DENVER - Denver City Council is considering increasing the cap on the amount of money it can spend on security services. The security budget covers services to all municipal buildings across the city including Denver-run homeless and immigrant shelters.
As 2024 began, the city was housing thousands of people.
"In January, we had near 5,000 people in shelter. We had 10 facilities going at a time. we had an enormous number of people arriving per day, 200 to 300 people per day. You have a large security need for that," said Jon Ewing, spokesperson with the City of Denver, "You cannot go without security, period. Whether you have 500 people in shelter or five people in shelter, you need security."
That point became very clear after two people were killed at the homeless shelter off Quebec earlier this year.
"Security is always a main concern. You absolutely have to make sure people in that vulnerable situation, that we're able to protect them," said Ewing
The cityincreased security there in March.
Residents who spoke with Denver7 noticed a stark difference.
"It was pretty bad because anybody could come in and like knock on your door or try to just knock it out, knock it down," said Alejandro Castandea who has lived at the shelter off Quebec for several months, "Since they have the security, that's pretty good. Nobody can go in there. You know? If you're not from this building, you can't go in there."
Click the video player below to see a Denver7 report detailing seven deaths at Denver hotel shelters since the beginning of 2024.
At a presentation to the city's Finance & Governance Committee, city staff said the immigrant and homeless response has been the two biggest strains on the city's entire security budget.
They are asking to increase the contract capacity with Advanced Professional Security- Colorado, LLC and Denver Metro Protective Services from $400,000 respectively to $3.4 million each.
That's more than a 800% increase. The request also includes an addition $18 million to the contract for Securitas Security Services.
"It is just approval to spend up to that amount. If we don't get up to $3 million [spent], if we spend $200,000 for the rest of the year. Sounds good. That's all we're spending," said Ewing. "This is not: we're committing to spending this amount of money. That is absolutely not what this is. This is being prepared for scenarios that we cannot yet foresee and having that money available."
Ewing points out, last summer the city could not have anticipated by the time December came around, they'd be seeing more than 140 charter buses coming into the Denver carrying hundreds of people per day.
An estimate on current security spending was highlighted at Tuesday's presentation.
"For 2024 expenses, those would be the All in Mile High sites, and we have three of those sites currently that we're providing security services, since we started that a little bit later in the year, we are projecting about a $3.2 million spend through the end of the year for those sites to provide 24/7 security," said, Kami Johle, the Director of Administration with the Department of General Services, "The other driver is the newcomer sites and I do believe those expenses are being covered by the SRF ... I think we're roughly in the $2million-ish range right now."
City staff said the updated proposed security contracts are to prepare for the unexpected, while the effort to get people out of shelters and into permanent housing continues.
"Once you get people into apartments, you don't need security there. Once you get people into housing, you don't need security there. That's what we're aiming for," said Ewing.
