• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
WRAP

WRAP

Western Regional Advocacy Project

  • Donate Now
  • Get Email Updates
  • Contact Us
  • Home
  • About
    • 40 Years of Fighting
    • History
    • Mission
    • Strategy
    • Members
    • Board / Staff
  • Campaigns
    • Business Improvement Districts
    • House Keys Not Sweeps
    • Legal Defense Clinics Project
    • Homeless Bill of Rights
    • Oregon Right To Rest
    • Without Housing
    • Street Outreach
  • Organizing Tools
    • Without Housing Organizing Toolkit
    • Homeless Bill of Rights Campaign Manual
    • WRAP Organizers Manual
    • WRAP Artwork
  • Resources
    • Pipe Dreams and Picket Fences Report
    • Art in Action Power Point Slide Show
    • Hobos to Street People
    • House Keys Book
    • Political Education
    • Legal Research
  • Media
    • Newsletters
    • Blog
    • Hobos to Street People Art Show
    • Street Newspapers
    • Sweeps Gallery Videos
    • Videos
  • Support Us
    • Donate
    • Become a Monthly Sustainer
    • Volunteer
    • Support WRAP
    • WRAP Newsletters & Updates Sign Up

DENVER HOMELESS OUT LOUD ENCOURAGING CITY OF DENVER TO GIVE BACK SHELTER AFTER TAKING IT IN COLD WEATHER FRONT

November 5, 2018 by Jonathan Leave a Comment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Nov. 5, 2018

DENVER HOMELESS OUT LOUD ENCOURAGING CITY OF DENVER TO GIVE BACK SHELTER AFTER TAKING IT IN COLD WEATHER FRONT

Human rights, resources for housing remain UNavailable as temperatures drop

“Cities cannot use quick-fix criminal justice measures to address their social service failures. Housing is the solution to homelessness.” Eric Tars of National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty

DENVER – With winter weather moving in, the City and County of Denver is actively on the streets taking shelter – such as tarps, tents, sleeping bags – from people experiencing homelessness and moving them to less visible areas. As they do this the city claims to be “encouraging homeless people to seek shelter ahead of the cold front.”

Let’s just start with the math. Denver has at least 3,445 people experiencing homelessness (a known undercount) and not quite 2,000 spaces at shelters. At least 609 of these people are “unsheltered” (meaning staying outside). The city claims there is on average, 100 to 150 shelter spaces that go unused each night. Even given this massive undercount of people experiencing homelessness, and this liberal estimate of open shelters spaces, 609 people do not fit in 150 spaces. The math doesn’t add up.

Now let’s go beyond math to the human elements of this situation. People without housing are not bodies to be put in spaces in a shelter building, but rather human beings who have lives. The reality of life and dynamics in shelters are such that they are not a viable, healthy, safe, or possible options for many people. Accordingly, hundreds of people without housing WILL BE living outside creating their own shelter in Denver this winter.

We simply ask the City of Denver to give back the shelter people create for themselves to survive – both the physical tarps/tents/blankets/ect, and the right to use this shelter to survive.

Who is asking for this?

All those who love their husband or wife and feel safer together than separated as shelters do to couples…
All those who work late nights and can’t get into a shelter…
All those who work nights and have no option to sleep in a shelter in the day…
All those who work early morning day labor and can’t get out of the shelter in time to work…
All those women who are traumatized by men staff in the bunk areas waking women to kick them out…
All those with pets or service animals who are rejected…
All those who can’t conform to regimented rules…
All those who can’t handle being ordered around and degraded by staff…
All those with insomnia who can’t watch tv or read but must be in bed with no cell phones…
All those who have stayed in a shelter program for 90 days with a promise of housing to no avail and given up on service providers…
All those who have been kicked out at 3am for no fault of their own because staff failed to sign them in or enter their chores in the records…
All those who need food in the night and fear being kicked out for keeping food with them in bed against the rules…
All those who don’t want to sleep with bed bugs…
All those suffering a drug addiction that can’t pass a urine analysis to stay in the shelters…
All those don’t make it in the lottery to get a bed…
All those who can’t get down on the floor to sleep on a mat…
All those with more than two bags of belongings who either go into the shelter and lose their property, or stay outside to keep their property…
All those trans-gender folks who have been abused in a shelter or forced to strip to prove their sex…
All those who want their time back from waiting in lines for early admission hours to get into a shelter…
All those who don’t want to be preached to by shelter providers…
All those with mental health struggles who can’t handle being around hundreds of people in a tight space…
All those released from the hospital at 1am onto the streets…
All those physically unable to move about when police ask them…
All those who feel safer staying outside with friends than in a building with strangers…
All those who feel safer or happier staying by themselves on the streets than with hundreds of people in a shelter…
All those who prefer the dignity of a tent to the warehousing and dehumanizing treatment of a shelter…
All those who want control of their own life and choices…

