While Denver Mayor Mike Johnston prioritizes housing for homeless first, on-site treatment is available at the temporary shelters where hundreds have been brought to.

“Our No. 1 priority is giving people the stability and wraparound support they need to get back on their feet and find permanent housing,” Johnston told The Denver Gazette in a statement on Wednesday. “We’re deeply committed to ensuring the Denverites moving into transitional housing have high-quality mental health and addiction treatment services on site.”

Out of first 550 homeless people that moved to shelters and hotels over the several months, only one opted for “intensive” treatment outside.

Denver’s homeless population faces a daunting drug overdose crisis. So far this year, 477 people have died from drug overdoses in Denver — homeless people made up 181 of those deaths or about 38%. 

“That number indicates the one person who has left for intensive in-patient treatment,” a mayor’s office spokesperson said, referring to the person who took advantage of the outside treatment program. “Every single hotel and micro-community has on-site mental health and substance use treatment for residents. Through regular case management on-site, residents in need of treatment are given the support they need.”

It’s not immediately clear how many homeless people have taken advantage of the onsite treatment programs. It’s also not immediately clear what types of treatment programs the city offers at the shelters.  

Kelsang Virya, a Buddhist nun who volunteers to help the homeless at each encampment sweep, told The Denver Gazette the city is “missing the most vulnerable people,” referring homeless individuals with mental health and drug abuse challenges.  

In an interview on Tuesday, Johnston said, “We wouldn’t say that in patient treatment is necessarily a successful outcome here. That would be like saying the number of students that get kicked out of high school to an alternative school would be a success metric. There are a certain number of people that would need highly acute in patient residential support. But our theory and strategy here that’s supported by evidence is there are a large number of individuals that are unhoused that do have some mental health and addiction based needs, but they’re in the mild to moderate acuity range.”

He added: “A great deal of those needs can be met successfully by first bringing them indoors, getting the stable shelter, services and support, getting wraparound services and getting them back to work.”

Undergirding Johnston’s promise to end homelessness is “housing first.” The idea is to respond to an individual’s most acute needs first, which advocates argue is housing, and then offer other services, such as mental health treatment, later.

The mayor’s office described a successful outcome to mean “a person getting back on their feet and attaining a permanent housing outcome.” 

Denver has tapped Colorado Coalition for the Homeless to provide behavioral and physical health care at housing sites for $850,000.

The coalition is in the process of scheduling mobile treatment, according to Cathy Alderman, a spokesperson for the group.

“Essentially, it’s an RV that has two exam rooms in it,” she said. “In some instances, they will be going on site and providing care on site perhaps, you know, in an unused room or a conference room.”

The services the coalition will offer will include wellness checks, medicine, vaccines and condition monitoring, Alderman said. Regular therapy would be done at the coalition’s health center, she added.