DENVER — Denver homeless advocates this month have demanded that city leaders step in to help 42 people who faced a potential return to the streets, two years after the city worked with service providers to move them into subsidized housing.

The “rapid rehousing” vouchers they received, providing significant monthly rent support, are now expiring — highlighting what advocates see as a limitation in such short-term solutions to homelessness.

Members of Housekeys Action Network Denver held up signs during the Denver City Council’s April 15 meeting that repurposed the In-N-Out Burger chain’s logo, with the wording: “Inside-N-Out on the street again.”

Officials with the city’s housing department point to the overall success of the 2022 rapid rehousing program, which moved nearly 200 people into places of their own. Roughly three out of every four people who received a voucher through that city-led housing surge have since transitioned into permanent housing or moved in with family or friends, according to the Denver Department of Housing Stability, also referred to as HOST.

But those same officials acknowledge that short-term vouchers are not a silver bullet to solve homelessness. The situation also underlines a larger reality for new Mayor Mike Johnston’s expansive initiative that’s moved large numbers of people into shelter: Giving people short-term stability often doesn’t mean they are stabilized permanently.

“Homelessness is incredibly complex and requires a lot of different interventions and a lot of different strategies, depending on the person and their needs and their journey,” said Jamie Rife, the city’s HOST director. “We’re working with all of our partners to make sure we have the most positive outcomes possible.”

Though the status of the people with expiring vouchers remains in flux, the housing department emphasizes that none of those 42 people, as of mid-last week, had lost their housing yet.

Teri Washington is one of them. She spoke during the mid-April council meeting, asking city leaders to find a way to help.

Washington, 53, lives in a one-bedroom apartment on Park Avenue West in the Five Points neighborhood. She pays $413 a month out of her $1,300 in monthly federal disability benefits to live there. The voucher has covered the rest, she said.

A herniated disk in her spine cost her a decades-long career with AT&T and put her on the path to homelessness, she said.

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