(The Center Square) – The city of Denver wants to spend $16.56 million for a series of one-year contracts to pay for food assistance, personal items, rental and utility assistance for migrants entering the city’s Denver Asylum Seeker Program.
The contracts were reviewed in the city’s Safety, Housing, Education & Homelessness Committee on July 10.
The city started the asylum program in April. It takes in about 1,000 migrants that were already in the city’s shelter system and were seeking asylum and not authorized yet for employment. These migrants must wait at least 180 days after applying for asylum to receive authorization to work. Migrants in the program will also receive free legal service as well as rental and food assistance for six months.
Migrants who came to Denver after April 10 will be given short-term shelter and get help in finding another destination outside of Denver.
Denver has taken 42,392 migrants from the southern border at a cost of more than $72 million as of July 1.
Denver has been targeted by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott as a destination for migrants Texas is shipping to sanctuary cities since April 2022. As of June 2022, Texas has sent 19,300 migrants to Denver, including 3,200 from January to June of this year.
