OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Health and Safety Committee Meeting - July 15, 2026

Council CommitteesWednesday, July 15, 2026
BodyDenver, Colorado
SessionCouncil Committees
DateWednesday, July 15, 2026
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 1:27:45

Transcript — Verbatim
0:00

Welcome back to this weekly meeting of the Health and Safety Committee with Denver City Council.

0:09

Coverage of the Health and Safety Committee starts now.

0:18

Good morning, and welcome to the July 15th Health and Safety Committee meeting.

0:21

My name is Daryl Watson.

0:22

I'm honored to serve as the chair of the Health and Safety Committee, as well as a city council member representing all of the fine district nine.

0:29

We have one briefing and two consent items today.

0:34

But before we jump into those briefings, uh, why don't we start online?

0:38

First with introductions.

0:39

Council President Pro Tem, are you on?

0:42

Uh yes, I am.

0:43

Good morning.

0:44

Diana Romero Campbell, Southeast Denver District 4.

0:48

And then we'll start on all right.

0:50

Uh Kevin Flynn, Southwest Denver's District 2.

0:54

Amanda Sawyer, District 5.

0:56

Hi, everyone, Sedana Gonzalez Gutierrez.

0:58

I'm one of the council members at large.

1:00

All right.

1:01

Well, thanks everyone for being here.

1:03

We're excited to get a briefing from Aaron and Ten CEO from the mayor's office on the street engagement team.

1:09

So Aaron, the floor is yours.

1:11

Awesome.

1:12

Thank you for having me.

1:13

My name is Erin Atensioshi, her pronouns, and I work at the mayor's office.

1:17

I'm super excited to talk about our citywide street engagement strategy.

1:20

Um but before I do, I just want to genuinely thank everyone that has had the opportunity to join us on our coordinating goals.

1:26

It's been really nice to see people excited about this work and curious about this work.

1:31

And so I know you all are incredibly busy and just wanted to say thank you.

1:35

Um to start, we're actually gonna go back to a briefing that was earlier this year around our response system.

1:41

In Denver, we have kind of two prongs to how we can get responses to people who are in Denver.

1:46

One is what we talked about last time, which is through our Denver 911, that is alternative response, fire, police, um, and paramedics.

1:54

So we are not gonna talk about that today with our first responders.

1:57

Today we're gonna talk about the left side, which is our 311 portion.

2:00

Um, and then specifically the street engagement teams.

2:04

311 is used when there is not an immediate crisis or emergency, but there is still a need to get a service delivered to someone or at a location.

2:13

Um, so before we do that, uh this is part of our street engagement, or I'm sorry, our all-in-mile high goal, which is to end uncheltered homelessness.

2:20

I do want to be clear though that street engagement is not just about homelessness, but it is part of our goal to end uncheltered homelessness.

2:27

Um and the part that is uh what we're gonna talk about today is our response time.

2:31

It is really important that we are getting responses and being being responsive to people who are asking for our help um through our 311 system.

2:40

And so I'm not gonna read everything on here, but we do want to ensure that residents have uh I'm sorry, uh they experience a timely resolution to any concerns they have.

2:50

And then again, you're gonna hear me say it probably 50 times today, the right response to the right person to get that need met.

2:56

That is really, really important um for our strategy.

3:00

Um, and so for 311 street engagement calls, this is a graph over time since 2023.

3:05

I apologize for the colors.

3:07

I could not change them.

3:08

They're incredibly similar.

3:10

Um as you can see, the top one, the orange ones, that is from 2023.

3:14

We had a lot of 311 calls in 2023.

3:17

We are now the red one, which is kind of in the middle.

3:20

You do see a spike, which is something that we had anticipated.

3:23

We have been asking people and will continue to ask people to use 311 if there is any type of homeless-related call, um, public disorder call that is not an emergency, trash, anything that needs help again that is not an emergency.

3:36

Please use 311.

3:37

We have a variety of teams that I'll get to in a bit.