 

PRESS RELEASE

Denver Homeless Out Loud
720-940-5291 – Direct
415-517-5603 – Mobile
info@denverhomelessoutloud.org

Filed Under: Press Releases, WRAP Members

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Footer

Instagram Feed

Does the litany of laws forbidding camping, loiter Does the litany of laws forbidding camping, loitering, trespassing, blocking the sidewalk and panhandling make society safer? https://conta.cc/3ZrNvk5
https://conta.cc/48wWLr8
Welcome to the WRAP-UP! Boise, ID. Video Shows Fam Welcome to the WRAP-UP!	Boise, ID. Video Shows Family Violently Arrested and Severely Injured for Living in Park, and more news from our members.  https://conta.cc/3R8Efzl
https://conta.cc/3r3rHhU
Washington D.C. PRESS RELEASE: Congresswoman Bush Washington D.C. PRESS RELEASE: Congresswoman Bush Re-Introduces Unhoused Bill of Rights https://wraphome.org/
After nearly 30 years of continuous publication, w After nearly 30 years of continuous publication, we have lost our funding. Street Spirit ceased publication on July 1, but we will not give up! Our newspaper is an invaluable source of East Bay news, and a vital resource for the people who sell it. Come party with us to support our effort to relaunch. https://conta.cc/3rifOod
WRAP is Hiring - Member Organizer WRAP was founde WRAP is Hiring - Member Organizer 
WRAP was founded in 2005 by local social justice organizations across the West to bring about real systemic change. We are building a multi-issue, multi-racial and social justice-based coalition which brings organizations together across the local–national divide, thus giving us the strength and experience to make ending poverty and homelessness a national priority. https://conta.cc/3XD5QK9
Celebrating Resistance Relationships June 30, 202 Celebrating Resistance Relationships 
June 30, 2023 * 6:00 - 8:00 pm 
320 West 37th Street, New York, NY 10018
State of the “Sweeps” The politics of encampme State of the “Sweeps”
The politics of encampments and displacement in the “post” pandemic order
Public panel discussion, June 14, 4-5:30pm Communications 120
University of Washington, Seattle
Undercommons Archives Art Show Thursday June 15th Undercommons Archives Art Show
Thursday June 15th 7-10pm 
Adobe Books 3130 24th St. SF
Instagram post 17863401230948820 Instagram post 17863401230948820
San Francisco, CA. Mayor’s Plan to Expand Shelte San Francisco, CA. Mayor’s Plan to Expand Shelter GUTS HOUSING FOR HOMELESS FAMILIES AND YOUTH 
https://wraphome.org/2023/05/31/mayors-plan-to-expand-shelter-guts-housing-for-homeless-families-and-youth/
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Facebook Icon

Facebook Feed

Comments Box SVG iconsUsed for the like, share, comment, and reaction icons
Link thumbnail

Sacramento prosecutor sues California’s capital city over failure to clean up homeless encampments

clbn.us

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento’s top prosecutor is suing the city’s leaders over failure to cleanup homeless encampments, escalating ...
2 days ago
View on Facebook
· Share
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
View Comments
  • Likes: 0
  • Shares: 0
  • Comments: 0

Twitter Icon

Twitter Feed

Twitter feed is not available at the moment.

YouTube icon

Youtube Code

Our Channel

Copyright © 2023 Western Regional Advocacy Project WRAP · Log in