Denver Mayor Mike Johnston on Monday unveiled his budget proposal for 2024, saying his spending priorities align with residents’ needs for an “affordable, safe, sustainable, and vibrant” city.

Johnston proposes to spend $242 million on homelessness, a slight drop from this year’s budget of $254 million. This spending, he said, puts the city on a path to house 2,000 homeless people within the next two years.

The mayor’s proposed homeless spending would translate to about $42,600 per person based on a January count of homeless people in Denver. For comparison, the base per pupil spending by the state — not counting other sources of education funding — stands at roughly $8,000.

The mayor proposes to spend $1.74 billion in total next year, a 3.7% increase over this year’s ‘s $1.68 billion general fund budget.

“This is where we’re piloting,” Johnston told The Denver Gazette on his first budget as mayor. “You will see innovative ideas in all the different departments and all the different ways we can improve the city.”

The mayor added: “We’re going to coordinate those efforts in alignment and call the citizens to be a part of a bigger mission to deliver a Denver that’s going to be vibrant, affordable and safe.”

Johnston said his 2024 budget focuses on five priorities: affordability, safety, a “revitalized” downtown, a “greener” Denver, and “housing for all.”

Here are some of the mayor’s proposed spending items:

• “Leveraging” up to $100 million​ in city, state, and federal funding to “develop and preserve 3,000 affordable homes in 2024”

• An additional $39.2 million to bring another 1,000 people out of homelessness in 2024

• $12.6 million for rental assistance programs to prevent homelessness

• $2 million for free legal services for households facing eviction

• $365,000 for three inspectors to reduce the time for affordable housing critical projects​

• $200,000​ for a “first-ever process reform study” on building and zoning codes and procedures​

• $8.2 million to add 167 new police recruits 

• $7.2 million​ to fund co-responder programs and grow the Support Team Assisted Response program

• $1.8 million​ to add a second Wellness Winnie team 

• $3 million​ in staffing and facility improvements to make 90 more beds available in community corrections as treatment alternatives to traditional incarceration​

• $4.2 million​ for the Behavioral Health Solutions Center

• $21.5 million​ to complete the 16th Street Mall with an expanded tree canopy and new pedestrian spaces​

• $1 million​ to help stabilize businesses impacted by construction on the mall​

• $16.6 million​ to “ensure the success” of the downtown Convention Center in both operations and maintenance​

• $4.5 million​ for downtown activation, including to attract new businesses and visitors 

• $14.7 million​ to allow the city to “leverage” $136 million in Federal Transit Authority funding for a bus rapid transit option along Colfax​

• $2 million​ to accelerate the transition of city vehicles to electric vehicles 

• $1.5 million​ for EV charging infrastructure

• $15 million​ for multi-modal infrastructure investments, including bike lanes, safe routes to school and pedestrian crossings

• $2.8 million​ for Denver’s e-bike voucher program​

• $1.3 million​ for additional community rebates, incentives, and electrified micro-transit.

In addition to homelessness, Johnston’s administration earmarked significant dollars toward public safety. In particular, the mayor pointed to the $8 million to hire 167 new police officers.

The mayor told The Denver Gazette his administration is concentrating “high yield investments around both making sure we can re-staff our officers and we can focus our alternatives and interventions when people need a law enforcement officer and we get folks out of corrections faster and get them services faster.”

District 2 Councilman Kevin Flynn told The Denver Gazette he welcomes the mayor’s attempts to hire more officers.

“I applaud (Johnston’s) hiring of a large number of police recruits,” he said. “I also urge him to step up hiring of sheriff deputy recruits. It takes a long time to have trained personnel join the active ranks, and with retirements and attrition, hiring every 100 new officers or deputies results only in a net increase of 40 or 50.”

“Response times to emergency calls has grown longer, so I want to see more information on getting a full complement of 911 call takers and dispatchers,” he said.

With the city continuing on its path to recovery following COVID-19, officials expect next year’s revenue to hit $1.7 billion, a 4% growth rate over 2023, which stood at $1.63 billion, according to the mayor’s office.

Growth in tax revenues are mainly driven by sales, use and property taxes. The city is keeping 15% — $262.6 million — in reserves for “unforeseen economic challenges,” the mayor’s office stated.

Johnston’s office said higher inflation and interest rates are likely to place “limits on growth and continue to drive down consumers’ refinancing, borrowing, and spending activity in 2024.”

The proposed 2024 budget is now in the hands of the Denver City Council, which expects to hold budget hearings starting Sept. 18.

“Every budget is a moral document, it is an affirmation of our values and a roadmap to deliver a city that lives up to its greatest potential,” Johnston said in his letter to the city council. “In my first budget as your mayor, we are positioning our city to respond quickly and decisively to our toughest challenges and take advantage of our greatest opportunities. I deeply believe the challenges we face as a city are solvable, and we will be the ones to solve them.”