Denver’s $200M Blunder: Homelessness Soars

Person sleeping on a bench in a public area

After burning through billions in taxpayer dollars, progressive strongholds Denver and Seattle have achieved the impossible: homelessness has skyrocketed to record levels while they celebrate moving people from tents into taxpayer-funded shelters as a “victory.”

At a Glance

Denver homelessness exploded 87% since 2019, hitting a record 10,774 people in 2025 despite over $200 million in spending
Chronic homelessness surged from 1,698 to 2,118 in just two years while officials celebrate reducing “visible” homelessness
Seattle remains in the top five U.S. cities for homelessness after years of massive spending increases
Denver faces a $250 million budget deficit threatening to cut homelessness programs after wasting money on failed policies
Grassroots efforts offering real solutions face government crackdowns for not conforming to bureaucratic standards

The Great Liberal Shell Game: Moving Homelessness Around Instead of Solving It

Let me get this straight. Denver’s progressive leadership spent over $200 million between 2023 and 2024, and they’re patting themselves on the back because they moved people from visible tent camps into government shelters. Meanwhile, the actual number of homeless people exploded to a record-breaking 10,774 in 2025. That’s not progress, folks—that’s a taxpayer-funded shell game designed to hide the problem from voters while making it exponentially worse.

The numbers don’t lie, even when progressive politicians try to spin them. While Denver officials celebrate a 45% drop in people living outdoors, chronic homelessness—the most expensive and difficult cases—jumped from 1,698 to 2,118 in just two years. They’re literally creating more long-term homeless people while spending hundreds of millions to shuffle the deck chairs on the Titanic. This is what happens when you prioritize feel-good optics over actual solutions.

Seattle: The Progressive Poster Child for Policy Failure

Seattle continues its reign as one of America’s top five homeless cities, a distinction that should embarrass any reasonable person in leadership. After years of throwing money at the problem with the same failed “housing first” approach, they’re still conducting encampment sweeps while battling legal challenges from the very people their policies created. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results—and Seattle’s progressive leadership has that down to a science.

What’s particularly infuriating is how these cities criminalize grassroots efforts that actually try innovative approaches. Community groups and mutual aid networks step up to fill the gaps left by incompetent government programs, only to face regulatory crackdowns for not conforming to bureaucratic standards. God forbid someone tries to help without going through seventeen layers of government red tape first.

The Biden Administration’s Toxic Legacy Lives On

This homelessness explosion didn’t happen in a vacuum. The COVID-19 policies, endless money printing, and economic destruction of the Biden years created the perfect storm. Eviction moratoriums temporarily masked the problem, but when reality hit in 2023-2025, cities like Denver saw the inevitable surge in homeless populations. Add in reckless government spending that drove inflation through the roof, making housing unaffordable for working families, and you get exactly what we’re seeing today.

Now these same cities that created the crisis are facing budget shortfalls because they can’t print money like their federal counterparts. Denver’s looking at a $250 million deficit that threatens to cut the very programs they claim are working. It’s almost poetic justice, except real people are suffering while bureaucrats played politics with taxpayer dollars and human lives.

The Real Solution They’re Too Proud to Admit

Here’s what actually works: enforce the law, stop enabling destructive behavior, and focus on getting people productive instead of comfortable being dependent on government handouts. Instead of spending $200 million on shelters that become permanent housing for people who never transition out, invest in job training, mental health treatment, and drug rehabilitation programs that actually expect results. Hold people accountable while providing genuine opportunities for self-sufficiency.

But that would require admitting their entire progressive philosophy is bankrupt. So instead, we’ll keep getting the same failed policies, repackaged with new buzzwords and bigger price tags. Meanwhile, working families get taxed into oblivion to fund this madness while watching their neighborhoods deteriorate. Thank God we have President Trump back in office to start cleaning up this mess at the federal level—now it’s time for local voters to demand the same accountability from their city leaders.