This story is a capstone project by CU Boulder’s News Corps students Alyssa Hill and Kendall Shepherd.
For over a decade, Giles Clasen, a reporter for The Denver Voice, worked with the unhoused community. The Voice offers a glimmer of hope to those living on the streets, supporting individuals at risk of housing and financial instability through the sale of its newspapers.
Throughout his years, Clasen has witnessed myriad city initiatives aimed at addressing problems faced by the unhoused come and go. The most recent among them is newly-elected Mayor Mike Johnston’s effort to house 1000 people before the year’s end through his “House1000” initiative.
On Dec. 31, his administration announced they had succeeded in this endeavor. But this accomplishment was preceded by five sweeps of homeless encampments—something Johnston pledged during the election to not conduct without offering housing.
“The city has definitely come in swinging, but nothing is really being done,” Clasen said. “I don’t know what the city thinks it’s accomplishing. I want to believe this new administration is trying to do the right thing, but at the end of the day, a sweep is a sweep. Solving the homeless problem isn’t just moving homeless people. It’s helping them off the streets.”
Clasen has witnessed multiple organizations come into camps and provide sanitary services without upending their communities.
“I’ve seen organizations come in and clean up camps without forcing them to move. I don’t understand why the city can’t just do the same. Encampment sweeps are traumatic and unhelpful.”
Raelene Johnson, a vendor for The Denver Voice, fought drug addiction and homelessness around the country for three decades. Empty promises by previous mayors and multiple encampment sweeps have left her with no choice but to have little faith in Mayor Johnston’s plan.
Before being hired by The Voice, Johnson spent three years on the streets of Denver after moving to the city in the early 2000s. Since starting her position as a local vendor, she has been able to purchase a mobile home and relocate to Boulder.
In addition to getting off the streets, Johnson overcame her addictions, taught herself to read and write and became one of the top-selling vendors of The Voice. She does not credit the city with any of these drastic life improvements.
“You would be lucky if you had a tent to yourself. Even back then, they would throw out your [stuff] with no warning,” Johnson said.
Johnson feels a great sense of discouragement about progress that has been made. The mayor’s “House1000” plan is disheartening to her, and she feels this is nothing new.
“It’s another mayor, another plan, another mayor, another plan, and then it’s sweep after sweep,” Johnson said. From Connecticut to Colorado, Johnson’s experience with various empty promises from multiple mayors makes her dubious about the feasibility of Johnston’s “House1000” initiative.
Morgan Rose, another Denver resident facing homelessness since early 2019, has dealt with numerous sweeps and displacements. In her time on the streets, Rose has found any hopes she has of finding suitable housing quickly demolished under Johnson’s new initiatives.
“It feels like a big lack of empathy,” Rose said.
Rose conveyed her frustrations with the administration’s initiative and encampment sweeps saying, in her experience, the homeless shelters she resided in were not much better than life on the streets. After only a few days into her stay, Rose perceived the shelter employees as being cold-hearted and inadequately trained. She believed many were ill-equipped when it came to dealing with drug addiction and mental health disorders.
“Do people not realize that a lot of the staff in these shelters aren’t trained? These shelters are just desperate for employees,” Rose said, adding that she feels more comfortable living on the streets than in a homeless shelter for the time being.
Rose finds Johnston’s “House1000” plan to create safer spaces for those experiencing homelessness to be a hard sell if that means returning to a shelter similar to those she has previously been in.
“It’s living on the streets or in a shelter where you’re really not respected. And I value being respected as a human being,” Rose said.
Rose’s experience on the streets has led her to believe that without improvement from her previous experiences in the shelters, and a staff better equipped to deal with a volatile population, the “House1000” plan will fail.
“People have to want to stay,” Rose said.
Studies show that approximately one-third of Denver’s homeless population contend with drug addiction, while a staggering 71% suffer from mental health disorders. With the mayor’s administration having yet to disclose any contractual agreements to supply services for employee support, security, mental health and addiction treatment in new housing areas, the faith in his success is plummeting.
Aside from those working for The Denver Voice and those experiencing homelessness, business owners in the Denver area are also affected by Johnston’s attempts to aid the homeless population.
“They kick these people out, and they can only go so far. The farthest I’ve seen them move is probably four or five blocks,” said Denver small business owner Natasha Butler.
Butler is the owner of Little Bodega, on the corner of 22nd and Welton Streets. Butler’s business used to face a homeless camp in an empty parking lot. That was until Aug. 4, when Johnston conducted a sweep and the residents were forced to leave.
“I just don’t understand how his plan is going to be any different,” Butler said about the mayor’s initiative. “He just keeps saying, ‘Yeah, I’ll house all these people,’ and then just moves them to another place. It’s ridiculous.”
Giles Clasen echoed Butler’s concerns, saying the sweeps are doing more harm than good and time is running out for a better solution before the temperatures really start to plummet. While he’s unsure about the viability of the “House1000” initiative, he strongly believes the solution needs to start with those affected by the problem, not just the ones in charge.
“We need to ask them first, what would work? What do you need to survive out here? What can we do to make it better? And the reality is simple: If we served the unhoused community the right way by asking them, then we can improve the situation.”