鈥檚 senior advisor on homelessness, said. 鈥淚t's about understanding who's out on the streets, being able to target services towards them, getting them indoors and then on the path to permanent housing.鈥�
For Chandler, next year鈥檚 work will focus on expanding the formula in order to get more unhoused people into permanent housing. His office launched a rapid rehousing program in recent months that identifies available units, coordinates with landlords and provides rental assistance until a resident can fully pay their housing costs.
The city鈥檚 permanent housing goals also include expanding housing that comes with behavioral health and substance use services, also called permanent supportive housing. The Denver City Council expressed concerns this month over one North Denver shelter after some residents said they had not received the mental health or rehousing services they were promised.
Chandler said the city has found it difficult to implement permanent supportive housing, mainly because such facilities need specialized staff and resources. It recently shifted its strategy to enlist the public health department to coordinate behavioral health and substance use treatment instead of using third party providers.
鈥淭hat is the conversation we'll go back and have with the council at the beginning of the year,鈥� Chandler said. 鈥淗ere's what we implemented over the last year and a half, here's how it's gone, here's how it's worked. Here are some changes that we're making, some ways that we're pivoting as we move forward. And here's really the long term plan for how we put the formula together.鈥�
Expanding that formula beyond the Denver metro to the rest of the state is another major goal for advocates like the Coalition for the Homeless in the coming year. Alderman said that鈥檚 going to require the state legislature to focus on the issue.
鈥淲hat we don't have is an acknowledged and bought-into statewide strategy on homelessness resolution,鈥� Alderman said. 鈥淲e know what the mechanisms are to get there, we know what programs are addressing these things, but what are our end goals and how are we going to achieve them?鈥�
The Coalition is working with State Rep. Manny Rutinel, D-Commerce City, to craft legislation for the upcoming legislative session that would increase and improve statewide infrastructure around homelessness prevention and resolution.
"The hope here is that by coordinating, we can figure out where we may have inefficiencies and where we can use our resources more effectively, so that each dollar can stretch further," Rutinel told KUNC. "So that we can make sure that the data that we're collecting is being used to appropriately implement programs that are working and leave aside programs that aren't working, so that we can better meet the needs of these populations."
The bill is currently in its early stages, but Rutinel said it would make several changes to state government. One, it would create a new office within the governor's administration to coordinate government agencies and resources in order to better address homelessness. Two, it would create a new type of special district to facilitate coordination of homelessness resources between counties, municipalities and other communities.
Both Rutinel and Alderman said the lack of state and federal funding next year could undermine a lot of this work. On the state level, lawmakers are facing a budget deficit of hundreds of millions of dollars and are gearing up for major budget cuts. That will be an obstacle for any bills with significant funding attached. Rutinel said they are trying to eliminate funding requirements from the bill to give it a better chance of success.
Alderman also expressed concerns about what the incoming Trump administration means for homelessness resources on the ground.
鈥淎 large part of our homelessness funds and housing funds come from the federal government, and though the state and Denver have tried to make their own investments, it just can't replicate what the federal government provides,鈥� Alderman said. 鈥淚 worry about some of the things that this incoming administration did last time it was in power.鈥�
Alderman cited Trump鈥檚 first-term attempts to implement work requirements for housing vouchers and roll back 鈥渉ousing first鈥� programs that prioritize getting unhoused people into shelter with no preconditions鈥損rograms that have driven Denver鈥檚 strategy and the encouraging results it鈥檚 producing.
