DENVER — With just over two months left for Denver Mayor Mike Johnston to reach his goal of getting 1,000 people experiencing homelessness off the streets, a new partnership with the White House has been launched to make the most of the time left.
"Earlier this year, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, the Phoenix metro area, Seattle and the State of California help the Biden/Harris administration launch the All INside Initiative and we're thrilled to have Denver joins us in this important work," said Jeff Olivet, director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH).
The goal of the All INside Initiative is to reduce homelessness across the country 25% by 2025.
The new partnership between the USICH and the City of Denver will embed a federal leader locally to help the city have easier access to federal resources.
"It means breaking through barriers that can help you do your work faster and more efficiently. The results will be that there will be less red tape that makes it difficult for people to access housing, healthcare and other programs," Olivet said.
The mayor wasn't able to identify which part of Denver's Homeless Initiative would see the benefit of this partnership first, but said the city will continue to focus on an approach that includes wrap-around services.
"Any part of the pipeline, which is both how we deliver services right now that are related to housing, how we connect people to mental health services, how we connect them to workforce training, how we connect them to vouchers that will help them get into permanent long term housing — many of those are all influenced or controlled by federal resources or federal regulations," Johnston said.
The new federal partner will be on staff with the city through the end of 2024.
