The hardcore “homeless” population that regularly wanders the streets of the Denver metro area is disproportionately afflicted by addiction. That typically means illegal drug use — heroin, meth, fentanyl — and the lawbreaking lifestyle that goes with it. 

So, here’s an idea: Let’s staff one of Denver’s city-run shelters — with ex-criminal convicts! Many of whom presumably were convicted of drug-related crimes. 

Y’know, just to see how it all works out.

It’s the latest lurch of the administration of Mayor Mike Johnston in addressing the city’s street population. And it’s a heckuva stride — toward sheer recklessness.

As The Gazette reported Monday, the Denver City Council approved a new $30 million, three-year contract with a San Francisco-based nonprofit called Urban Alchemy to run a city homeless shelter in the former DoubleTree Hotel at 4040 Quebec St. 

The council’s 9-4 vote was anything but unanimous and reflected a lot of angst by some council members. Understandably so.

As noted in The Gazette report, Urban Alchemy’s finances and oversight in San Francisco, Austin, Texas, and other cities have drawn serious scrutiny. 

Last year at a homeless camp run by the nonprofit near San Francisco, staffers allegedly assaulted a camp resident, dealt drugs and had sex with other residents, according to a lawsuit in federal court. In September, Austin, Texas’ city hall canceled its contract with Urban Alchemy after some staff members were accused of falsifying records. 

And just last month, an Urban Alchemy employee in Portland was charged with second-degree murder in the 2022 robbery and shooting death of a man in that city.

None of which should come as a surprise when you consider Urban Alchemy’s entire organizational model is based on hiring ex-cons. Yes, really.

Or, as its own website puts it, “Urban Alchemy actively recruits persons with justice-involved backgrounds, specifically those returning home from life and long-term sentences, with a workforce that is approximately 96% returning citizens.”

And now, courtesy of the Johnston administration’s Office of Housing Stability, some of those “returning citizens” will be running the city’s Aspen shelter at the former hotel in northeast Denver. 

Keep in mind the facility already has a deeply troubled past, having been plagued with criminal activity since the city acquired it a couple of years ago. We’ve dubbed it a hotel of horrors.

As of March 2024, The Gazette’s news staff had tallied seven deaths — two in a double-fatal shooting — at the hotel-turned-shelter. And that’s not counting all the other police and paramedics calls for a range of crimes and other emergencies at the shelter.

That’s the same kind of population that now will be supervised by people who have serious foibles of their own — to put it mildly — given their criminal past. A criminal record is an essential qualification for working at Urban Alchemy.

Only to the Johnston administration and its senior advisor on homelessness, Cole Chandler, does that seem to make sense.

When council members like District 6 veteran Paul Kashmann pushed back on Monday — referencing the “legal mess related to Urban Alchemy in a number of cities” — the administration’s representatives wailed it was too late to find another contractor. 

They further pointed out only three providers responded to the city’s call for managers at Aspen and two other city shelters. So, each was awarded one of the sites.

In other words, nobody qualified stepped forward, so they threw the keys to some ex-cons.

Never mind what that all bodes for the city’s homelessness policies. Just think what it says about the way things are run at City Hall.