By 
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston’s ambitious effort to solve street homelessness cost $20 million more than previously reported, a result of poor planning and documentation, according to a report from the city auditor’s office — an allegation that the mayor’s office pushed back on strongly.
“For a program in its third year and approaching $200 million in costs, not tracking expenses is irresponsible,” Auditor Tim O’Brien said in a written release. “The Mayor’s Office’s unwillingness to share how they are calculating expenses also raises red flags.”
The year-long auditing project found that from July 2023 to June 2025, the effort spent $178.1 million. City staff previously reported that $158 million was spent in that period.
The mayor’s office said the auditor’s claim of overspending was overblown. Some of the difference came down to different definitions of what should be counted as spending for All In Mile High compared to other city programs.
“We disagree with the Auditor’s findings and wholeheartedly stand by the accuracy of the finances we reported. Every penny of our expenses is accounted for and not a dollar has been spent out of or over budget,” wrote mayoral spokesperson Jon Ewing. “The Auditor’s Office does not insist otherwise in this report. Instead, the disagreement appears to lie in which expenses should be counted toward All In Mile High.”
All In Mile High includes certain city shelters, case management, health care, job training, education and more. In general, the mayor’s office defines it as facilities and programs opened during Johnston’s tenure. The mayor’s office oversees the effort, while it’s funded and executed in large part by the Department of Housing Stability.
Johnston launched his signature homelessness effort on the first full day of his first term in 2023. Initially, he called it House1000 and aimed to bring 1,000 people off the streets by the end of that year. The city reports it has moved about 8,300 people into shelter and 7,300 people into housing.
The city center has seen a significant decrease in outdoor camping, and the city has reported a dramatic 45% drop in unsheltered homelessness, based on point-in-time data.
The auditor’s report raised questions about some of those statistics, pointing out that city officials don’t track when people return to homelessness, which the city blamed on data limitations.
City officials promised some improvements, but rejected other recommendations from the audit. Overall, the administration defended the homelessness program.
“Thousands of people moved off of the street. Thousands of people moved into housing. Let us not forget the good work this program is doing every single day,” said Evan Dreyer, the mayor’s deputy chief of staff, at an audit committee meeting.
The spending underestimate resulted in part from a failure to tag expenses properly, according to the auditor’s office, but the report noted the city has addressed that problem. The error mostly happened in 2024. The city actually spent less on All In Mile High than it reported in 2025.
The auditor’s office critiqued the management of the homelessness program, finding that clear plans and documentation were often lacking for an effort that sprawls across city agencies.
For example, the audit found city leaders made seemingly conflicting statements about how expenses were tracked. The mayor’s office said the responsibility fell to individual agencies, while city staff said the mayor’s office was handling it.
“Without a formal process in place to track All In Mile High expenses for all city agencies, the city cannot know how much it is truly spending or whether its efforts are cost-effective,” the report stated.
Ewing added that the city’s previous cost report may have been low because certain expenses hadn’t yet been reported.
