Denver's signature rental-assistance program is facing a proposed reduction in funding, with Mayor Mike Johnston proposing just $4.5 million for 2027 even as eviction filings in the city have climbed to nearly 16,000 a year. Tenants, advocates and City Council members packed a budget hearing Monday night to argue the number needs to be more than double that. TRUA — Temporary Rental and Utility Assistance — can help families avoid losing their homes.
Renters Describe a Program That Kept Them Housed
Denver City Council heard personal accounts about the TRUA program Monday night, according to Denverite. Patrick Self told the council the program helped him and that he might otherwise have died, while Enrique del Castillo said TRUA helped him rebuild his life and create a hopeful future, as reported by Denver7. Del Castillo added that homelessness can affect people who have worked their entire lives and acted responsibly, with circumstances beyond their control landing them in crisis.
Those testimonials were part of a broader push: more than a quarter of the 39 people who addressed the council at the budget hearing specifically asked for more TRUA funding, per the same Denverite account. The city has budgeted $4.5 million for the program next year, while many at Monday's hearing wanted to see a total of $10 million.
Funding Has Collapsed From Pandemic-Era Peaks
The numbers behind that gap are stark. Zach Neumann, co-founder of the Community Economic Defense Project, said TRUA's budget was nearly $30 million in 2023, fell to $12 million in 2025, and is now proposed at less than $5 million for next year — a decline of roughly 70% to 80% over four years, per Neumann. Denverite's own figures show a similar trajectory from a different vantage point, noting the city devoted $29.1 million to TRUA in 2024 and had already dropped that to $15.1 million by 2026, before this year's proposed cut.
The program has faced a series of cuts over the years as federal funding has dried up, the outlet's report notes. TRUA began in 2017 as a Denver-funded trial program under Mayor Michael Hancock, long before pandemic-era federal dollars briefly swelled its budget.
Council Wants Double the Mayor's Proposal
In response to the testimony, the city council asked Mayor Johnston to increase TRUA funding by $5.5 million, bringing the total to $10 million for 2027. Neumann said he supports the council's request to raise the 2027 budget to that $10 million figure, arguing rental assistance is the primary way to keep people housed.
Johnston has pushed back on the full ask. The $4.5 million in the budget is what is needed to operate the program for just the first half of the year, the mayor said, according to Denverite's reporting. He added that the city could request additional spending midyear if a Harvard University evaluation finds that the program is working, though the outcome of that study was not addressed at Monday's hearing.
Why Advocates Call Rental Aid a Bargain
Neumann framed the stakes in blunt economic terms: emergency rental assistance is often the only service a family needs, he said, and paying a landlord directly clears a household's debt and lets the family remain housed. He noted that TRUA's average assistance cost runs about $7,000 per case — which he said is roughly one-third the cost of rehousing someone after an eviction has already occurred.
Neumann also described who typically applies for help through the Community Economic Defense Project, which offers emergency rental assistance, legal aid and resource connections, per Denver7. Clients often have two adults in the household who may hold four jobs between them, he said, yet four jobs may still not provide enough income to cover rent, car payments, food and child care.
Eviction Filings Keep Climbing Past City Goals
The funding fight comes against a backdrop of worsening eviction numbers. Denver recorded 15,953 eviction filings, far above the Department of Housing Stability's annual goal of 6,600, according to the Denver Gazette. The department's proposed 2027 General Fund budget includes about $7 million for eviction prevention, and the newspaper notes that Denver's overall 2027 budget remains subject to City Council approval.
Separate court data paints an equally grim picture. In all, 15,960 people were evicted from their homes in 2024, up from 12,910 in 2023, a 24% increase, Denver7 reported. Evictions have decreased slightly over the past few years, Denverite's report notes, but they have stayed far above the pre-pandemic norm.
That surge traces back to the pandemic's immediate aftermath, when filings first dove 56% in 2020 before skyrocketing threefold by 2023, per Denver7. By early November 2023, the city had recorded more eviction court cases than in any single year during the Great Recession or the pandemic, Denverite reported at the time, as city-affiliated rental-assistance programs ran out well before that year ended. One study cited by the outlet estimated Denver would need $55 million annually just to meet the full need for rental assistance — far more than any budget currently on the table.
