Thursday, September 24, 2026, 2:30 p.m. (Denver time), Parr-Widener Community Room, Room 389
0:32 Good afternoon, everyone thank
0:38 you for joining us for More
0:41 day of budget giving We have I
0:41 think really important
0:42 department in different events
0:44 like there's a lot important
0:46 work values that we all hold.
0:49 So with start with on you can
0:54 go around the room
0:55 introductions and then the
0:59 flow stability. And I'm I'm
0:59 Michell the acting deputy
1:02 director for housing
1:03 Opportunity Time Check
1:04 Kaczynski deputy director for
1:06 homelessness resolution and
1:08 housing stability in U.S.
1:12 Financial director for you
1:15 can't this but it just like
1:16 district 7 a remarkable
1:19 southeast Denver district
1:21 court. Hold on chief financial
1:24 or net chief operating officer
1:26 precise, Denver's for so they
1:28 can content is councilmember
1:31 at large. Darrell Watson, Fine
1:37 District 9 playing southwest
1:42 often the That's not great for
1:43 planets distance and like
1:44 Justin Mayor. Good to see him
1:50 from your people. You. All
1:51 right. Well, good afternoon,
1:52 Cold Chandler, executive
1:53 director, the Department of
1:54 Housing, Stability. It's
1:56 really a pleasure to have this
1:57 opportunity today. This is my
1:58 first time as the executive
2:00 director of host going through
2:02 this process. It was a great
2:03 process for me to dive and
2:05 right as I was getting started
2:08 at host and I want to give a
2:09 huge shout out and thank you
2:10 to Amy Webb, our finance
2:11 director for guiding me and
2:14 holding my hand through this
2:16 process. But the whole
2:17 executive leadership team host
2:19 lying and Jeff Darr can
2:20 Britney had been a huge also
2:23 want to thank our Housing,
2:24 Stability, Strategic Advisors.
2:25 Naomi is here representing
2:26 them. And so thank you all for
2:31 being here today. As
2:32 Councilmember Sandoval was
2:33 saying, this is important work
2:35 to all of us, right? And so
2:38 the work that host does is one
2:39 many of us share a priority
2:42 for. I think we all know that
2:44 the measure of a great society
2:46 is how it treats the least of
2:48 its members, the most
2:49 vulnerable among us. And I'm
2:51 so grateful to lead an agency
2:52 that is focused directly on
2:53 bringing that work forward in
2:56 our community. And I think the
2:56 Denver community should be
2:58 very proud of the way that we
2:59 care for our most vulnerable
2:59 residents there. Still more
3:01 work to do. We'll talk about
3:04 that in our strategies for I'm
3:05 getting there. But I think we
3:06 should be very proud of the
3:08 work we have taken on
3:09 together. Cocaine trip. A
3:10 quick yet. We go to the
3:12 council member mind. Oh, yes,
3:14 of course. That's my back.
3:14 Okay. Like the worst thing
3:24 I've on time know pretty well.
3:27 5th mine. Low. They have sold
3:39 it to should never forget. And
3:41 COUNCILMAN, make think you
3:43 thank time. So just to talk a
3:44 little bit about host Ed Henry
3:46 you can see our mission and
3:47 vision on the slide the
3:47 Department of Housing
3:48 Stability works to create a
3:50 healthy housing connect to
3:53 Denver. That is our mission.
3:54 And we are working to
3:55 strategically invest
3:56 resources. I think one of the
3:59 things that I've said and
4:00 thought about is that we are
4:02 the largest investor and
4:03 affordable housing and
4:04 homelessness programs and the
4:06 Rocky Mountain region. And we
4:08 have a huge responsibility to
4:10 uplift those that are living
4:12 in our city and working to
4:13 make Denver affordable. And so
4:14 we're very proud of the ways
4:15 that we strategically invest
4:19 our resources at host. We have
4:21 five-year strategic plan that
4:23 you all are very familiar with
4:25 that plan ran from 2022. To
4:28 2026. We've just gone through
4:31 the process alongside of our
4:32 housing stability, strategic
4:33 advisors and all of you and
4:34 moving forward. A one-year
4:36 continuation plan of our
4:38 strategic plan. And so we're
4:39 very excited about what's
4:41 coming in terms of strategic
4:43 planning for host later this
4:45 year. Housing needs assessment
4:48 will be delivered. Her state
4:49 requirement that will really
4:50 lay out road map for us in
4:53 terms of what we need to be
4:54 building towards over the next
4:55 10 years and the city and
4:57 county of Denver. And we're
4:58 excited to advance another
4:59 long-term strategic plan
5:00 that's for into the round.
