Denver sees homelessness rise, fewer live on streets

(The Center Square) – The city of Denver has applauded its achievement of the “largest ever reduction in U.S. street homelessness.”

But stats show the total number of homeless, including those in shelters, continues to grow in the metro area.

This is according to the annual Point-In-Time Count, which is a national effort by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to track sheltered and unsheltered homelessness. It is conducted on a single night in January.

In 2025, the count found 10,774 homeless people in the metro Denver area, which consists of seven counties. That is up from 9,977 in 2024 and 46% from 2019, when there were only 5,755 homeless reported.

The count also found a reduction in unsheltered homelessness. Of the 10,774 homeless individuals, 80% or 8,625 were considered sheltered, while 20% or 2,149 were unsheltered.

This is down from 2,919 unsheltered in 2024 and 2,763 in 2023.

While 2025 had a record number of homeless reported, the city said, “Denver has made a significant impact in curbing the rise of homelessness.”

“Denver is proving that homelessness is solvable so long as we are willing to put in the work to solve it,” said Denver Mayor Mike Johnston. “In less than two years, we have gone from a city that swept people from block to block to one that treats people with dignity and delivers real results. This policy is not only morally just but effective.”

Lowering Denver’s unsheltered homelessness has been a top priority for Johnston, with the city allocating $203 million to its homelessness response in fiscal years 2023 and 2024. The city labeled these initiatives a “primary catalyst” for getting homeless off the streets.

Yet, despite trending down, the numbers are still much higher than in previous years such as 2019, when there were only 946 unsheltered homeless reported by PIT.

Still, a statement from the city applauded the “largest two-year reduction in street homelessness in U.S. history.”

“Throughout Metro Denver, we are seeing more people end unsheltered homelessness by coming indoors to access critically important, life-saving shelter and housing resources,” said Jason Johnson, executive director of Metro Denver Homeless Initiative, who conducted Denver’s PIT Count. “Denver is a prime example that if you invest in appropriate levels and types of shelter and housing, people will use them to leave behind a life on the streets.”

The Common Sense Institute of Colorado pointed out the discrepancies between the messaging and the real numbers.

“The Denver metro area’s varied responses to the region’s homelessness crisis are yielding varied results, with some counties and cities seeing increases in homeless population and others seeing continued record highs,” it said in a report on the numbers. “As a whole, the Denver metro area’s homeless population has never been as large, and the number of chronically homeless individuals has never been as high.”

That report also pointed out a concerning upward trend in the number of “chronically homeless.”

The number of chronically homeless individuals rose to 3,351, a 17% increase from 2024. Since 2019, though, the number of chronically homeless individuals in the Denver metro area has nearly tripled, rising 189%.

Denver predicts the increasing homelessness is “leveling off.” Yet it’s unclear if that will continue with an imminent drop in funding to homelessness initiatives in future city budgets.