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Council rejects $9 million amendment to shift police recruit funds to family sheltering after lengthy debate
Summary
A high-profile amendment to redirect $9 million from police recruiting and services to HOST sheltering for unsheltered families failed after hours of testimony from council members, the Department of Housing Stability, police leadership and finance staff. Supporters cited hundreds of families on waitlists; opponents warned of cuts to recruit classes and slower police response times.
Denver City Council voted down an amendment that would have reduced budgeted police recruiting and services and diverted $9 million to the Department of Housing Stability to address unsheltered family homelessness. The amendment, introduced by Council Member Gonzalez Gutierrez, sparked one of the night's longest debates.
Gonzales Gutierrez said the funds would give HOST the flexibility to reduce an estimated waitlist of approximately 240 families and allow rapid rehousing or sheltering options. "Getting folks indoors is just one part of the equation," she said, and argued the city could repurpose recruitment overages to address urgent family homelessness.
Department of Housing Stability Executive Director Jamie Reif cautioned that while HOST has strategies to bring families inside, provider capacity for rapid rehousing is limited and standing up congregate shelters or hotel-based sheltering requires time and procurement. "We would have to RFP for rapid rehousing or congregate shelter," Reif told council members, noting operational and staffing constraints.
Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas and Department of Finance staff warned that cutting the recruit budget would likely reduce the number of academy classes and could increase response times. Chief Thomas said simulations showed a smaller recruit plan could add roughly two minutes to priority response times for some areas. Finance staff and the Department of Public Safety explained that some recruit funding covers rollovers from classes that span budget years, complicating simplistic cuts.
Councilmembers voiced starkly different priorities on public safety versus sheltering. Some urged reallocating specific procurement line items in the police services budget, while others said the proposed cuts were too deep and too blunt. After roll-call, the amendment failed. Multiple alternate amendments with different sources or amounts were discussed subsequently, some succeeding in moving more modest sums to shelter programs, workforce and outreach.
