Legal cannabis and homelessness are two hot-button issues in Denver, and the two came to a head on Monday, December 11, during a meeting of the Marijuana Committee of Denver City Council. At that meeting, several representatives of Colorado homeless-service providers and experts from research institutions explained to councilmembers and the public that, for the most part, the data just isn't there to prove a connection between legal cannabis and homelessness.

University of Denver professor Donald Burnes referenced a 2017 Metro Denver Homeless Initiative study that showed Denver hasn't seen an increase of homeless people whose last established residence was outside of Colorado since legal sales of recreational marijuana began.

"These are the best data we have about large numbers of people coming from outside the state of Colorado into the Denver metro area because of cannabis and legalized recreational marijuana," he told the council. "We simply have not had a major increase in the numbers of people." Burnes added that he doesn't believe the study is a complete representation of the homeless population, and said he prefers more localized studies, pointing to a St. Francis Center project that asked 119 of its day-shelter guests about their reasons for moving to Denver.