HEARING: HOMELESS CLASS ACTION IN UNITED STATES FEDERAL COURT

TIME: 8:00 A.M. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2016

PLACE: ALFRED A. ARRAJ, U.S. FEDERAL COURTHOUSE, 901 19th  ST. DENVER, CO 40294 Courtroom A 402.

Denver, CO— Homeless people are going to U.S. federal court 8 a.m. Wednesday, October 12 to address the mass violations of their fundamental rights by the City of Denver. In spite of daily struggles, homeless and poor people here in America are standing up against powerful government and business interests.

“It’s exactly what Thomas Jefferson had in mind,” says their attorney, Jason Flores-Williams.

Since the passing of the Camping Ban in May 2012, the City of Denver has routinely seized and destroyed the property of thousands of homeless persons in Denver in a policy that has nation-wide come to be known as The Denver Homeless Sweeps.

“Defendants’ systematic policy of confiscating property from this class of citizens has profoundly deleterious effects on homeless persons’ legal standing, emotional well-being and medical health, while providing no demonstrable benefits to the City and County of Denver,” says University of Colorado Political Science Professor, Tony Robinson, an expert witness in this civil rights class action case.

The class action law suit challenging the Denver Homeless Sweeps was filed in U.S. Federal Court August 27, 2016. Wednesday October 12, 2016 marks the first hearing in the matter. There will be a press conference 8:15 a.m. on the public sidewalk on 20th and Champa followed by a hearing in Magistrate Judge Shaffer’s Courtroom at 9:00 a.m. The press conference, as well as the hearing, will be attended by many homeless people including those whose rights and property have been seized by the City.

Plaintiff Jerry Burton explains the reality saying, “Wherever I try to rest, the Denver Police Department comes down on me hard. They always tell me: “If you people would just leave Denver, then all of this would stop.” I have lived here 26 years. This is my home.”