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The city of Denver plans to clear a large homeless encampment in
Capitol Hill next week in the first public action to be matched with
an offer to move each resident indoors.
Seventy people living in rows of tents and other makeshift shelters
near East Eighth Avenue and Logan Street will be offered the chance
to move into long-term hotel rooms — secured by the city as shelter
for the homeless — or be given other options, city spokesman Derek
Woodbury said Thursday. The encampment, set to be cleared Tuesday,
sits across from the Colorado governor’s mansion.
Any relocations would count toward meeting Mayor Mike Johnston’s
goal of moving 1,000 people living on the city’s streets into
temporary or permanent accommodations before the end of the year.
“We’re working to match as many of the residents as possible with
housing and shelter, including offering them indoor placement at a non-congregate shelter at an undisclosed hotel,” Woodbury said from
the city’s emergency operations center. The new mayor activated the
center to address homelessness.
So far, the handful of city sweeps of encampments since Johnston
took office in mid-July haven’t come with similar housing offers
because of insufficient resources as Johnston’s administration works
to set up micro-communities across the city, secure more hotels and
expand capacity in other ways.
Homelessness advocate Ana Gloom said people living in the camp
understood that they would be the first to be granted access to
shelter options as part of a sweep. As of Thursday, there still was
confusion around some issues, including how much property people
could bring with them and who would help them with the next steps
once they move, such as acquiring IDs needed to access more
permanent housing.
“A hotel room, for the lack of a better option, is better than a
tent, I won’t lie. But it’s still not housing,” said Gloom, who does outreach work for Housekeys Action Network Denver, an advocacy
group.
Johnston’s administration isn’t ruling out the possibility of future
sweeps that lack connections to shelter or housing for an
encampment’s residents, particularly when a camp is classified as a
public health or safety risk.
https://www.denverpost.com/2023/09/21/denver-homeless-encampment- sweep-offering-hotel-rooms/
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