Housing surge will expedite partner coordination to use emergency resources

DENVER – Thursday, Sept. 2, 2021 – Mayor Michael B. Hancock and the Department of Housing Stability (HOST) today launched an effort to get 200 people experiencing homelessness housed in 100 days. The housing surge will expedite the city’s work with partners to connect 100 people from shelters and 100 people living on the streets with housing. 

“This housing surge – the first of many – will help us make an immediate impact on the lives of these unhoused residents by quickly moving to support their exit out of homelessness,” Mayor Hancock said. “We’re going to continue to deploy every tool available, with a goal of lifting thousands of people out of homelessness over the next two years, including those who are living on our streets in the most unsafe and unhealthy of conditions.” 

A housing surge is a way to help quickly get people back into housing by expediting coordination of partners to connect people to a surplus in housing resources. Today, housing surges are being used across the country to help people back into housing after the COVID-19 pandemic caused many to lose their homes. 

New emergency housing vouchers were made available through U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funds in the American Rescue Plan Act to the Denver Housing Authority. The housing surge will be accomplished, in part, using these housing vouchers, and the City will also work with rapid resolution, rapid rehousing, and permanent supportive housing providers to reach our goal. 

“We are grateful for the federal resources to help us quickly connect 200 people to housing as we work to recover from the pandemic,” said HOST Executive Director Britta Fisher. “Leveraging the incredible work already being done by our partners to resolve episodes of homelessness in our community, this surge will add additional resources and collaboration we can build on for the future.”  

A broad coalition of nonprofit and homeless service partners are working to achieve the housing surge goals, with the support and coordination of Denver Housing Authority, Metro Denver Homeless Initiative, Community Solutions and Homebase. The City also plans to leverage voter-approved Homelessness Resolution Funds (Ballot Measure 2B) funds to expand an existing contract with the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless to provide  housing units from their own portfolio and to help identify private landlords willing to participate. The housing surge is part of Mayor Michael Hancock’s economic recovery package, initially announced in a press conference June 1. 

To access resources through the housing surge, case managers are engaging people in shelters and on the street. For more information on other housing resources available to Denver households, visit Denvergov.org/housing.