On any given day, Doc Miller keeps an eye on his wife Judith watering the garden outside of their South Broadway Bed & Breakfast hotel, wondering when a homeless person would come and threaten her.
Their bed and breakfast is the only hotel along the south Broadway corridor, a busy zone that draws shoppers and diners.
But the area has also become a hotspot for people openly using drugs in an area with a higher population of homeless people.
Whether it’s someone passed out on a sidewalk or a drug deal happening in broad daylight at an intersection, the corridor has fostered an illicit drug market and attracted violence, business owners and residents said.
“The city is literally falling into the second ring of hell,” said Miller. “We are under siege.”
Within 1,000 meters of Miller’s hotel, 309 emergency 911 calls were made in the last three months of 2023, according to public safety data.
But that number still pales in comparison to the average 833 calls made within 1,000 meters of Denver’s five hotel-turned-shelters for homeless people between Oct. 1 and Jan. 2.