Denver asking property owners to rent space to migrants

Property owners in Denver are being asked to rent their places out to migrants as the Colorado city shuts down four public-run shelters.

The Mile High City’s migrant services issued an email this week to property owners in the area seeking assistance in housing the city’s “newcomers” to get them out of shelters and into more stable housing.

“We put out a feeler to all the landlords we have connections with,” Jon Ewing from Denver Human Services told KDVR. “Basically said, listen, we’re going to have some newcomers who are going to need housing.”

The department’s email gauged the rental owners’ interest in opening their listings to the city’s migrants, but at a budget.

“We’ve got kind of a rent cap — $2,000,” Ewing added.

The emails come a week after Denver closed down four different shelters to save $60 million in what they labeled as “consolidation.”

“Denver today announced the consolidation of newcomer shelter operations from seven hotels to three by early April as part of the city’s strategy to move newcomers from shelter to stability,” the Denver Newcomer and Migrant Support website reads.

Denver was expected to pay nearly $180 million on the migrant crisis this year, but the savings announcement cut it down to $120 million, according to the Colorado Sun.

Venezuelans make up the vast majority of the over 40,000 migrants that have arrived in the Mile High City since 2023, according to the outlet.

Most migrants are bussed from the border to Denver, but approximately 40 to 60 percent get on another bus and head to other US cities.

“Many people, as you know, arrive in Denver never having intended to come to Denver,” Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said. They just got put on the bus and this was their first stop.”

“We’re noticing that more folks are now aware of the volume of migrants that Denver has welcomed and that the availability of jobs and housing that had been present six months ago is not as present today.”

The migrants living in the four hotels set to close in the coming weeks will be moved to another shelter or more stable housing according to the consolidation plans, which were first announced on Feb. 28.

As part of the plans, individuals living in the shelters are given a stay limit of 14 days, 42 days for families with children.

In February, several far-left New York City Council members pushed to scrap Mayor Eric Adams’ 60-day cap on migrants living in shelters in the Big Apple.

In July, Adams imposed the limit on stays at city-run shelters, saying it was needed because the surge of migrants crossing the southern border and coming to New York had left little space.

Denver’s new migrant policies come after the city was faced with 5,000 people in shelters and nearly 200 daily arrivals in the Colorado area between December and January.

“We’re at below 1,800 right now, which is the first time that number’s been that low since September,” Ewing said.

Ewing said the migrants will eventually pay rent for themselves once they are authorized to work after attending clinics that help them get legal work permits.

“1,300 people right now, over the last two weeks or so, that we’ve been able to help get their work permits,” Ewing told FOX 31 Denver. “That’s a huge step.”

Last month, a Massachusetts couple volunteered the extra space in their home to host a migrant family, and were surprised that a family of four arrived at their doorstep an hour later.