DENVER — The Denver City Council approved the city’s 2025 budget Tuesday by a vote of 13 to 0. At $1.76 billion, the budget is only slightly higher than this year's budget. It’s also the tightest budget the city has seen since 2011, aside from the pandemic.
City officials attribute the tight budget to pandemic funding from the federal government drying up and sales tax revenue softening. Despite that, the budget funds many of Mayor Mike Johnston’s key priorities.
The city plans to spend $60 million to create or preserve 1,400 affordable housing units.
The budget provides $22 million for rent and utility assistance to help people stay in their homes amid record eviction filings.
The mayor’s All In Mile High homelessness resolution program will receive $57.5 million, a decrease of $26.5 million from this year. Johnston said because infrastructure – such as hotel shelters – have been established, future costs won’t be as high.
The budget includes $11.9 train and hire 168 police officers, 24 firefighters and 60 sheriff’s deputies. Over $11 million will be spent on the new Office of Neighborhood Safety Johnston established in May.
The budget doesn’t include funding to provide safe parking spaces for people who live in RVs, as some council members requested.
“While we understand the need underlying this request, we believe the best use of limited resources is to help people move out of RVs and into stable housing,” Johnston said in a letter responding to the council. “This is particularly true given past challenges in finding a responsible partner to develop and operate a safe RV parking site.”
The budget also does not include funding for the Denver Basic Income Project, which provides people experiencing homelessness with direct cash.
The city provided initial funding for the project, but the mayor’s office said there was no significant difference in homelessness resolution.
“Unfortunately, the data did not show a statistically significant difference in homelessness resolution between the groups who received large cash transfers and those who did not,” Johnston said. “Because the data showed limited results, we have directed our homelessness resolution funding toward programs that more efficiently help Denverites in need.”
But supporters disagree with that assessment and are disappointed the city won’t support the program next year.
“We are incredibly disappointed that the City of Denver has cut funding for the Denver Basic Income Project (DBIP) in its 2025 budget.,” said Mark Donvan, who founded the Denver Basic Income Project. “We agree that the city should spend its limited resources as efficiently as possible, and we believe direct cash is an important factor in helping the City achieve its housing goals. We are stronger and more impactful if we continue to work together to build a healthier community.”
The budget will provide more funding to help combat climate change next year.
The city will provide $3 million to help train young people for green jobs in clean energy and natural resources management.
The city will also spend $8.5 million to provide more help for childcare, after school programming, and youth violence prevention.
Click here to learn more about the city’s 2025 budget.
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