Mayor Mike Johnston not Keeping his Word?
Cristal M Clark
In case anyone did not hear this, it made national headlines
yesterday, the City of Denver swept a large encampment
without providing direct housing options to anyone who had been staying at the encampment.
This by the way is the first sweep Denver has conducted in roughly 6 months
around W 8th Ave and Navajo St.
At the sweep homeless advocates
voiced outrage and frustration insisting that Mayor Mike Johnston was not
keeping his word to refrain from doing sweeps without offering housing to those
living at any encampment.
Amy Beck with Together Denver said “I
am angry. I am just so frustrated; It is the mayor’s plan and he is not
following it. A lot of people have disabilities, they have problems moving
around. They cannot lift and so they are welcome to load things in the U-Haul
and I’ll take them wherever they tell me they would like to go.”
Ana-Lilith Miller, with HouseKeys
Action Network Denver (HAND) "Now these people are spreading out, which
is only going to make it harder for anybody to reach out to them to try to help
them get into housing.”
Trust me they will not spread out too
far away from the safety of another encampment for too long, that is proven and
a given. Denverites have seen this one countless times.
According to eyewitnesses the roughly
150 or so homeless are simply moving a few streets over. The Mayor’s Director
of Communications Jose Salas said that “In cases of public health, public
safety, right of way, or private property infringement some camps will need to
be cleaned up without direct access to housing. Although we have worked with an
intention of resolving this encampment to housing for several weeks, this
encampment faces a great deal of challenges related to public health and safety
and has imposed a significant burden on the surrounding community.”
And to be fair, that is fair. In
certain cases, under certain conditions that is the only option which is what
the outraged advocates fail to see and it is precisely what they do not want
you to see. Sure, they want to give you the line like they did above, some of
the people have disabilities, but let me tell you something, those same people
can seek services that cater to those that have disabilities and often, they
are fast tracked through the system. These advocates would perhaps do better by
helping to find donation/grants/funding and pay for housing for those affected before
a sweep, we all knew this one was coming, but then again that would slash
budgets for their organizations and hit salaries. Instead of going on live
television expressing outrage, get some funding to support housing options for
folks affected by sweeps. It is not rocket science here, anyone can show up and
throw up, from where I am sitting these advocates are certainly not living up
to the homeless “advocate” name here.
Besides all of that, I am pretty sure
that they Mayor has said all along that they might not be able to offer hosing
for everyone if conditions such as public safety, public health, right of way,
private property infringement, etc. are met. What advocates do not want you to
see let alone acknowledge, they much prefer to highlight the sob story and gain
pity further growing their own cause without actually funding much in the way
of actual help for those they supposedly fight for. No they prefer to show up
and throw upon the Mayor’s shoes, verbally of course.
Do not like what is happening, then
fund something better ladies. In the meantime, the Mayor has bigger fish to fry
here like not helping immigrants more than our homeless and working with RTD to
clean up the problematic bus stops around the Denver and surrounding areas so
as to make them safer for everyone.
Cristal M Clark
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