Denver shutting down camp over public safety concerns

Mayor’s adviser says encampment too large for “All In” program

City crews on Tuesday morning began shutting d own a homeless encampment in Denver’s western Lincoln Park neighborhood because of public safety concerns including three overdose deaths and more than two dozen felony arrests there over t he past few months, according to city officials.

Cleanup work at the encampment centered on the intersection of West Eighth Avenue and Navajo Street is expected to continue through at least Wednesday.

It’s the first time in roughly six months t hat Mayor Mike Johnston’s administration has authorized s hutting down a homeless camp without having rooms in converted hotel shelters or tiny homes in micro- communities available for people living in the camp, said Cole Chandler, the mayor’s lead homelessness adviser.

The 138 people the city counted in the camp have been advised to seek open beds in the city’s traditional group homeless shelters, according to Chandler. Short of that, they face seeking new places to sleep outdoors.

“It’s not a happy thing that we have to close an encampment this way. We know the best way to address encampments is to bring people indoors to permanent and transitional housing,” Chandler said Tuesday.

“This camp at Eighth a nd Navajo is just too big. We don’t have enough available rooms in the All In Mile High system to resolve it indoors.”

All In Mile High, formerly known as the House 1,000 initiative, is Johnston’s signature program that he announced on his second day in office in July. The program has moved 1,473 people off the street and into shelters or housing as of

Tuesday, a ccording t o an online d ashboard, with a goal of housing 2,000 people by the end of this year. The administration h as largely relied on a network of five converted hotels to provide space for those people.

Housekeys Action N etwork D enver, a homeless advocacy o rganization, placed blame for the size of the camp on Johnston’s administration in a news release Friday.

By strictly enforcing the city’s camping ban a cross many a reas o f downtown already cleared of encampments, the city has forced people to congregate in larger g roups, t he organization said.

“Houseless p eople have been coming to this camp because of constant police harassment f or ‘ camping’ ( aka surviving) in all other areas of the City,” the organization said in the release.