Good morning. Welcome, Nexios today. It's Tuesday, March 14. I'm Nyla Boudou. Here's

what you need to know today. The markets react to the Silicon Valley bank fallout. Plus,

the Biden administration tries to balance energy and the environment in Alaska. But first,

homelessness drives local politics in the Western US. That's today's one big thing.

Homelessness increased nationwide in 2022. Nearly 600,000 people were experiencing homelessness

on a single night in January in this country. That's according to one-hut assessment.

The lack of affordable housing and homelessness is having a big impact on local elections

around the country, especially on the West Coast. Ballots went out yesterday in Denver's

mayor's race where ex-cios is John Frank has been covering this. We're also joined by Axios

Salt Lake City's Kim Bojotkis where this is also playing out. Hey John, hi Kim. Hello. Good

to talk to you. John, how is this issue playing out in Denver right now? Well, homelessness and crime

because they're so entangled is the number one issue in the Denver mayor's race. All the candidates

are talking about it. All have fairly different ideas on how to solve it for that matter. And what

we're really seeing here, that's reflective of the national tone, is a policy shift that

is moving toward enforcement as the main way to solve this and not a more compassionate road

about getting services to vulnerable populations. That change is incredibly significant here in

Denver and we're seeing at least four mayor candidates who support involuntary commitment or the

rest of people that won't go into shelters. Kim, are those conversations also happening in Salt Lake

City? Yes. And homelessness is the focal point in this year's Salt Lake City mayoral race.

A state report last year set the percentage of people experiencing homelessness for the first

time rose by 14 percent between 2020 and 2021 and officials said it was most likely because

of high rent costs and housing. And so in Salt Lake City are they also having conversations

...