Camping ban.

Centennial becomes latest metro city to prohibit urban camping.

Leaders in the sprawling suburb of Centennial voted 9-0 on Monday to prohibit camping on city-owned property, joining several other cities in the metro area that have already made the controversial move.

City manager Bob Widner cast the need for the ordinance as a “public safety issue” and several Centennial homeowners took to the microphone to ask that city leaders do something about a handful of impromptu trash-strewn campsites that have popped up in the city lately.

“I don’t think camping in public areas is the right way to deal with the homeless,” said Pat Benhmida, a Centennial resident. “I live here and I want to keep it safe.”

But several people pleaded with council members not to pass the ban, saying it essentially criminalizes homelessness.

“How can we penalize people for doing what they must to survive while the government doesn’t provide alternatives?” said Centennial resident Nick Swanson.

With the city council vote Monday, Centennial becomes the fourth city in the metro area to ban urban camping, following Boulder, Denver and Parker. Taken together, the four cities have a population of nearly 1 million people, meaning approximately one-third of metro area residents now live in a community where urban camping is not permitted.

That’s nothing to be proud of, said Cathy Alderman, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless. She called camping bans “short-sighted and misguided.”

“We have a housing affordability and availability crisis in the state and we need to be identifying ways to address that rather than wasting resources punishing people for being unhoused,” she said. “Further, there is a serious lack of appropriate shelter spaces for people across the metro Denver area including Centennial.”

Centennial took up the issue more as a pre-emptive move than as a direct response to an intractable problem. City staff noted to council members that while “there have not been large encampments” found in the city of 110,000, there have been “small camps located in the city’s rights-of-way.”

“Camping is inconsistent with the intended use of the city’s property, including city sidewalks and trails, and parks and open space areas,” staff wrote in a memo accompanying the ordinance.

Glenn Thompson, a bureau chief with the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office, said his agency gets four to six calls a year regarding campers on public property in Centennial.

“The ban would provide deputies a reason to contact the campers who are on public rights of way,” he said Monday. “Deputies would then be able to provide referrals for any assistance if needed or direct them to designated camping locations.”