Each housing unit in a “micro-community” — which serves as the anchor of Denver Mayor Mike Johnston’s plan to move 1,000 homeless people off of the city’s streets by the end of 2023 — costs roughly $87,000 per unit, according to an analysis by The Denver Gazette.

The city is spending at least $13 million for three “micro-communities” currently under construction. That figure includes expenses for the shelters, as well as contracts for services that Denver’s councilmembers already approved.

The cost doesn’t count the value of the land where the micro-communities are being built or the expenses for the construction to prepare the properties.

Denver, which has been grappling

with the crisis, saw the biggest increase in the number of homeless people — 5,818 as of January, up from 4,794 last year — in the state.

By comparison, El Paso County experienced a 17% drop in its homeless population — from a high of 1,562 in 2019 to 1,302 in January. Aurora’s homeless population also went down to 572 from 612 the year before.

Johnston, who assumed office in July, has made tackling the crisis his priority. In the past several months, the city has shut down encampments, opened shelters at hotels and broken ground to build the “micro-communities,” which the administration plans to send homeless people to live.

As envisioned, the communities will include bathroom amenities, showers and laundry. They will also offer behavioral services, the goal of which is to eventually get people into permanent housing. Johnston wants to build more such sites in the future.

The Johnston administration has so far transitioned 317 people, which means the city has three weeks left to move 683 homeless individuals.

Spending for 158 housing units, amenities and service providers at the three sites totals nearly $9.5 million, the Denver Gazette estimates show. The city is negotiating the cost of some of the “pallet” shelters, which means the cost could go down.

Here’s the breakdown of the spending:

The City Council approved funding for the following companies:

• $2,249,537 for The Colorado Village Collaborative at 2301 S. Santa Fe Drive

• $1,451,142 for The Gathering Place at 1375 Elati St.

• $2,308,929 for Bayaud Enterprises at the 12033 E. 38th Ave. site

Councilmembers additionally approved a $4.25 million contract with Satellite Shelters to purchase 14 “modular community buildings” for the three sites. The buildings would serve as centers for services.

All told, Denver’s current costs sit at $13.8 million, which translates to $86,814 per accommodated unit. Here’s the breakdown:

2301 S. Santa Fe Drive

• Services — $2,249,537

• 60 units — $1,200,000

• Total — $3,449,537

1375 Elati St.

• Services — $1,451,142

• 44 units — $880,000

• Total — $2,331,142

12033 E. 38th Ave.

• Services — $2,308,929

• 54 units — $1,377,000

• 14 community buildings — $4,250,000

• Grand Total — $13,716,608

• Cost per accommodated unit — $86,814

The Department of Housing Stability said the city went through a bidding process via BidNet, which attracted 16 companies, to find operators for the three micro-community sites.

“As winter arrives, the need to launch the hotels and micro-communities becomes more urgent for the over 1,400 Denverites living on the streets,” Dede de Percin, CEO of the Colorado Village Collaborative, told the Denver Gazette. “It has been and continues to be a heavy lift for everyone to ramp up and launch a new program so quickly.”

Among Colorado’s three biggest cities, Denver is spending hundreds of millions more, even as its homelessness crisis shows no signs of easing.

The contrast in spending is stark: Assuming councilmembers approve Johnston’s budget plan for next year, Denver would be allocating half a billion dollars for the crisis over two years. By comparison, Colorado Springs earmarked about $6.2 million for homelessness this year. Aurora, meanwhile, spent about $5.6 million on the challenge last year.

Johnston, a Democrat, declared a state of emergency on his first full day in office, arguing that the city’s “incremental approach ... isn’t getting people housed at scale.”

In his city, the mayor said, “nobody has to be homeless.”

The new mayor’s focus on homelessness was expected. During his campaign, Johnston unveiled an ambitious goal — solve homelessness in his first term as mayor.

Over the next few weeks, the new mayor hunkered down. His administration activated an emergency center, appointed a homeless adviser, and sought the cooperation of councilmembers, who have agreed to extend his emergency declaration three times already.

Undergirding Johnston’s promise to end homelessness is an approach popular among the city’s homeless advocacy groups: “housing first.” The idea is to respond to an individual’s most acute need first, which is housing, and then offer other services, such as mental health treatment, later.

The Colorado Coalition for the Homeless explained the concept this way: “It is important to note that housing first does not mean ‘Housing Only.’ Rather, Housing First best practices dictate that intensive treatment and case management be offered to those housed through the program.”

Some aren’t convinced that homelessness is only or primarily a housing affordability problem, in which, if housing becomes more accessible, people would cease to live on the streets.

In July, Craig Arfsten, president and co-founder of Citizens for a Safe and Clean Denver, said his group supports Johnston’s promise to end homelessness. But instead of focusing on housing, the group urged the city to turn its attention to “recovery-oriented solutions for Denver’s addiction, mental health, and unsheltered homelessness crisis,” he said.