DENVER — Ten years after the City and County of Denver enacted a ban on camping on city streets, unhoused residents and advocates are asking the city to consider the harm its policy has created.
In the Denver City Council public comment forum May 9, nearly two dozen residents shared grueling experiences of brutality and cruelty they said they’ve experienced at the hands of Denver Police officers and others as a result of the camping ban.
One man said he was advised to begin using drugs so he could get into a homeless shelter easier; another said he had a gun pulled on him after he attempted to stop a robbery.
Residents described instances of brutal assault by other residents and police officers, having belongings stolen, struggling to hold down jobs and obtain permanent housing. The group spoke during the public comment forum at the beginning of the city council meeting.
Ana Cornelius, executive director of Denver Homeless Out Loud, told Rocky Mountain PBS the ban has made the city money by shuffling unhoused folks around and arresting them for petty crimes, which is why, she said, the city refuses to disavow it.
“I think it’s a rehash of slavery in that it’s the commodification of human beings,” Cornelius said. “There’s profit being made from the shuffling of human beings and from moving them with no reason.”
Wearing shirts that read “Denver’s decade of doom” the group spoke about the brutal realities of the ordinance, which they said is inhumane and has allowed violence against people experiencing homelessness to persist unchecked.
“This decade of chaos has been created to protect business interest and not human life,” said Kenny White, a man who said he used to be unhoused but now has housing. “I’ve seen what happens to the homeless. They’re treated as less than dogs.”
White said the camping ban and actions that have followed have put unhoused residents in danger and degraded their quality of life.
“These are people who are trying to get themselves back up when society has kicked them, and you’ve done nothing but beat them even more,” White said. “You really just don’t care about human life. That’s how you’ve shown yourselves to be.”
Denver passed its camping ban through a city council vote in 2012, and residents who spoke on Monday night said conditions have only worsened since then.
“The shelters have not improved, the cops have not improved, things have not improved and this city has not become a better place so you can sweep human lives under the rug, it’s unacceptable and it’s disgusting, and you are all monsters,” White told council members. “People are trying to make their lives better, and you constantly kick them, and you constantly belittle them and think of them as less.”
You can watch the full public comment period in the video player below.