5:01 That housing needs assessment
5:04 later next year. But for one
5:06 year continuation plan, the
5:07 impact statements that are
5:08 highlighted on the screen are
5:09 really what we're focused
5:11 ensuring that everyone who
5:12 wants to can afford to call
5:15 Denver their home, ensuring
5:17 that Denver residents remain
5:19 safely and stably housed and
5:20 ensuring that residents
5:21 experiencing homelessness do
5:22 so rarely. And if they do,
5:26 brief and one time. Just to
5:27 talk a little bit about our
5:30 core functions at host and our
5:31 top priorities that are
5:35 reflected in this budget at
5:37 host. What we do is we work to
5:40 prevent homelessness, reduce
5:41 homelessness, create and
5:41 preserve affordable housing
5:45 and to prevent displacement.
5:46 Our top priorities that you'll
5:48 see reflected in this budget
5:49 are to reduce street
5:50 homelessness. And overall
5:51 homelessness. We're very proud
5:52 of the progress that we've
5:53 made on that over the last 3
5:55 years. And we aim to continue
5:59 doing so. We also alongside of
6:01 of this, the advocacy and
6:02 partnership of this Council
6:05 and to reduce the family
6:05 shelter, waitlist and overall
6:07 family, homelessness. And so
6:08 one of the things that we'll
6:09 talk about as we go through
6:13 this budget is our shared
6:13 priority to increase our
6:16 resources fight family,
6:17 homelessness. And you can see
6:18 those priorities are reflected
6:20 in the way that we or
6:22 organizer dollars in this
6:23 budget year. We're also
6:25 working to increase affordable
6:28 housing supply to advance
6:29 strategies for preventing
6:30 homelessness and displacement.
6:32 And then I think as I've come
6:34 into the agency, one of my top
6:36 priorities has really been
6:38 number 5 supporting retaining
6:39 and developing staff to ensure
6:41 organizational, stability and
6:43 resilience. And so as I think
6:46 about everything that we've
6:47 built at host over the last 3
6:49 years, all the progress we've
6:49 made on reducing homelessness
6:52 and increasing housing
6:54 affordability. That's work
6:55 that we're very proud But we
6:56 have an organization, agency
6:58 that we need to be able to
6:59 sustain long-term. And that's
7:00 powered by the people that do
7:02 the work. And so we're very
7:05 grateful for the ways that we
7:06 have prioritized really
7:07 supporting retaining and
7:07 developing staff through this
7:13 budget. When you look at our
7:13 2027 budget philosophy, you'll
7:17 see 3 themes. And so starting
7:19 at the bottom with what is the
7:20 foundation, which is what I
7:23 was just sitting on, that fema
7:25 to support, retain and develop
7:27 staff and ensure
7:29 organizational, stability and
7:30 resilience doing that is
7:32 pivotal to us to continuing to
7:32 bring our progress forward in
7:35 the coming years. Moving up
7:37 the ladder. You'll see that we
7:39 will continue to make
7:41 investments to ensure that we
7:42 are funding Denver's
7:43 affordable housing pipeline.
7:46 And so you'll see projections
7:48 to actually increase the
7:49 numbers of affordable new
7:51 affordable homes that we're
7:52 bringing forward as well as
7:54 increase the number of homes
7:57 that were preserving and 2027.
7:58 And then finally you'll see a
8:00 budget that aims to protect
8:01 and further advance our
8:02 efforts to reduce street
8:03 homelessness. And overall
8:09 homelessness in 2027. Equity,
8:09 racial equity is the
8:12 foundation for the work that
8:13 we do at host. We know that
8:17 race is too often a predictor
8:17 of homelessness. It's a
8:18 predictor of housing outcomes.
8:20 It's a predictor of home
8:22 ownership. Everything that
8:24 we're doing through our
8:25 investments is aiming to
8:26 disrupt that and that's
8:27 reflected in goals that we've
8:29 set forth in our strategic
8:32 plan and working every day to
8:32 ensure that we're creating
8:33 opportunities for people of
8:34 all race and income levels
8:35 through the work that we're
8:39 doing. Just a bit about our
8:43 structure. We have 3 divisions
8:45 at host. We have that housing
8:45 stability and homelessness
8:46 resolution division, which
8:50 reports to Jeff, we have the
8:52 housing Opportunity Division
8:53 which reports to lie and right
8:55 in the middle, we have the
8:57 operations and impact Division
8:58 which is made up of leadership
8:59 from Amy from Britney and from
9:05 Derrick. All right. Want to
9:06 talk through some of the
9:07 performance metrics that
9:08 you'll find identified on the
9:11 pages of the budget. But and
9:12 want to start with performance
9:17 metric. Number one, we, as I
9:17 mentioned, are working to
9:18 ensure that we continue to
9:22 advance our efforts to reduce
9:23 unsheltered homelessness and
9:25 the 2027. We're extremely
9:27 proud of the 64% reduction.
9:29 We've delivered over the last
9:31 3 years are projected number
9:33 for the 2027 point in time.
