Migrants excluded from metro Denver homeless count

Data presented in the Point in Time count of people experiencing homelessness in Denver for 2024 did not include unhoused migrants, a representative of the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative told a City Council committee Wednesday.

According to a presentation by Kyla Moe, the count tallied 9,977 people experiencing homelessness in the metro Denver region. A total of 2,919 of them were living outdoors or in other areas not meant for human habitation. But these numbers do not include migrants who were staying at shelters specifically stood up for them, she said.

Reports of migrants staying in homeless encampments and traditional shelters have been widespread this year. MDHI counted migrants for the January event, Moe said, at the shelters that were stood up specifically for them. The totals from the migrant shelters only were provided to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. They were not included in the public report.

“We are required to report them to HUD so if you go to the HUD website you will see the numbers don’t match the local report,” Moe said. “We have chosen as a continuum to exclude them from our local reporting to kind of look more apples to apples with what we’ve been experiencing over the years. It’s kind of hard to trend data.” HUD has not yet posted results from the 2024 count, but previous years' counts are on its website.

Many migrants moved to traditional homeless shelters in Denver after their time ran out at the migrant shelters. Others moved to encampments on the street.

Moe explained that data collection methods have improved over the years. Not all data were collected the same way each year. That makes it difficult to make comparisons over time, she said, and the migrant factor further complicated ways of comparing data.

Council member Diana Romero Campbell asked whether the migrants would be included in next year’s count. Moe explained that when the city stands up shelters specifically for migrants, those will be counted. But there is no way to count migrants staying in traditional shelters because volunteers do not ask about citizenship.

At one time, hundreds of migrants were living in encampments on Denver’s streets. The mayor’s office housed some of them temporarily, but advocates have said many are returning to the streets after their assistance has run out.

Data should inform policy, Watson says

Council member Darrell Watson said data from the Point in Time count and the Homeless Management Information System, or HMIS, should dictate city policy.

Several council members asked for more detailed data from the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative, which conducts the count, and the city’s Department of Housing Stability, or HOST. Moe said MDHI can provide additional data points from information in the HMIS.

The HMIS is a database of information about people experiencing homelessness --- where they sleep at night, take a shower or access other services. Most homeless services agencies feed their information about clients into the HMIS, where all social workers can access it and make informed decisions about services.

The Point in Time count included self-reported data on why people became homeless. Council members said they would like to see that data broken down by various factors, from ethnicity to people experiencing homelessness for the first time.

Some ethnicities overrepresented among homelessness

Council member Jamie Torres said she wants an assessment from HOST of what is happening in populations that are overrepresented in homelessness, such as Black people, Pacific Islanders, and Indigenous people.

“We can’t keep looking at this as what serves all serves each individual group, especially when they’re overrepresented,” Torres said. HOST Deputy Director Midori Higa responded that Black people are overrepresented nationwide among people experiencing homelessness. “We know from so many other systems that Black folks won’t fare well because our systems have failed them for so long,” Higa said. “This is just another example of how the systems have failed people so badly that they are now experiencing homelessness.”

Higa said HOST encourages its partner agencies to hire people of color and people with lived experience of homelessness. “Some agencies are better at hiring people of color and lived experience than others. We also know that people are more likely to (agree to) receive services from someone who looks like them than from someone who doesn’t look like them.”

Torres said she wants HOST to prepare “A report that can tell us here are some of the ways we’ve seen better inroads with the Black population, better outcomes. That’s just something I’d like to see from HOST in the future.”

Undercounted by about 20,000

Moe emphasized in her presentation that the Point-in-Time count only occurs on one night in January and undercounts people experiencing homelessness. Council member Paul Kashmann asked by how much they suspect homeless people are undercounted. Moe replied that as many as 30,000 people annually access homeless services in the Denver Metro. “Thirty thousand, wow, that’s really sad,” Kashmann said.