3:40

Um, and so we do think that that spike is related to our continuous push around use 311.

3:45

That is how we're gonna collect all of this information.

3:49

Um, and so here are the teams.

3:51

This is a multi-agency approach, and we believe this is really critical to getting the work done again in a way that makes sense for the residents, but also the people that we are serving.

4:00

And so every morning we have a 9 a.m.

4:02

call um where we coordinate on every single call that comes in the night before.

4:07

Um so in that call, we go through, as many of you experienced the various teams, and there's a map that will also illustrate this that I'll get to in a second.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Homelessness█████████████████████████████████████████████99%
Data Management1%
Summary of Proceedings

Health and Safety Committee Meeting - July 15, 2026

The Health and Safety Committee of the Denver City Council met on July 15, 2026, at 10:30 AM (MDT) in Room 391 of the City & County Building. The meeting included a briefing on the Street Engagement Team, approval of two consent items, and extensive discussion on data tracking, RV enforcement, and resource allocation. Note: The agenda lists the meeting time as 10:30 AM, but the provided timestamp indicates 17:30 UTC (11:30 AM MDT). This discrepancy is noted.

Consent Calendar

  • Approved an intergovernmental agreement with the Regents of the University of Colorado Children’s Hospital Immunodeficiency Program for $1,344,756.00 (through 2-28-2031) to provide care, treatment, and supportive services to individuals living with HIV/AIDS in the Denver Transitional Grant Area (citywide).
  • Approved an intergovernmental agreement with the Colorado Department of Human Services - Division of Economic and Workforce Support for $1,968,119.00 (through 6-30-2027) to provide DHS programs with access to Equifax Verification Services (citywide).

Discussion Items

  • Street Engagement Team Briefing (26-1023): Erin Atencio (Mayor’s Office) presented the citywide street engagement strategy, part of the All In Mile High goal to end unsheltered homelessness. The team coordinates multi-agency responses to 311 calls for non-emergency issues (e.g., homeless-related, public disorder, trash). A daily 9 a.m. call triages tickets from the previous 24 hours, using a Salesforce-based system. The goal is to close every ticket within one business day. Data shows that 70% of the time, no one is present when teams arrive; 18% of the time someone remains, and 34% of those accept services. Only 1.5% of callers (38 out of ~2,500) responded to the satisfaction survey, with most complaints about unresolved issues, especially RVs.

  • Councilmember Questions & Concerns:

    • Councilmember Torres asked about response times and data limitations. Staff noted that timestamps for when teams physically arrive are not yet captured, but they are working with TS to add that feature (estimated completion by end of summer). Torres also raised concerns about 311 complaints against vulnerable residents (e.g., seniors) and asked for cross-departmental referrals (e.g., Office on Aging). Atencio agreed to follow up.
    • Councilmember Sawyer highlighted the RV problem, noting that current tools are insufficient for moving RVs. She urged the city to identify gaps and consider legislative solutions. Atencio and Megan Rohr (Mayor’s Office) acknowledged that while inoperable RVs can be addressed, operable RVs lack clear enforcement tools. They committed to providing data on impounds and quarterly actions.
    • Councilmember Flynn questioned the correlation between closure times and satisfaction. He noted that 64% of tent/individual cases are closed within one day, but 59% of respondents rated that unacceptable; while 52% of RV cases take longer, 57% rated them very good/excellent. Atencio hypothesized that tent dwellers often return, leading to resident frustration, while RV removal is more permanent.
    • Councilmember Gonzales-Gutierrez asked for a clear definition of “case closure” (currently: person no longer at location) and stressed the need for outcome tracking (e.g., how many entered housing). Staff explained that integrating data across systems (HMIS, CAD, etc.) is hindered by legal and privacy barriers, but they are exploring both a “bootstrapped” manual approach and a “moonshot” system, with a recommendation to the mayor by year-end.
    • Council President Romero Campbell noted the challenge of reporting complex issues (e.g., corridors) through 311 and asked for direct email flagging. She also requested coordination with other jurisdictions (e.g., Arapahoe County).
    • Council President Sandoval highlighted the need for budget transparency: total spending on All In Mile High is not easily itemized because most staff are not dedicated solely to this initiative. She asked for a pro-rata estimate of time and costs for park rangers and other agencies. Staff acknowledged the difficulty but committed to providing estimates.
    • Councilmember Cashman echoed the need for clear spending data for public accountability.

