Denver is set to provide 140 homeless transgender and non-binary people with $12,000 in no-strings-attached cash to help lift them out of destitution - and combat the squalid encampments and soaring crime rates plaguing the Mile-High City. 

The city has allocated $2million from the American Rescue Plan Act to fund the program, which will be run by the Denver Basic Income Project to mainly get women, transgender and non-binary people housed. 

The total program, which will cost up to $9million, is seeking to help around 820 people, but the $2million provided by the city will fund around 140 people. 

The rest of the money will be raised through charitable foundations, including the Colorado Health Foundation and the Denver Foundation, Denver Basic Income Project founder Mark Donovan told Axios Denver. 

Around 4,700 households are experiencing homelessness in Denver as of January 2022. 

The participants - which will mainly be women, transgender and gender non-confirming individuals - will be chosen at random after applying and will more than likely begin receiving payments starting in November, according to ABC 7 Denver. 

'The pandemic has had a really big impact on the state of homelessness in our community that we've seen increased numbers of families seeking shelter, as well as, an increase number of women using our shelter system,' Angie Nelson, deputy director of Housing Stability and Homelessness Resolution, told ABC 7.