Progressive activists gave Mayor Mike Johnston a “D” and argued that he and councilmembers have a lot of homework to do if they want to raise their grade when it comes to meeting the needs of all of the city’s residents.

On Monday, representatives from the Denver Taskforce To Reimagine Policing and Public Safety (the Taskforce), Latino United Neighbors Association (LUNA) and Housekeys Action Network Denver (HAND) held a press conference outside the door to Johnston’s office, rating the city’s performance on a variety of indicators, including public safety, housing and homelessness, economic opportunity, and city governance. They unveiled the report before Johnston announced his 2025 priorities on Wednesday.

Since taking office in July 2023, Johnston’s administration has spent $155 million to address homelessness — $65 million more than Johnston previously said it would cost.

Johnston, who released his 2024 report card in January, cited multiple successes in reducing the homeless rate, promising even more ambitious efforts in 2025.

Among the three report cards released on Monday, progressives gave Johnston multiple Ds and Fs.

Denver Task Force Budget Scorecard

LUNA Mayoral Scorecard

Mayoral Scorecard HAND

Terese Howard from Housekeys Action Network Denver said the mayor has failed to keep his campaign promises of ending sweeps of homeless camps in freezing temperatures.

“We brought forward a bill, which he then vetoed,” she said.

In February of 2024, Denver City Council passed a bill that would have banned sweeps of homeless encampments if the temperature is below 32 degrees.

“When the weather turns cold, our primary goal is to move people experiencing homelessness inside,” Johnston wrote in a Feb 2, 2024 letter to councilmembers vetoing the ordinance. “Over the past six months, we have worked together to advance an ambitious effort to get people experiencing homelessness into shelter and housing, a priority shared by the bill sponsors. Though well-intentioned, this legislation would restrict the city’s ability to do this life-saving work for approximately four months of the year.”

Councilmembers failed to override Johnston’s veto.

Dr. Robert Davis, program manager for the Denver Task Force to Reimagine Policing and Public Safety, argued that councilmembers should be more aggressive in countering some of the mayor’s moves.

“There were several amendments that were proposed and multiple amendments that would have really benefited the city, that would have begun to help address our various crises from the migrant crisis to our unhoused crisis, which were promoted by the City Council, but as soon as the mayor said that he didn’t support them, several City Council members stepped back and said, ‘Okay, well, we’re not going to override his veto,’” Davis said.

He added: “We have to demand that City Council becomes courageous so that we can, again, actually have a budget that demonstrates that we are, in fact, a fair, just and moral city.”

In response, the mayor’s office said Johnston’s record should speak for itself.

“Mayor Johnston is focused on delivering real results for Denverites, including the largest one-year reduction in street homelessness on record, successfully managing the migrant crisis by creating a sustainable program for newcomers in Denver, and creating a balanced budget that delivers world-class services for our residents,” said Jordan Fuja, a spokesperson for Mayor Mike Johnston. “As 2025 gets underway, we look forward to continuing to build a vibrant, affordable, and safe city for all Denverites.”

“We are at a very unprecedented time,” added Lisa Calderón, who ran for mayor in a crowded race against Johnston and who represents Latino United Neighbors Association. “We have a community that is terrified of our most vulnerable, whether it be our unhoused neighbors or our migrants, new neighbors who are coming, folks who have been here for generations, it doesn’t matter.”

Calderón added: “Denver is an increasingly unaffordable place to live, and we do not hear our reassuring words from our mayor. We want to see him succeed because if he succeeds, we succeed, but you don’t succeed by just having snappy sound bites without substance behind them.”

The activists also alleged Johnston failed the queer community and people with disabilities, “two of the absolute most vulnerable communities on the streets.”

“Right now, as for our disabled community, it has not been good,” Ana-Lilith Miller of HAND. “We are currently working with a law firm to do a lawsuit to have the shelter become more disability accessible.”

Miller alleged that individuals in wheelchairs had been turned away in the cold because they did not arrive by curfew time and that the city’s response to protect LGBTQ individuals while being housed in city-operated shelters had been lukewarm.