Today, Monday October 29th 2018, hundreds of homeless people – who by definition have no home of their own to live – were swept from the blocks of Lawrence, Park Ave, Broadway, and Arapahoe where they have been gathered together in tents for safety for months. Homeless people have been allowed to live in tents and tarps in this area for months with only scattered police enforcement of the survival ban. Now, out of nowhere, the City suddenly started sweeping people out with no notices.

Knowing they had to have some new justification for the sweep while in the midst of a class action lawsuit for violating homeless peoples constitutional rights in these sweeps, Mayor Hancock decided to use the department of Public Health and Environment to declare the area “Access Restricted” due to “unsafe public and environmental health conditions.”

The Cities attempt to act like this is about health and safety flips reality on its head. Sweeping people out of their tents, place, and community puts peoples health and safety at risk, not the other way around. Now hundreds of homeless people are wondering the streets trying to figure out where to stay and with what they will protect themselves from the coming snow.

Just in the last hour 8 people who were swept from these blocks have come to get tents from our Denver Homeless Out Loud office (we are almost out now so please donate more tents!).

This takes place only a week after the Denver Elections Division announced the Denver Right to Survive Initiative, which would over turn the survival ban and end these sweeps, has made the ballot for May 2019.

Tent and sidewalk clean in the morning just before the sweep

THESE SWEEPS MUST END.

Contact:

720-940-5291