Key Outcomes

  • The two consent items were approved unanimously.
  • The briefing was received as information; no formal vote was taken on the Street Engagement Team presentation.
  • Staff committed to follow up on: (1) adding arrival timestamps to Salesforce, (2) providing data on RV impounds and enforcement actions, (3) exploring legislative fixes for moving RVs, (4) improving cross-departmental referrals for vulnerable residents, and (5) reporting back on budget allocation for All In Mile High.
  • Council President Sandoval recommended engaging Peak Academy to help design data integration processes, but staff noted that legal barriers (data sharing agreements) are the primary hurdle.

Meeting Transcript

Welcome back to this weekly meeting of the Health and Safety Committee with Denver City Council. Coverage of the Health and Safety Committee starts now. Good morning, and welcome to the July 15th Health and Safety Committee meeting. My name is Daryl Watson. I'm honored to serve as the chair of the Health and Safety Committee, as well as a city council member representing all of the fine district nine. We have one briefing and two consent items today. But before we jump into those briefings, uh, why don't we start online? First with introductions. Council President Pro Tem, are you on? Uh yes, I am. Good morning. Diana Romero Campbell, Southeast Denver District 4. And then we'll start on all right. Uh Kevin Flynn, Southwest Denver's District 2. Amanda Sawyer, District 5. Hi, everyone, Sedana Gonzalez Gutierrez. I'm one of the council members at large. All right. Well, thanks everyone for being here. We're excited to get a briefing from Aaron and Ten CEO from the mayor's office on the street engagement team. So Aaron, the floor is yours. Awesome. Thank you for having me. My name is Erin Atensioshi, her pronouns, and I work at the mayor's office. I'm super excited to talk about our citywide street engagement strategy. Um but before I do, I just want to genuinely thank everyone that has had the opportunity to join us on our coordinating goals. It's been really nice to see people excited about this work and curious about this work. And so I know you all are incredibly busy and just wanted to say thank you. Um to start, we're actually gonna go back to a briefing that was earlier this year around our response system. In Denver, we have kind of two prongs to how we can get responses to people who are in Denver. One is what we talked about last time, which is through our Denver 911, that is alternative response, fire, police, um, and paramedics. So we are not gonna talk about that today with our first responders. Today we're gonna talk about the left side, which is our 311 portion. Um, and then specifically the street engagement teams. 311 is used when there is not an immediate crisis or emergency, but there is still a need to get a service delivered to someone or at a location. Um, so before we do that, uh this is part of our street engagement, or I'm sorry, our all-in-mile high goal, which is to end uncheltered homelessness. I do want to be clear though that street engagement is not just about homelessness, but it is part of our goal to end uncheltered homelessness. Um and the part that is uh what we're gonna talk about today is our response time. It is really important that we are getting responses and being being responsive to people who are asking for our help um through our 311 system. And so I'm not gonna read everything on here, but we do want to ensure that residents have uh I'm sorry, uh they experience a timely resolution to any concerns they have. And then again, you're gonna hear me say it probably 50 times today, the right response to the right person to get that need met. That is really, really important um for our strategy. Um, and so for 311 street engagement calls, this is a graph over time since 2023. I apologize for the colors. I could not change them. They're incredibly similar. Um as you can see, the top one, the orange ones, that is from 2023. We had a lot of 311 calls in 2023. We are now the red one, which is kind of in the middle. You do see a spike, which is something that we had anticipated.

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