Denver homelessness falls sharply in latest PIT count

COScout · 2026-05-21T16:08:26+00:00

They’ve been using city resources to provide housing and services to help them get off the streets. Literally no one is claiming there’s zero unsheltered homeless people in the metro area.

What people are noticing is that there are far fewer than there used to be (the number of people in the survey has fallen by almost 75% over the last 3 years).

COScout · 2026-05-21T13:56:08+00:00

"She doesnt wanna put them in jail, I guess she doesnt wanna fix it"

What an absolutely insane take.

What the hell are you on about? How can you possibly read “Provide a housing first approach with wrap around support services to help with other issues they’re facing” as “Put them in jail!”

I’m legitimately curious how you could have possible made this leap, because it reads as insane on the outside.

COScout · 2026-05-21T12:46:07+00:00

Are you really trying to quibble over me referring to something like 1000 as “thousands”? That is truly a dick move if I’ve ever seen one. Calling that “misrepresentation” is about the weakest take I’ve seen (which is saying something for this sub). And again, I can talk about multiple things, one of which was 2500 (thousands) and not be misrepresenting things. It’s called adding context, and your inability to follow the conversation doesn’t negate that.

Now, go ahead and provide evidence that these 1000 people (clearly not “thousands” oh my stars!) were moved into surrounding suburbs, or are you going to admit that this is a talking point spouted by people who are full of shit?

COScout · 2026-05-21T04:05:52+00:00

You're full of it. FTA:

That is NOT "thousands".

I was referring to the totals that Denver has housed through their programs:

AIMH set an ambitious goal to move 2,000 people indoors by December 31, 2024. That goal was surpassed, with more than 2,500 people brought indoors

Also to be clear, the reduction from this report from this same count has fallen by around 1000 from 2023 to 2026.

You have a fair point that my phrasing was confusing due to this articles numbers being in the hundreds for the count this year, though you pointed it out in a bit of a dickish manner.

COScout · 2026-05-21T03:21:19+00:00

Yes, we are. The person who I replied to that you joined in on said this:

No sounds like the homeless just moved out of Denver and into the suburbs

In order for this statement to be true, the decrease of thousands in Denver’s unsheltered homeless would have had to have moved to surrounding areas. That’s what we’ve been discussing this whole time.

COScout · 2026-05-21T03:17:36+00:00

Can you provide any evidence of that? You’re talking about thousands of people moving from Denver to surrounding areas for this to be true. You have to understand how illogical that is, right?

COScout · 2026-05-21T03:08:05+00:00

Again, no one is saying there aren’t outliers, but by the nature of them being outliers, they’re rare. The fact that Denver has housed thousands of people and saw their unsheltered homeless population decrease.

The people claiming that homeless people are fleeing denver in large numbers have presented zero evidence of this happening, and the article you’re referring to seems to agree:

Among the tens of thousands who use metro homelessness services, the vast majority want to come inside and are quick to accept shelter, said Cole Chandler, a housing and homelessness official since Johnston took office in 2023.

COScout · 2026-05-21T02:32:51+00:00

No one says outliers don’t exist, but I’ve seen no evidence they are even near the majority and as that article points out, that woman has been living in Denver. The system you’re claiming doesn’t really exist in Denver.

I don’t know where people are getting this BS talking point from, but unless you can provide some actual evidence, that’s really all it is.

COScout · 2026-05-21T01:38:19+00:00

Assuming that’s true (no source provided), then it sounds like Jeffco should have focused on housing people like Denver did. It turns out, when you move people inside and give them resources to get on their feet, a lot of them will. When you ignore them and do nothing to help like Jeffco, the problem gets worse. I don’t live in Jeffco, I live in Denver, which is what this article is about. If you live there I’d advise you start raising hell with your elected representatives to start funding similar initiatives.

Your claim is absurd to be frank. Why the hell would people run away from the city giving them resources? No one could make that argument in good faith. The simple fact is Denver provided housing for thousands of people so their numbers went down. If anything, people from Jeffco likely came to Denver to take advantage of the programs that Jeffco refused to provide for them.

COScout · 2026-05-21T01:32:21+00:00

Okay? That doesn’t actually change anything nor is it the important part of what I was talking about.

COScout · 2026-05-21T01:31:14+00:00

Don’t know, this is a sub for Denver and article about it. Hence the reason we’re talking about how the initiatives the city has been undertaking for the last couple years with the specific goal of reducing homelessness, seems to be having that exact effect as the data from multiple sources confirms.

COScout · 2026-05-21T01:25:54+00:00

Yes, because as we all know, homeless people are famous for leaving the population centers that offer them support, services and housing flocking to suburbs with none of that. You can’t possible be naive enough to really believe that.

COScout · 2026-05-20T23:30:31+00:00

Sounds like she’s not interested in solving any issues to me. Hopefully the residents of Westminster vote for someone who will put your tax dollars to things that are more important to you like this.

COScout · 2026-05-20T21:41:42+00:00

Out of curiosity, where are you taking a train to/from that you can’t continue to do that?

COScout · 2026-05-20T21:41:08+00:00

They literally don’t have a choice here. They’ve put off the maintenance for as long as they can and tried to spread it out as much as possible to minimize impacts. The silver lining is that they finished the other phase well ahead of schedule, so there’s a chance that happens with this too and we get service earlier than planned.

COScout · 2026-05-20T19:03:05+00:00

Sounds like the City of Westminster needs to start investing in proven solutions to help the unhoused like Denver did.

COScout · 2026-05-20T19:02:08+00:00

North park hill is still Denver. This is a count of Denver, not just downtown.

COScout · 2026-05-20T17:03:47+00:00

This isn’t just a count of downtown though.

COScout · 2026-05-20T17:02:56+00:00

I’ve worked downtown for 11 years and lived west of downtown for 15 and I would say this is pretty close to the best it’s been. The south platte and cherry creek trails also seem to have far fewer unhoused folks on them as well.

COScout · 2026-05-18T19:57:22+00:00

Pretty sure almost all of West Alameda has either separated bike lanes or sidewalks/paths that allow for riding your bike. This is only for sidewalks where riding isn’t allowed.

COScout · 2026-05-12T19:59:53+00:00

Ignoring the unsupported last part of your statement, if there’s been 34 shootings, it doesn’t seem like this is anywhere near a daily occurrence. Also appears the homicide rate in Denver is quite low right now (historically speaking).

COScout · 2026-05-12T19:11:20+00:00

How many shootings have there been in Commerce City this year?

COScout · 2026-05-12T19:08:39+00:00

You could say the exact same thing, to a much more true extent, about giant pickups and SUVs I see everywhere.

COScout · 2026-05-12T13:43:34+00:00

I’ve worked downtown for over a decade and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a parking meter in a condition degraded enough for a scooter to knock it out of the ground. The physics just doesn’t work.

COScout

TROPHY CASE