With Denver discharging migrants from shelters, RTD could see more new arrivals on services

With approximately 40,000 migrants estimated to have arrived in Denver over the last year, the Mile High City has received the highest number of new arrivals per capita of any U.S. city. As of Monday, Feb. 5, Denver reinstated limits on shelter stays, meaning migrants have begun being discharged from these facilities. As a result, the agency may begin seeing more new arrivals on its services as people determine where to go – or have nowhere else to go.

The arrival of so many migrants into Colorado has made national news, with this NBC News article noting the strains on local healthcare and education systems. In December, Denver Mayor Mike Johnston told CNN that the city expected to spend about 10% of its entire budget on migrant shelter and aid next year.

Even before the shelter changes this week, RTD has felt the impacts of new arrivals, with operators, Transit Police officers, other frontline staff and Customer Care employees interacting with migrants every day. For example, RTD bus operators have reported struggling to explain to migrants – often with a language barrier present – that they cannot use RTD services without paying a fare. Additional confusion was introduced when Denver began operating its own bus shuttles to provide individuals with free transportation to shelters and other locations by showing a wristband.

“The issue that we see is the perception that our buses are the same as the buses being provided by the city,” said Chris Deines, General Superintendent of Transportation for Bus Operations. “Thus, people try to board our services without having to pay a fare. We teach our folks to keep the situation deescalated, educate and accommodate.” Bus Operations issued an operator bulletin last year detailing this approach.

With the potential for more migrants on the system in the coming days, Deines said, “our operators will continue to educate and accommodate to de-escalate. We want to maintain a calm and controlled situation on our services."

It’s not just RTD operators who are experiencing more interactions with new arrivals. Customer Sales Center Manager Amerie Gagliardi reports that staff at RTD sales outlets routinely field questions from migrants about routes, scheduling and where they can seek resources and shelter. “We do a lot of printing from the website and translating into Spanish,” she said. Similarly, Transit Police Deputy Chief Glyn Horn said personnel often use smartphone tools such as Google Translate to respond to questions and share information.

To help support agency staff and migrants, RTD staff in the Transit Equity Office, Market Development and Community Engagement are currently producing an outreach plan to educate new arrivals and the organizations that are serving them (e.g., shelters and human services groups) about how to use RTD services. The goal is to facilitate better interaction between operators and customers. The outreach plan includes direct education to migrants as well as distribution of materials, such as RTD’s social services brochure and the bilingual English-Spanish “How to Ride” guide, to social service organizations. Creation of new bilingual English-Spanish signage for vehicle interiors is also being considered.

In addition, RTD staff are encouraging organizations that serve clients with immediate needs (e.g., refugees, migrants and asylum seekers) to apply for RTD's new Transit Assistance Grant program so that organizations can provide these clients with no-cost Standard fare paper tickets, reducing confusion over fares and temporarily providing customers with support as they enroll in LiVE, RTD’s income-based fare discount program.

The agency’s Civil Rights Division reminds all employees that the civil rights of all people in the United States are protected regardless of citizenship, national origin or spoken language. As a result, migrants have the right to meaningful access of RTD services under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. While all customers still need to show valid fare to use RTD services, employees cannot refuse service to anyone based on their citizenship, national origin or spoken language.

To help tackle language barriers, various language access resources are available for staff on the Transit Equity Office’s Hub page, including the Serving Non-English-Speaking Customers training slide deck, best practices for communicating with non-English speakers and the Basic Spanish for RTD Employees digital handbook.

In addition, staff can remind the public that the RTD website, Next Ride app and Transit Watch app are available in Spanish, and that the How to Ride webpage includes a How to Ride video in Spanish explaining how to navigate the RTD system.

Do you have ideas about additional ways RTD can help overcome language barriers and serve new arrivals? Contact Dani McLean, Transit Equity Specialist and Language Access Coordinator, at [email protected] with thoughts and feedback.

Frontline staff with questions about any of the details above can discuss them with a manager or supervisor.