Denver Mayor Mike Johnston reflects on homelessness, budget shortfall and future plans

CBS News

3 days ago

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston sat down with CBS Colorado on Thursday to reflect on his first two years in office and discuss what he would still like to accomplish in the next two years of his first term.
Johnston touted his work on homelessness: "There are no encampments in Denver. There are no tents downtown," he said. "We've gotten 5,000 people off the streets. We became the largest American city to end street homelessness for veterans. Those for us are major milestones."
At the same time, the mayor acknowledged there is still work to do. "Yes, we still have a couple hundred folks who are left on the streets. They are mostly our highest acuity individuals. They have the most significant mental illness, the most significant addiction. They're not living in communities. They're not living in encampments. They're just wandering around and using, and sometimes passing out. The next phase of the work is really about those individuals and how we help connect them to services to get clean, to get mental health supports and then to get clean and get back up."
Johnston is staring down a budget shortfall of $50 million for the rest of 2025 and a $200 million shortfall for 2026. City employees have begun taking furloughs, and city workers are preparing for the potential of layoffs beginning in August.
"Our goal is always to avoid any impact on core public services," said Johnston when asked what Denverites can expect with the city facing such a big deficit. "We're going to keep officers on the street. We're going to keep trash getting picked up. We're going to keep our parks and rec centers clean and open."
"Do you think it's possible to balance the budget and keep all of those things?" asked CBS Colorado.
"We are never going to keep everything, but what we've done with each department is said, 'What are the core public services we have to deliver? And what are the core things we need to deliver city-wide? And what are the things that might have been nice to have 10-15 years ago that might not be so essential to have right now, and how do we find a way to pare those back?'"
The mayor also hinted that an announcement regarding the Broncos and potential plans for a new stadium would be coming soon. "I'm hoping in the next few weeks," he said. The Broncos' current contract at Empower Field at Mile High expires following the 2030 season. "Over my dead body will the Broncos leave Denver. I would fire myself."
When asked what the next two years look like and what a successful first term would entail Johnston said that housing affordability and cost of living would continue to be a concern, "We want to still keep fighting to make sure that everyone who works in the city can afford to live in the city, so that we don't have school teachers that are saying, 'I'd love to stay in Denver, but I have to move back home to Kansas or Oklahoma because I can afford to live there.' Those are the ones we want to keep fighting for."