Met the new mayor of #Denver #Colorado this week at a townhall about his plan to solve outdoor deaths among the unhoused/homeless by using tax dollars to buy hotels and build tiny homes.

Because...if they die by overdose, murder, suicide under a roof, those outside death numbers go down. The stats look great, people feel great. But this doesn't make the deaths less tragic. It just removes them from sight so we can better ignore these people.

He said there will be comprehensive mental health and addiction services, but already the city is not doing what it's funded because they can't fill job positions.

Three underlying causes of homelessness: cost of living, mental health issues, addiction.

Cost of living here in Denver continues to go up because of state and city policies. Property taxes just went up hundreds of dollars per month. Our trash service taxes got spent elsewhere so now we are required to pay a monthly fee for it too. Government policy has increased the cost of utilities.

Government pandemic response escalated a lot of mental health issues and caused a lot of other problems.

Denver and Colorado keep legalizing more drugs, making our city a mecca for some seeking these. Denver benefits on the tax revenue.

The list goes on. Government policy is a major factor of all the causes of homelessness. But government benefits, so they won't fix the problem.

Best the can offer: once your taxes force you out of your home and you go crazy, they'll provide you clean needles at a converted hotel so you can escape until you kill yourself.

It feels machiavellian... Government policies will come to save the day from the problem caused by the same government.

I hope I'm wrong and hope good comes from this. But color me skeptical.