During the October 30 broadcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Peter Boyles Show, guest Bob Cote falsely claimed that the city of Denver “never mention[s]” the “drug and alcohol problems” of homeless people in Denver's Road Home, the city's 10-year plan to end homelessness. However, since the 2003 inception of The Denver Commission to End Homelessness, the group charged with developing Denver's Road Home, substance-abuse services have been a key component of the plan.

During a discussion about a potential bond proposal for projects that might include two affordable rental housing development projects in Denver for homeless families and homeless individuals, Boyles referred to an October 29 Denver Post article reporting that "[a] pair of 100-unit apartment complexes could become the cornerstone of Denver's long-range plan to end homelessness" and they could be “part of a multimillion-dollar bond issue.” The article also noted “the apartments could aid in the plan to trim the homeless population by 75 percent in five years” and that the units would be one component in a “megaplan for a single multimillion-dollar bond issuance -- perhaps as large as $300 million -- to fund several projects and upgrade and maintain city facilities”:

A pair of 100-unit apartment complexes could become the cornerstone of Denver's long-range plan to end homelessness, according to city officials and advocates for the homeless.

If adopted and then approved by voters as part of a multimillion-dollar bond issue -- a plan that is also on the city drawing board -- the apartments could aid in the plan to trim the homeless population by 75 percent in five years, people familiar with the discussions said.

[...]

The city may eventually turn to voters to approve one megaplan for a single multimillion-dollar bond issuance -- perhaps as large as $300 million -- to fund several projects and upgrade and maintain city facilities.

“This is a whole look at the entire process of financing infrastructure in the city,” said Diane Barrett, a mayoral aide overseeing Hickenlooper's Infrastructure Priority Task Force.

“Instead of in the past, which was every 10 years to go to voters when the roofs were falling in, we may need to go in a different way by looking at solutions rather than fixes,” she said.

While discussing the Post article, Cote falsely claimed that the city “never mention[s]” substance abuse and that Denver won't address the “alcohol and drug problems” of homeless people:

COTE: Because they're chronically unemployable -- that's the term they use. Not all of them, but for, you know, the majority of them, because we know what they are. They have drug and alcohol problems. Are they going to address that?

BOYLES: Yeah.

COTE: No, they never mention it.

BOYLES: Hmm.

COTE: Because that's the (unintelligible) you wouldn't know anything about that part. All you hear is the rosy part.

However, an October 29, 2003, press release issued by Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper that discusses the launch of Denver's Commission on Homelessness notes "[t]he Commission will collaborate with state and regional governments, businesses, neighborhood groups and the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative to address a broad range of policy and practical issues including":

• Job development & training
• Education
• Adequate wages to support housing
• Workforce housing
• Transportation Supportive Services
• Physical and mental health issues
• Substance abuse
• Discharge planning from hospitals, institutions and foster care

Further, according to the 10-year plan, “Top service needs in the Denver area are related to substance abuse, mental health, domestic violence, food insecurity, integrated healthcare and safety during extreme weather conditions,” and:

Having stable, long term mental health and substance abuse treatment is the only way many chronic homeless can move off the streets and stabilize their lives. Colorado has drastically cut funding for mental health and substance abuse treatment, leaving many citizens without service. Treatment slots for inpatient and outpatient substance abuse and mental health programs are in high demand and low supply in Denver, particularly in programs that serve those who are dually diagnosed. Colorado is one of only three states in the nation that does not cover substance abuse treatment with Medicaid.

Moreover, four of the 12 strategic goals in the "Services" section of the plan deal specifically with substance abuse. For example, goal 4.5 states that the plan will seek to "[i]ncrease coordination and collaboration between mainstream mental health resources, substance abuse resources and programs, mainstream health providers and nonprofit providers to ensure better utilization of health care resources."

Cote has made other baseless claims about Denver's Road Home on Boyles's show. As Colorado Media Matters has noted, during the September 14 broadcast of Boyles's show, Boyles and Cote baselessly claimed that “the city gave out'' thousands of cell phones to the homeless, during a discussion about a status report on Denver's Road Home. Boyles referred to a voice mail box program noted in a September 13 Rocky Mountain News article, which stated that the initiative had “establish[ed] voicemail boxes for more than 4,000.” Neither the description of the voice mail program in Denver's Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness nor the first-year report of the program released in September and highlighted in the News article mentions a cell phone giveaway.

Cote is the founder of step13, a transitional housing program for homeless people with drug or alcohol addictions.

From the October 30 broadcast of The Peter Boyles Show:

BOYLES: So, what do we do with this? I mean it's --

COTE: Well, like I say, they're, they're testing the water to see how the public's going to respond to it. Then, you know, feed a little more pabulum and then they'll pull the trigger. But I'm surprised that they're going to put it to a vote. But they've got, they have a, you know, a great PR machine. What can you do? I mean, they're just, you know, they're all over the country with this.

BOYLES: I -- it's, it's amazing. I, I look at this stuff and it's almost, it's like so many other things, in spite of, the, the -- none of this has ever worked in the past. We'll try and make it work again.

COTE: Yeah, they keep going over and over, and then they say the city will become a landlord. Well, a landlord collects fees, don't they?

BOYLES: That's what I thought. Yeah, that's what I thought.

COTE: Well, what fees are they going to collect? They're going to collect from both ends. You're going to pay for the buildings and they're going to give them SSI.

BOYLES: Ah man.

COTE: Because they're chronically unemployable -- that's the term they use. Not all of them, but for, you know, the majority of them, because we know what they are. They have drug and alcohol problems. Are they going to address that?

BOYLES: Yeah.

COTE: No, they never mention it.

BOYLES: Hmm.

COTE: Because that's the (unintelligible) you wouldn't know anything about that part. All you hear is the rosy part.