Response to City Response to Fire at Encampment

The City is using this fire as a way to persuade you to believe that they should be able to sweep an encampment of residents with no notice.

The City of Denver appears to have displaced the residents at the encampment following a fire at 43rd and Clayton last Saturday. The City seems to have some difficulty in appropriately responding to a crisis, such as a fire, -where residents need to ensure immediate safety for themselves and their property. Instead of responding responsibly to the fire and supporting residents in their safety, the City forcibly evicted everyone out of the area. We are still unclear whether residents of this camp lost property.

The City is fully able to collect trash or put out a fire immediately with no notice under the injunction. The current injunction does not prohibit the City from responding to an emergency. We want the City to respond to emergencies responsibly. There is nothing preventing them from clearing the exploded propane tanks and not forcibly evicting the encampment. The City is using this fire as a way to persuade you to believe that they should be able to sweep an encampment of residents with no notice. This is inapplicable as there is no need to force residents to move from a site where there was a fire – residents will move to safer places of their own initiative and there is nothing keeping the City from coming in to clean up trash after a fire. The City needs to and should respond to a fire at an encampment just as they would at an apartment complex.

It also appears the City has lied to the media about offering housing to these residents. While they were likely offered shelters or temporary (1-3 day stays) hotels, no actual affordable, accessible, permanent housing was offered.

Furthermore, it is only speculation whether the site was a drug lab or not. No mitigation or investigation of the site has been done, yet the City has jumped to advertising this conclusion.

Channel 4 Coverage – https://denver.cbslocal.com/2021/04/13/explosion-denver-homeless-camp-drug-lab/

Denver Homeless Out Loud
info@denverhomelessoutloud.org
720-940-5291