Denver Joins ALL INside Initiative to Tackle the Unsheltered Homelessness Crisis
Today, senior Biden-Harris administration officials joined Denver Mayor Mike Johnston and local leaders to announce a new partnership to accelerate local efforts to help people move off the streets and into homes. (Click to watch the announcement.)
Denver is the seventh community—along with Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Phoenix Metro, Seattle, and the state of California—to join the Biden-Harris administration’s ALL INside Initiative that was launched in May by the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH), which represents 19 federal agencies. To strengthen and accelerate every ALL INside communities’ response to homelessness, the Biden-Harris administration is embedding a federal official in each community and deploying dedicated teams across the federal government to help address regulatory barriers to housing, health care, and other support for people experiencing unsheltered homelessness.
ALL INside is a key part of President Biden’s comprehensive strategy to prevent and end homelessness and of the administration’s ongoing commitment to build a country where every person has a safe and affordable home.
“Homelessness is deadly—but solvable,” said USICH Director Jeff Olivet. “Homelessness is a community issue—not a political football—and the leaders who tackle it head-on give me hope for a future where everyone has a safe and affordable home. This partnership demonstrates that both the Biden-Harris administration and the city of Denver are treating homelessness with the urgency of a public health crisis and harnessing the power of collaboration and creativity to combat it.”
“President Biden believes that every American deserves a safe and affordable home,” said Chad Maisel, White House Special Assistant to the President for Housing and Urban Policy. “Since Day One, the Biden-Harris administration has taken unprecedented steps to keep people in their homes and help individuals and families experiencing homelessness. Today’s announcement reflects a unique partnership between the administration and the city to address the decades-in-the-making crisis of homelessness. The White House is committed to working hand-in-hand with Mayor Johnston and community leaders to lower housing costs, increase housing supply, and support local strategies to address unsheltered homelessness.”
On his first day in office this July, Denver Mayor Johnston declared a state of emergency for homelessness, paving the way to free up more funding and speed up construction of affordable housing. He also vowed to help roughly two-thirds of the city’s unsheltered population move into homes by the end of this year. Last month, instead of arresting people with nowhere else to go, Denver offered housing—not handcuffs—to every person living in an encampment.
“Homelessness is a crisis on all fronts,” said Denver Mayor Mike Johnston. “It is a humanitarian crisis for people experiencing homelessness and a city crisis for neighborhoods and businesses. We are grateful to the Biden administration for recognizing and strengthening our response to homelessness, which includes getting 1,000 people off the streets and into housing by the end of the year and permanently closing encampments.”
Today’s announcement builds on historic support from the Biden-Harris administration to help cities and states battle the decades-in-the-making crisis of homelessness. Earlier this year, HUD invested more than half a billion dollars in new vouchers and grants that represent the first federal funding specifically for unsheltered homelessness. Thanks to the White House’s Housing Supply Action Plan, more apartments are on track to be built this year than any on record. President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan (ARP), which represents the largest single-year investment in ending homelessness in U.S. history and prevented a rise in homelessness during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through the ARP’s State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund, more than 900 communities have invested at least $17 billion in roughly 2,700 projects focused on preventing and addressing homelessness. The ARP also created emergency housing vouchers—the first specifically for people (not just veterans) experiencing homelessness. And in 2022, USICH, HUD, and VA worked with more than 100 communities to help more than 140,000 people move off the streets, out of shelters, and into homes.
In his FY 2024 budget, President Biden asked Congress to invest billions more in programs to end and prevent homelessness, such as housing vouchers, emergency rental assistance, and health care for people experiencing homelessness. The president also proposed rental assistance for every extremely low-income veteran and youth aging out of foster care—two groups disproportionately at risk of and experiencing homelessness.
The Denver announcement was also attended by USICH Senior Regional Advisor Katy Miller and Jamie Rife, the executive director of the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative, which will work in coordination with Denver to implement ALL INside.
For more on ALL INside, visit usich.gov/all-inside.