NewsBreak Original

The Safety, Housing, Education and Homelessness Committee of the Denver City Council approved Wednesday a contract to remove hazardous materials in the city, including human waste from homeless encampments.

Imagine having to walk two blocks every time you had to go to the bathroom. That is, if you’re lucky enough to find a restroom within two blocks. That’s how a new survey conducted for Housekeys Action Network Denver by Regis University and the University of Denver describes homelessness. According to the survey, 82% of people did not have access to a restroom within two blocks. More than two-thirds did not have access to drinking water within two blocks.

Homelessness again took center stage at Monday’s City Council meeting in Denver. People living in an encampment near the Governor’s Mansion at 8th and Logan moved Monday and Tuesday as the city “de-commissioned” the makeshift camping spot.

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston and his homeless czar, Cole Chandler, can hardly contain their excitement. Monday will mark the first “encampment decommissioning” where people experiencing homelessness will be swept from the sidewalks and into the Park Hill Best Western.

A Denver homeless advocacy group issued a news release Saturday saying that some people experiencing homelessness at an encampment at 8th and Logan probably will turn down the city’s offer to stay in the newly acquired Best Western Hotel in Park Hill.

Denver Mayor Mike Johnston is working on a plan that would expand mental health and substance abuse treatment in the city’s jails. Johnston said during the budget hearing Thursday for the Denver Sheriff’s Department that he is in preliminary discussions with the sheriff’s department, non-profits and mental health service providers to create such a program.

The Denver City Council voted Monday to extend the homeless emergency declaration in the city, but not unanimously. Council members Flor Alvidrez and Amanda Sawyer voted no. Alvidrez said she does not believe it is fair for her district to have to host two of the micro-community sites. She said her district already hosts safe outdoor spaces and is the site of the new Warren Village Apartments and Urban Peak youth homeless shelter. She said all the talk about “equity” in deciding where to place the micro-community sites was just talk. “I don’t buy it,” she said. “Concentrating poverty is not the answer.”

The City and County of Denver may buy the Quality Inn Hotel on Zuni, where the city currently is housing migrants from the southern border. Council member Flor Alvidrez referenced the purchase Sept. 13 during a town hall in her district with Mayor Mike Johnston. The pair discussed the mayor’s House1000 plan.

Breaking the stereotype that democrats are always on the side of the homeless, Gov. Gavin Newsom is ready to file an amicus brief in support of the City of San Francisco after it appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals for permission to clear its homeless encampments.

Dozens of people at various town halls in August and September peppered the mayor with questions about drugs and addiction in his proposed micro-communities. They expressed concerns that the micro-community residents would continue to openly use meth, fentanyl and more. Johnston explained the micro-communities will have rules and open-air drug use and drug dealing would not be allowed.

Colorado Coalition for the Homeless may win a $6.4 million contract from the City and County of Denver to help the city relocate residents of de-commissioned homeless encampments.

Let’s have 1,000 homeless Denverites speak to the City Council, or at least attend their meetings, by the end of this year. They could stand on milk crates if they like for added effect. Don't milk crates sort of resemble pallet shelters?

(Denver, Colo.) Denver’s record for pushing unwanted homeless people around town and restricting where they can be is extensive, according to new research released Thursday. Housekeys Action Network Denver commissioned research along with the Homeless Advocacy Policy Project, part of the Experiential Advantage Curriculum at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. “Exclusionary land use policies have taken many forms in the state of Colorado, dating back to its colonization,” according to the report. “These policies have evolved from the seizure of public and private land from native tribes to Denver’s early urban beautification movement, to discriminatory zoning laws and practices, to the criminalization of survival behaviors commonly performed in public by members of the unhoused community.”

Crews swept away a homeless encampment in the vicinity of 18th and Logan on Aug. 24, and many of the campers simply moved to another encampment at 16th and Grant. Initially, the city gave encampment dwellers less than 24 hours’ notice of the sweep, according to a news release by Housekeys Action Network Denver, or HAND, a homeless advocacy group. But the city ended up waiting another day before sweeping.

The author used artificial intelligence in the creation of this article. Debate has formed around the homelessness discussion in Denver. Will the mayor’s plan to move the unhoused into pallet shelters actually work?

The Denver City Council approved Monday spending up to $7 million to buy 200 pallet shelters from Pallet PBC Inc. Mayor Mike Johnston envisions moving people from illegal street encampments into sanctioned camp sites utilizing pallet shelters. Johnston said there could be seven to 10 such camps within the city.

The author used artificial intelligence in the creation of this story. (Denver, Colo.) One of the hallmarks of so-called safe outdoor spaces in Denver is that they don’t allow visitors.

The issue of homeless encampments has been a topic of concern and discussion in various cities across the United States. In this blog post, we'll delve into a recent situation in Southeast Portland, particularly around the areas of 32nd Avenue and Steele Street. The frustration and challenges faced by both residents and local authorities shed light on the complexities of addressing homelessness and its effects on communities.

Denver City Council members Shontel Lewis and Sarah Parady proposed Monday funding public restrooms, laundry trucks, trash collection, water fountains, showers, charging stations, and bi-weekly cleanups (not sweeps) at homeless encampments.

(Denver, Colo.) Members of the Denver City Council Safety, Housing, Education and Homelessness Committee peppered Cole Chandler of the mayor’s office with praise and questions Wednesday about the city’s homelessness state of emergency.