Metropolitan Denver Homeless Initiative (MDHI)

Mdhi is the metro Denver continuum of care (coc), which is a regional system that coordinates services and housing for people experiencing homelessness. This work includes street outreach, emergency shelter, transitional housing, rapid rehousing, prevention and diversion and permanent supportive housing. Mdhi works closely with each county in our continuum (adams, arapahoe, boulder, broomfield, Denver, douglas, and jefferson), building a Homeless crisis response system aimed at getting people stably housed as quickly as possible. That's the core of what we believe - housing is the solution to homelessness. Mdhi leads the process for the annual hud coc nofa application. Each year mdhi convenes a series of meetings for stakeholders to identify local service gaps and funding priorities. Identified priorities are used to develop a comprehensive application to the u.s. department of housing and urban development (hud). Sinces its inception, mdhi has brought in over 100 million in grants for the Denver Metropolitan area. Mdhi coordinates the efforts and coverage across our 7-county region, with coordinators from each area and additional supports from service agencies, to conduct the annual national point in time (pit) survey. The point in time count is a snapshot of metro Denver on a single night that helps communities understand trends and respond to the needs of people experiencing literal homelessness. While helping to determine the scope of homelessness, the pit raises public awareness, promotes collaboration across seven counties, and reminds the community that everyone counts during the count night, trained volunteers and staff interview individuals, youth and families experiencing homelessness using a standardized survey form. Community, faith-based, and government organizations use the information collected from the point-in-time study to form policies, apply for services and programs funding, and tell the story of those experiencing both sheltered and unsheltered homelessness in our community. A total of 9,065 persons were identified as Homeless in the 2023 pit count for metro Denver.