Representing homeless challenges attorneys
Minutes before a group of homeless people on Wednesday walked into Denver’s federal courthouse, a woman with a bullhorn asked one more time for those without an ID card to sign a list.
Those people would need to enter with Jason Flores-Williams, an attorney representing homeless people in a lawsuit against Denver. He had filed a motion asking a judge to permit those without IDs to come inside a building where guards typically turn away those without it. This time, they would be allowed to enter, but only after Flores-Williams vouched for their identity as they were questioned by security guards.
The lawsuit, which was granted class-action status in April 2017, is moving closer to trial, and Wednesday’s routine hearing illustrated some of the unique issues the court faces when plaintiffs do not have homes.
“It’s a challenge,” Flores-Williams said. “They’re going to have a hard time maintaining the stability necessary to come to court.”
Before the hearing, homeless advocates served a hot meal on the sidewalk outside the courthouse. They parked a truck with lockers near the building so people could store their backpacks, blankets and other gear during the hearing. One woman asked if she could lock up her Mace. A man needed to stow his marijuana.
Already, Flores-Williams and his staff have had to walk Denver’s streets to find their clients, often meeting them next to garbage bins in alleys to get them to sign papers or notify them of appointments, he said. Still, clients miss crucial appointments such as deposition hearings, which gives Denver’s city attorneys an opportunity to bar them from testifying.
Flores-Williams said he must file a motion over the IDs every time a hearing is scheduled.
Ray Lyall, the lead plaintiff, and nine others are arguing that Denver’s sweeps where homeless people are uprooted from parks and sidewalks and where their property is confiscated are violations of their civil rights. He sat at a table in front of the judge Wednesday with his salt-andpepper hair pulled back in a ponytail and wearing a black Tshirt that read “Be a good person.”
“You can’t walk forever,” Lyall said. “At some point, you have to sleep. We have to survive. I just decided we have to do something about this.”
The next fight to protect clients’ and witnesses’ ability to attend hearings will come later this spring when Flores-Williams files a motion asking a judge to place the city’s camping ban in abeyance during the trial so those people aren’t arrested or moved far away, preventing them from attending the trial.
“They obtain an incredible advantage when they can arrest or sweep out our witness base,” he said.