Over the last three years, Colorado has spent nearly $2 billion on homelessness, concentrated largely in the Denver metro region. While metro areas across the country have seen a surge of people experiencing homelessness, the Denver metro has some of the highest levels of growth among the areas the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development tracks.
There has been a 58% increase in the Denver metro’s unhoused population since 2016. More become homeless for the first time, and more are chronically homeless.
Joining Host and Chairman Earl Wright is Donna Lynne, CEO of Denver Health. Donna was the Lieutenant Governor of Colorado from 2016-2019. Prior to that role, she served in executive leadership positions at Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals. She has a unique view of the homelessness issue, the recent influx of migrants, the need for a large coalition of stakeholders to address the issue, and a lot more. In this episode of Common Sense Digest, Donna and Earl have a spirited, wide-ranging discussion of the issue’s many contributing factors, possible solutions, and where the conversation goes from here.
You can find CSI’s most recent research on homelessness here.
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