Denver officials identified 15 apartment complexes with a high concentration of immigrants with tenants facing eviction — the latest focal point in a city whose finances have been stretched thin to pay for the influx of people from America's southern borders.
Officials said they are looking to create a process with the landlords to refer residents to resources for “those at risk of evictions,” Perla Gheiler, executive director of the Denver Human Rights and Community Partnerships, told Denver City Council members during an update on the city’s immigrant response on Tuesday.
“There’s a lot of evictions happening,” Gheiler told The Denver Gazette following the meeting.
Gheiler did not disclose which apartment complexes nor the reason for the high rate of evictions.
As of July 14, 58 households — likely immigrants who just arrived in Denver — have received nearly $500,000 in utility and rental assistance to help keep them housed.
Denver Councilwoman Sarah Parady, whose district has many immigrants, requested that Gheiler inform councilmembers “off line” where the apartment complexes are located.
Jon Ewing, a spokesperson for Denver Human Services, estimated about 4% of those who received rental and utility assistance from the city were immigrants.
Denver Human Services, which has been managing the response to the crisis, is the umbrella department for the city’s so-called "Newcomer Program" to deal with the crush of illegal immigrants who arrived in Denver in the past two years after illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
Little else was publicly disclosed about the issue on Tuesday.
Immigrant evictions is emerging as a growing issue in the Denver metro region. Last week, Aurora officials evicted more than 50 families from an apartment complex on Nome Street and Colfax Avenue with a history of health and safety code violations.
The landlord of Aspen Grove Apartments — a 98-unit complex operated by CBZ Management — has blamed the shoddy conditions on the presence of the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua, also known as TDA, saying it poses a danger to staff and residents.
After originally pushing back on the Aurora landlord’s narrative about the Venezuelan gang, Ryan Luby, a spokesperson for the Aurora Police Department, said Tuesday that he had “never denied the possibility of gang activity” but that it was “immaterial” to the living conditions.
Nearly 43,000 immigrants have received services from Denver in the 21 months since a busload of 90 people were dropped off downtown to wander in the cold in December of 2022.
The majority of immigrants are from South and Central America, particularly Venezuela, which has descended into economic and political chaos since President Nicolás Maduro took office in 2013.
Early in the humanitarian crisis Denver officials decided that the city would assume the cost of temporarily housing and feeding immigrants.
Denver taxpayers have shouldered the majority of costs, with the latest tally at $74 million. Some have argued — including officials in El Paso, Texas —that the city's policies, notably free shelter and paying for transportation costs to destination states, have served as a draw. The city has doubled down on those policies.
Tuesday’s presentation also included a tally of the number of bus, plane and train tickets purchased for immigrants looking to settle down elsewhere.
This year alone, Denver has bought nearly 6,000 tickets, according to a report released Tuesday.
The cost to Denver taxpayers has been $1.7 million.
Tony Anderson, chief workforce development officer with the Department of Economic Development and Opportunity, also provided councilmembers with an update on the city’s “WorkReady” program.
The objective of the program, which provides job training and certification, is to build a pipeline for job seekers in industries with significant labor shortages across the metro Denver area.
Roughly 80% of the participants sought certifications in the construction and hospitality industries, according to a WorkReady report.
Denver has assisted more than 2,700 immigrants apply for work authorization since Aug. 8. Officials believe the program could generate up to $14 million in economic impact for metro Denver.
The program is focused on jobs that provide industry-recognized credentials, such as First Aid and CPR, as well as construction and food safety and early childhood education certification, among others.
Work authorization can take up to five months.
Because participants are also enrolled in the Denver Asylum Seeker Program, they also are receiving, at taxpayers' expense, six months of rental, food and utility assistance, a computer, prepaid cell phone and Regional Transportation Department bus passes.
Denver officials consider federal work authorization — without which immigrants cannot legally work in the U.S. — critical for stability.
Given city officials have not tracked where new immigrant arrivals have wound up, it is impossible to know how many of the 42,702 who have come to Denver stayed in the Mile High City.
Plane, train and bus tickets suggest about half have stayed.
In addition to this, City Council members also inquired whether Denver could see the winter spike it has experienced in years past.
At the height of the last influx earlier this year, the city was sheltering about 5,000 immigrants.
Sarah Plastino, executive director of the Newcomer Program, doesn’t think so.
The reason?
An executive order signed by President Joe Biden in June prevents new asylum claims when entry levels hit roughly 2,500 crossings per day between ports of entry.
Under 20% of immigrants detained at the southern border have identified Denver as their final destination, Plastino said.
“We think this shift along with the lack of buses from Texas is really contributing to the lower number of folks arriving,” Plastino said.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s busing campaign to so-called "sanctuary" cities in Democratic strongholds began in the spring of 2022. Since then, Abbott has bused out of Texas nearly 120,000 immigrants, including 19,200 to Denver.
The influx to Denver began before Abbot bused immigrants to Colorado's most populous city.
