DENVER — In the week leading up to Denver Mayor-elect Mike Johnston’s inauguration, the mayor’s team is hosting a series of community forums.
Each Forum is centered around a key issue like housing, public safety and community development.
Mutual Aid Monday, a Denver nonprofit co-hosted one of the forums on Monday evening where Terese Howard, a spokesperson for Housekeys Action Network Denver hoped to tell the team about the city's housing needs.
“The conversation has to be both about what the mayor's administration is going to do to actually create the housing that we need, and what the mayor's administration is going to do to stop criminalizing people for just surviving on the streets right now,” Howard said. “So we would like to see the city under the Johnston administration actually say ‘we're going to put the step forward to create the housing that people actually want and need, regardless of whether that costs much, much more or less’. That is what's vital. And we can do that as a city. We have the possibility to put our resources together to move it forward. And so that people actually have the kind of housing that they want. That can be through master leasing, that can be through a social housing program."
Angela Browne who currently lives at the Rodeway Inn, a shelter slated to close in just a few weeks, said she plans to attend one of the forums to talk to the mayor’s team about the need for non-congregate shelters.
“We did reach out to the mayor's office, and we did have a meeting with him regarding the shelter closures, the hotel closures,” Browne said. “We're asking the mayor to take a look at these agencies that have been providing care like TSA, that Salvation Army and various other agencies to audit them and make them be accountable for where these funds are going.”
Denver native Tina Debouse said she wants the Johnston administration to focus on community activities.
“Just more community involvement and things that are free and affordable for the community…. barbecues and things like that. carnivals for the kids and just more activities that involve the mental health community and the homeless, disabled,” Debouse said. “I think it will give us a sense of belonging and a sense of pride that our Mayor is really taking our health issues into consideration.”
Eight more community forums will be held through Friday evening. Johnston will be inaugurated as the city's 46th mayor on July 17.
