LEGISLATIVE
VINCENT CARROLL | DENVER POST
This article has been reprinted with permission.
We can help homeless without
sacrificing public spaces
T
he most important vote that
Denver residents cast this year
may not be for mayor. A better
candidate is a ballot measure most voters
probably haven’t even heard of yet:
Initiative 300, which would overturn the
city’s ordinance that outlaws camping
in parks or on sidewalks, or setting up
residence in a car.
Overturn is in fact too mild a
description. Initiative 300 a.k. Right
to Survive, would propel Denver into
uncharted territory regarding the use of
public spaces.
Its stated target is the ordinance that
city council approved in 2012 in the wake
of Occupy Denver protests, those copycat
eruptions whose many acts of vandalism
included defacing the stone balustrades
at Civic Center. Protesters not only set up
camp at various locations downtown,
they turned the sidewalk along Broadway
into Tarp City for the entire winter.
The new law did not go down well
with activists, who have charged ever
since that it “criminalizes” homelessness.
Initiative 300 is their attempt to enshrine
squatters’ rights across the city. They
would create a “right to rest,” including
lying down and sleeping, and “to shelter
oneself ” in “outdoor public spaces,”
which include parks, sidewalks, museum
grounds, the Highline Canal and much
more. It would usher in the sort of
squalid, quasi-permanent encampments
on public property that have become a
problem for cities such as Los Angeles,
Portland and Seattle.
No time limit for “rest” is mentioned
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MARCH 2019
in the measure, nor any limiting definition
of “shelter.” Tents presumably would pass
muster. But what about sturdier, more
permanent structures?
Proponents are insouciantly forthright
about their goals. In a FAQ sheet
regarding 300 that appears on the Denver
Right to Survive website, proponents
describe what they believe should be the
proper attitude toward people who might
set up residence in “cars and trucks”
outside your home.
“What makes someone sleeping in
their vehicle by your home — because
they have nowhere else TO sleep – more
threatening to you and the neighborhood
than someone sleeping in their home next
door?” the fact sheet asks. “Get to know
the people. You will likely find that there
is nothing to be worried about, and even
that they make the neighborhood safer by
protecting your house from burglary and
deterring other crime.”
A similar approach is advised if an
encampment springs up in your local park,
where curfews will be unenforceable.
Get to “know, understand and appreciate”
your new neighbors. They’re not bad folks,
despite the “myth of homeless people as
criminals” perpetrated by “public officials
and the media.”
Well, of course homeless people are,
for the most part, decent citizens.
Their personal virtues hardly settle the
question of whether they should be
allowed to camp on public property.
Seven years ago Mayor Hancock
declared, “The moment we lose
downtown as a place people want to go
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