Mayor Mike Johnston today announced Denver has delivered the largest two-year reduction in street homelessness in U.S. history, along with the lowest number of unsheltered individuals in the country among large cities participating in the annual Point-In-Time (PIT) Count.
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston
“Denver is proving that homelessness is solvable so long as we are willing to put in the work to solve it,” said 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.”
The PIT Count is part of a national effort to track sheltered and unsheltered homelessness and is conducted on a single night in January. It is led by Metro Denver Homeless Initiative (MDHI), which released this year’s results on Monday. Unsheltered homelessness, which is Mayor Johnston’s top priority, relates to individuals sleeping on the streets or other places unsuited to live. Sheltered homelessness refers to those staying in a shelter, safe house, or transitional home.
In 2025, the PIT Count found 785 people living on the streets of Denver—marking a 38% reduction in unsheltered homelessness from 2024, when 1,273 were experiencing street homelessness, and a 45% drop from 2023, when 1,423 people were without a safe place to live. The 45% figure is the largest two-year drop of any major city on record and constitutes just 18 months of work by the Johnston Administration. Current numbers also show fewer people are living on Denver’s streets that at any time since Jan. 2019.
Denver’s 2025 results are the best in the country among cities with published results, outpacing Washington, D.C., Dallas, Atlanta, and others working diligently to end homelessness in their communities. The report also found that unsheltered homelessness fell across the broader Denver Metro area, with Denver’s efforts serving as the primary catalyst.
“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 MDHI Executive Director Jason Johnson. “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.”
In late 2024, Denver became the largest city in the U.S. to end the cycle of street homelessness for veterans, meaning Denver has the capacity and ability to immediately bring any veteran indoors who wishes to do so. While the report shows sheltered homelessness is up, the rate of which it is occurring is leveling off, signaling Denver has made a significant impact in curbing the rise of homelessness. Additionally, the report found that Denver is seeing fewer people become homeless for the first time.
“This success shows what Denver is made of,” said Community Solutions CEO Roseanne Haggerty. “The city’s commitment to data driven solutions is achieving historic reductions in unsheltered homelessness, first for the veteran population and now the general population. Denver’s example should inspire the country that real progress is possible in making homelessness rare and brief.”
Mayor Johnston declared a state of emergency on homelessness on his first day in office in July 2023, setting about solving a problem many believed to be unsolvable. Since then, nearly 7,000 people have come inside through Mayor Johnston’s All In Mile High initiative and more than 5,500 have secured permanent housing, including more than 1,000 individuals since the PIT Count was conducted in January of this year. Beyond saving lives, the program has also served as an economic investment, transforming neighborhoods and making it easier to support local businesses by permanently closing more than 400 blocks of Downtown Denver to camping.
The city extends its most sincere appreciation to MDHI, whose work is pivotal to understanding homelessness not only in Denver but in the broader Metro region, as well as other key partners whose dedication made these results possible.
While many instances of homelessness resolve on their own, a lack of affordable housing and threats to federal benefits like housing vouchers, the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid continue to pose challenges in helping people avoid homelessness. Denver will continue to explore all avenues to lower the cost of living and improve circumstances for all residents.