The Denver City Council pulled $25 million Monday out of the city’s contingency fund and capital improvement budget to pay for the ongoing sheltering of migrants, which city officials increasingly refer to as “newcomers.”
The council took $10 million from contingency and $15 million from capital improvement. The capital improvement money would have paid for improvements at the city’s Denver Human Services Castro campus.
The contingency fund can be used for an unexpected event such as a natural disaster or accident, large unappropriated payouts or personnel costs such as retirement payout or midyear salary adjustments that cannot be absorbed by agency appropriation, unfunded mandates as a result of legislation, and for planned one-time expenditures that advance a programmatic or financial outcome. The fund’s balance after the transfer is $24.2 million, according to a presentation from city staff.
Number of sheltered migrants in Denver dropping
The city currently is sheltering 3,813 migrants, mostly in seven hotels across the city. That number is down from a peak of more than 5,000. Sheltering costs about $90 per person per night, according to a presentation city staff gave to a council committee. The city also has ramped up purchasing ongoing bus and air travel for the migrants at a cost of about $300 per ticket, according to the presentation.