Denver, Co. (KDVR) – The City and County of Denver says to their resources to respond to the steady flow of migrants coming in is completely at capacity.
The city shared new numbers from Friday night: 110 new migrants arrived overnight, bringing the total to 3,037 since Dec. 9.
“It has been significantly overwhelming for not only our staff but our overall system here in Denver,” said Mikayla Ortega, the communication manager with Denver’s Office of Emergency Management.
The city has spent $1,144,032 and are projecting to spend approximately $3 million over the next few months.
“We’re not able to sustain much longer and we really are trying to strategize as fast as we can how we can A, figure out how to help these people so they can exit our shelters,” Ortega said, “and B, figure out we can communicate with nonprofits at the border as well as border groups that we are just not able to sustain anymore.”
The city has asked for federal assistance but hasn’t received any yet, Ortega said.
“The city and county of Denver is not a border town, so we do not receive border funding that states along the border get,” she said. “So what were able to do here in the city and county of Denver is very limited and we are truly very, very taxed on all of our resources as we continue to shelter 1500 people a night.”
The city has also opened an additional shelter to handle the overflow.
“Early on we saw that people would leave the shelter and that’s not happening anymore,” Ortega said. “They’re not leaving at the rate that they initially were.”
Ortega said shelter workers have been able to get some insight into why the migrants have chosen Denver.
“We’ve heard that they’ve come through other nonprofits that they were sheltered with that send them to Denver, we’ve heard that they have self-coordinated a trip and have connected over social media and got on a bus and other border groups that we haven’t been able to identify,” she said.
The city is still taking donations because the turnaround is so fast. People can drop off donations to the Temple Emanuel on Mondays from 5 to 8 p.m. and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to noon.