Thursday, September 24, 2026, 2:30 p.m. (Denver time), Parr-Widener Community Room, Room 389
This budget hearing covered the Department of Housing Stability (HOST) proposed 2027 budget, presented by Executive Director Cole Chandler, his first budget process in the role. He outlined a $192 million total investment, including a $71 million general fund contribution, $54 million from the homelessness resolution sales tax fund, $37 million from the affordable housing fund, and a $12.8 million eviction prevention system investment. Key priorities include reducing street homelessness (projected 350 unsheltered people in the 2027 point-in-time count), addressing family homelessness including a $1.8 million Columbine Family Shelter contract, fully funding previously one-time staff positions, and preparing a housing needs assessment required by state law. Council members questioned revenue projection accuracy for the affordable housing fund, the cancellation of the Denver Metro Fair Housing Center and Denver Day Works contracts, cuts to rental assistance, the ADU program, good neighbor agreement funding, foreclosure prevention, and community engagement practices. No votes were taken; the discussion was informational as part of the budget hearing process.
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