Denver is closing more homeless shelters. Here’s how it fits the mayor’s goal to end homelessness

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston is closing two homeless shelter sites and changing his strategy on homelessness.

Next year, the city will shut down the former Comfort Inn shelter on Quebec Street and the Elyria Swansea Monroe Village tiny home communities. The shelters were opened in recent years to give individual shelter rooms to people experiencing homelessness.

The mayor said he was making the change because he wants to focus on moving people from existing shelters into long-term housing more quickly. It also comes as the city faces significant budget cuts; the mayor said the closures would save the city $11 million per year. Permitting that allowed the Monroe Village community is expiring soon, and the city had long ago committed to developing housing on the land.

Johnston also signaled