9:36 Count is to reach 350 people
9:37 that are unsheltered our
9:38 streets, which would represent
9:42 a 75% reduction. That's our
9:42 citywide goal this year. And
9:44 we're working to advance that
9:45 and bring that forward through
9:49 our 2027 budget. In terms of
9:52 performance metric. Number 2.
9:58 And this is directly from the
9:59 graphs that you have in the
10:01 budget We projected an
10:02 increase and the numbers of
10:03 affordable homes that we would
10:06 create and preserve in 2027.
10:07 And so I just want to
10:09 highlight, obviously the work
10:10 that we're proud rents have
10:11 been coming down in Denver
10:12 over the last couple of years.
10:14 We've seen a 14% reduction for
10:16 some of the lowest earning
10:18 renters. That work is due to
10:20 the investments that we're
10:21 making an affordable housing
10:23 paired with market forces and
10:25 market conditions. And so we
10:26 expect to see a slight uptick
10:29 in terms of the homes that
10:30 were creating and preserving
10:32 and 2027 and are excited to
10:32 continue forward on that
10:34 progress to make Denver more
10:35 affordable for our most
10:38 vulnerable resident residents.
10:41 For performance metric. Number
10:43 3, want to talk about a few
10:44 different charts that we're
10:46 pulling together here and also
10:49 want to Councilmember Torres
10:51 for some of her insights and
10:54 this conversation when we were
10:55 discussing the continuation
10:56 strategic Planning Committee
10:58 recently, talked about, you
10:59 know, when we're talking about
11:01 evictions and we're just
11:01 looking at filings, it's
11:04 really not telling the whole
11:05 story. And so to tell a
11:06 broader story. And then simply
11:07 filings, what you see at the
11:10 top of the chart here. I think
11:11 it's important to look at the
11:12 total number of households
11:15 that we're serving. There are
11:16 broad homelessness, pretty par
11:19 through our broad prevention
11:20 system. And so through that
11:21 system, we are projecting to
11:25 serve around 12,500 households
11:27 in 2027. And I think very
11:28 importantly, we are not
11:30 projecting to see an uptick in
11:32 evictions. So even as you have
11:34 seen that eviction filings
11:35 increased coming out of covid
11:36 and have now fled enough of
11:38 that, we did not see that kind
11:40 of spike in terms of the
11:41 actual number of evictions
11:43 can see that reflected in the
11:43 that were executed. And so you
11:47 green line here. But I think
11:48 one of the other things that's
11:49 really important to this
11:50 conversation around our
11:51 prevention system, we've
11:54 mentioned to you all the
11:55 Harvard study that's
11:57 forthcoming on Archer. A
11:58 program are really excited for
11:58 that to come forward. At the
12:01 end of this year in the spring
12:03 of 2027, we will be doing a
12:05 new data-driven procurement on
12:07 our prevention system. And so
12:09 we really want that Harvard
12:10 study and the learnings there
12:12 to impact the way that we're
12:13 investing. And this in these
12:15 programs and in this system
12:17 long term. But we are very
12:19 committed to ensuring that
12:20 evictions remain flat
12:25 throughout 2027 and beyond. I
12:27 just to highlight some of the
12:28 investments that we're making,
12:29 particularly into that system.
12:31 We've highlighted on the
12:33 screen here, our investment,
12:34 any eviction prevention,
12:36 financial assistance at 4 and
12:37 a half million property tax
12:39 relief at 4 and a half million
12:40 eviction prevention, legal
12:42 services at 2 and a half
12:44 million foreclosure financial
12:47 assistance 350,000 housing,
12:50 navigation and counseling at
12:53 272,000 and administration at
12:55 577,000. All of that is adding
12:56 up to 12.8 million dollar
12:57 investment in our prevention
13:03 system in 2027. And then one
13:04 final performance. Patrick
13:05 from the budget book is our
13:09 number of households served
13:09 through the housing and
13:10 supportive housing programs.
13:11 You can see that that number
13:15 of projects to remain flat in
13:16 20 20th. I will note that this
13:19 is an area of risk that we
13:21 have as a community due to the
13:21 loss and potential loss of
13:25 federal housing resources,
13:29 especially hud's current, know
13:30 fo their real challenge is
13:32 potentially forthcoming in
13:33 terms of funding our
13:34 homelessness continuum of
13:35 care. This is an area that we
13:39 have to be very cognizant of
13:40 2028 budget planning and
13:43 beyond. And so just want to
13:44 note that we are committed.
13:45 There are local dollars to
13:47 ensure that we don't see a
13:48 reduction here. But this is a
13:49 huge area of risk that we're
13:50 facing as a community as are
13:50 many other communities across
13:55 the country. Alright, just to
13:59 look at the numbers a We are
14:01 proud to be able to invest
14:05 192 million dollars in 2027
14:07 towards our mission to ensure
14:10 that Denver is healthy,
14:10 housing connected and to
14:12 ensure that residents exiting
14:13 homelessness have a place to
14:14 be and that we can continue to
14:15 build housing all across the