The city of Denver must act quickly — faster than officials are moving now — to disperse the growing camps around Civic Center park, the state Capitol, Morey Middle School, an area near Five Points and the Governor’s Residence.
These camps exist and are growing because of the coronavirus in two ways. First, the virus has caused job loss and economic decline. Second, the city’s humane policy is not to disperse campers when a particularly contagious, possibly airborne and often deadly disease is spreading in the community. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that these camps not be dispersed during the COVID-19 outbreak. But that policy has its limits and these camps have become unhealthy in ways that are just as concerning as the novel coronavirus — a suspected outbreak of trench fever, and worries about the spread of Hepatitis A.
Moving some of these campers to locations that are soon to be identified by the city of Denver as safe camping zones will allow for more sanitary conditions without forcing people into indoor shelters where it’s possible the coronavirus is more easily transmitted. The Denver Post editorial board has supported the proposed creation of three of these sites — each housing about 50 tents — throughout the city.
We’d also be remiss if we didn’t address another part of these camps.
Some of those who are camping are not in fact homeless. These individuals all have their own reasons for wanting to be in downtown Denver, but their presence is harming Colorado’s most vulnerable population, and it’s time for them to go home or rent a hotel room or other place to stay at night.
We imagine some of these individuals are staying downtown to participate in the historic civil rights protests, and they are welcome to return on a daily or nightly basis to express their opposition to police brutality and systemic racism. But by camping downtown, those who have homes are contributing to the impossible situation those who do not have homes are facing. Those experiencing homelessness are torn between the risk of contracting the coronavirus at an indoor shelter and the known risks of urban camping: the drug abuse and violent crime that typically occurs in unsupervised settings.
Indeed, it’s time for those who have homes to go home.
Those who are homeless need to be moved from these dangerous locations while the city cleans up feces, trash and rat infestations. Efforts to criminalize homelessness or perpetually harass those living in poverty until they leave the city carry their own civil rights violations and are unethical. We are sympathetic to concerns that the city has historically pushed Colorado’s homeless out of sight to “solve” the problem.
There’s a long history in this nation and around the world of camps for the poor. They are called shanty towns in other countries, and during the Great Depression, they were called Hoovervilles — named for the single-term president who refused to provide direct federal aid to the American people.
Today these “Trumpvilles” are privatizing public spaces when Americans need to be able to enjoy their outdoor public places the most, during a time when the coronavirus has made it so Coloradans are “Safer at Home.”
There is a better answer. For now, that answer is temporary safe camping sites, in the future it may be tiny home villages like the one Denver announced this week, and Denverites must consider the costs and benefits of a proposed $40 million annual tax increase for increased housing.
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