Mayor Hancock proposes record spending in 2023

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock is proposing the city spend $1.66 billion in general fund revenue next year, a record budget for the Mile High City and a nearly 12% increase over the general fund expenses he proposed in 2022.

In the final months of his 12-year, term-limited tenure, Hancock on Wednesday zeroed in on four focus areas in his budget. Naturally, those areas figure to be key issues in the April election that will name Hancock’s successor.

“There are certain things that sit a the top of our priority list. Those issues are not going to be a surprise to anyone,” Hancock said as he summarized his budget proposal at a news conference Wednesday morning. “They include rising crime, encampments, a behavioral health crisis fueled by illegal drugs and a need to bring our downtown back to where it was two years ago.”

Here is a breakdown of some of the ways the administration intends to invest in each of those areas in 2023:

City revenue is just one source of the $254 million Hancock and his administration expect to spend on affordable housing and homelessness next year. Nearly $49 million from the voter-approved Homelessness Resolution Fund, $46.7 million from the city’s affordable fund and $77.7 million in American Resue Plan Act, or ARPA, dollars will be called down.

It’s the area where the city will invest the most financial resources compared to last year, City Budget Director Stephanie Adams said Wednesday. In his 2022 budget proposal, Hancock called for investing $190 million in housing and homelessness initiatives, including $20 million in federal dollars.

Specific spending Hancock outlined Wednesday included putting $20 million in ARPA funding toward downpayment assistance for people of color trying to buy a home in Denver’s finally cooling market.

A combined $43.25 million in ARPA funding is earmarked for buying hotel properties. Some of those would be used for shortterm interventions like safe parking sites and shelter spaces that could lead to “decommissioning encampments” of people living on the streets, Hancock said. Other hotels would be acquired to be turned into long-term supportive housing with services to help ensure residents remain stable.

This broad category also draws on Denver’s ARPA funding, including funneling $20 million to building out a more robust behavioral health provider network in the city, making services more widely available, especially for kids and young adults, city officials said Wednesday.

Some of that $20 million will also go to “bolstering the city’s substance misuse response,” according to a summary of the budget.

“While lasting solutions to homelessness are built on housing stability, the challenges of people living on the streets as well as crime have been complicated by the epidemic associated with cheap fentanyl, methamphetamines and a behavioral health crisis that continues to strain support of our network,” Hancock said.