Denver Mayor Mike Johnston said he doesn’t waste his time with an anonymous social media account critical of his administration’s handling of the homelessness crisis in the city.

On Thursday’s episode of the City Cast Denver podcast, Johnston was asked by host Bree Davies and senior producer Paul Karolyi about the @DoBetterDNVR Instagram account, which regularly posts videos of homeless people in crisis in Denver.

The anonymous Instagram account, which gained 57,000-plus followers largely as a result of its critical coverage of the city’s handling of the homelessness issue, regularly refers to Denver’s mayor as “Meth camp Mike.”

Karolyi asked Johnston if he were aware of the criticism and the nickname.

“I just don’t pay attention to those, to that folk,” Johnston said. “Like, I’m happy to talk to real individuals who want to come to town halls and have real conversations or want to meet with us. Folks that hide behind anonymous accounts and cast dispersions without information doesn’t bother me or waste my time.”

Johnston insisted his focus instead is listening to the city residents.

The Johnston administration is poised to spend roughly $100 million on homelessness by the end of this year. He has promised to end the crisis in his first term and outlined an ambitious plan to get another 1,000 homeless people in shelters, such as “micro-communities” and former hotels, this year. 

The hotel-turned-shelters have been a hot of crime and violence, the data show.

On average, 833 calls to 911 were made within 1,000 meters of Denver’s five hotel-turned-shelters for homeless people between Oct. 1 and Jan. 2. In particular, the shelter at 4040 Quebec, a former DoubleTree hotel, has seen the most trouble: Seven people died there, two of them by shooting.

“Feedback from them I take very seriously,” Johnston said of city residents. “So, if I talk to a business owner who’s worried about crime in their business, we’ll get on it right away.”

Several businesses in the heart of downtown Denver said they have watched the deteriorate over the years.

Doc Miller, who runs the South Broadway Bed & Breakfast hotel, last month told The Denver Gazette that the city is “literally falling into the second ring of hell.”

“We are under siege,” the business owner.

The area has 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 have told The Denver Gazette.

When asked whether he feels pressure from influential social media accounts like @DoBetterDNVR or their followers, Johnston dismissed the notion.

“No, I think we feel pressure to deliver results for Denverites and that’s been our commitment,” Johnston said. “And I think when we look at results, you know, we’ve moved 1,500 people off the streets and into housing. That’s what we heard from the White House, more than any city in American history has done in this amount of time.”

“And 95% of those folks are still successfully housed,” he claimed.