Mayoral Candidate Ean Thomas Tafoya Wants to Fight Poverty

For Denver mayoral candidate Ean Thomas Tafoya, poverty is one of the city’s biggest challenges. His work in environmental protection and with the city’s unhoused population inspired him to join the historically crowded mayoral race.

With 16 other prospective candidates, it can be hard to stand out. But Tafoya held his own during the first mayoral debate held by 9News, slamming opponents on their plans to remove homeless encampments by any means necessary.

Tafoya founded Headwater Protectors in 2020, at the height of the pandemic. The nonprofit provides water and waste removal for Denver’s unhoused population and also gives out health and sanitation supplies such as sunscreen, reusable water bottles, drug testing strips, NARCAN, and safe needle disposal boxes. Through this work, Tafoya has had the chance to meet and converse with Denver’s neediest population in a way other mayoral candidates have not.

“I have an intimate understanding of who the unhoused are,” Tafoya tells OFM. “There are personalities out on the street, and I think it’s important for our mayor to know CEOs just as well as they know people living on the street.”

In contrast to mayoral candidate and Tattered Cover bookstore CEO, Kwame Spearman, who during the first debate made claims that most of Denver’s unhoused are exploiting the system, Tafoya recognizes that this is simply untrue.

“I can’t tell you how many people are on the street who have housing vouchers but can’t find a place to use them,” Tafoya says.

“We need to start treating them like human beings. As an educator, I understand that equity is about individualized care and individualized education. There are people who need both of those things who are living on the street right now. They need education on what resources are available to them, and they need emotional support to get there.”

Beyond individualized solutions to Denver’s homelessness crisis, Tafoya has big ideas for other issues facing the city, such as affordable housing, neighborhood safety, and cleaner air.

According to Kelly Nordini, the executive director of Conservation Colorado, “pollution from cars and trucks can have devastating health impacts like asthma, cancer, cardio, and respiratory disease, low birth weights, and increased chance of death from COVID-19. These impacts are greatest near major highways, which were built closer to communities of color and low-income communities who already face higher levels of pollution from industry.” Fixing this disparity is one of Tafoya’s top priorities, should he be elected mayor.

“We need to be building affordable housing in all communities, near all of Denver’s business centers. And this is not just Denver’s issue to solve; we need to be doing this regionally,” he told OFM.

On the matter of neighborhood safety, Tafoya argues that poverty is the leading cause of crime. In order to reduce unnecessary police interactions, he hopes to hire more social workers and mental health professionals who can answer emergency calls. Denver has already implemented the Support Team Assisted Response (STAR) Program, which deploys EMTs, and behavioral health professionals to respond to low-risk 9-1-1 calls where individuals are not in immediate danger.

“Study after study and my own lived experience within my community have shown me that the best way to reduce crime is to reduce poverty,” Tafoya says in response to whether he thought increased police presence would curb crime.

Recent research from other cities, such as Philadelphia, found that structural repairs to homes of low-income owners in majority-Black neighborhoods were associated with a 21.9% reduction in total crime. Another study in Philadelphia found that efforts to transform and clean vacant lots in high-poverty neighborhoods led to a 29% reduction in violent crime. Evidence also finds that other improvements to the public realm—such as urban greening and tree canopy programs in urban neighborhoods—reduce violent crime, particularly adolescent gun violence.

Of all Tafoya’s ideas to improve Denver, his plan to transform the city’s public transportation is by far the most ambitious. In hopes to increase outdoor equity and access to the arts, Tafoya hopes to create a new RTD bus line that would bring commuters directly to some of the state’s national parks and Red Rocks Amphitheater. As development continues to shrink Denver’s open space, public transportation could be used to create equitable options for getting into the mountains.

“If we lower the RTD rates to $2.25, and students are getting free bus passes through school, that means for $2.25 a family can go, get out of Denver’s polluted air and enjoy Colorado’s mountain parks,” Tafoya says on the subject.

“We’re not selling out every single one of our concerts at Red Rocks, and what’s the biggest reason people say they can’t make it? Transportation. It’s also a safety issue; we’re profiting off the consumption of alcohol, and at the end of the day, we’re sending them home without an additional option for transportation. It’s about our multi-modal goals of getting cars off the road. Red Rocks is the most-visited venue in the world, and there’s no reason it shouldn’t be accessible and multi-modal.”

Beyond implementing new bus lines, Tafoya wants to bring dignity to Denver’s public transportation. Many of the city’s bus stops don’t have benches, overhead coverings, or even bus schedules. Tafoya aims to change that and bring other upgrades to RTD including solar panels at bus stops, and free wifi within buses and light rails, some of which he’s already started working on.

“I grew up transit-dependent, and I still ride the bus now because I make that choice. I have this vision, of using beetle kill from our mountain parks so they don’t continue to burn and using that to build bus stop shelters and benches. And we’re already doing it; my campaign has already partnered with James Warren’s Be Kind Bench Project, to use beetle-kill wood to build multiple benches. And we just renegade-style drop them off at bus stops, because our communities deserve this.”

Ballots for the Denver mayoral election will be mailed out to residents on March 13. The last day to vote is on Election Day, April 4. With so many candidates running, the conditions for a run-off are expected. The run-off date will be June 6, if needed. To learn more about the other candidates running for mayor, read our ballot breakdown here.