A candidate running to become Denver’s next mayor has come under scrutiny for saying that, under certain circumstances, people who violate the city’s urban camping ban should be arrested.
In an interview with 9News, a news partner of The Denver Gazette, mayoral candidate Kelly Brough said arresting someone who violates the urban camping ban would come as a “last resort” when that person has also declined resources, such as shelter, behavioral health treatment or relocation to a sanctioned camping site.
Earlier in the interview, Brough said she believes most people who are homeless want to find safer conditions and would be willing to accept support. Her goal is to keep people from living in inhumane conditions, she said.
The idea of a tougher response to Denver's homeless crisis has gained some traction among a few of the mayoral aspirants, who vowed, for example, to staunchly enforce the city's camping ban if elected. Other candidates described the policy as mean-spirited.
Cathy Alderman, chief communications and public policy officer for the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, said if Brough’s plan leads to homeless individuals going to jail on allegations of violating the camping ban, “that is wildly counterproductive.”
“This enforcement mentality against people experiencing homelessness hasn’t worked,” she said.
The city’s decade-old camping ban has not reduced homelessness, Alderman said, adding the policy is disruptive to the homeless and service providers. She also said that homeless likely make little to no income, and an arrest, along with fines or court dates, will further complicate their circumstances.
Brough told the Denver Gazette her main focus is getting people into safer conditions.
“Including sanctioned camping locations, so people can be with their partners, with their family, with their community,” she said.
Safe places are preferably indoors, but temporary sanctioned camping locations will allow the city to provide basic needs, such as running water and bathrooms, she said, adding the city could also intervene more quickly during dangerous weather conditions.
Brough reiterated that service providers tell her the vast majority of homeless residents want to access resources and safer conditions than what a camping site can offer.
Her proposal to address homelessness also calls for better data collection that can drive the region’s response to homelessness, broad safety updates to the city’s shelter system, improving Denver’s housing inventory and supportive housing system, and providing supportive services with case management, according to her website. Brough's campaign adds that prevention is key to curbing homelessness in Denver.
Alderman of the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless argued that arresting homeless people would only exacerbate the situation. Homeless people suffer trauma on numerous levels — from whatever life experiences left them without housing to the experience of homelessness itself — and an arrest is but another traumatic experience that will make someone less likely to find housing or work opportunities in the future, she said.
There are also many reasons homeless people might not accept city resources, she said.
“If you are living in a traumatic environment, it is very common to not trust people, to shut down, to just maybe want to take care of yourself and make sure that you are surviving, day to day,” Alderman said.
Building trust with people “who have otherwise been marginalized by the community” doesn’t happen quickly, she said.
“You have to take a little bit of time with folks, to build that trust and then show them that there are other options that will be appropriate for them and safer for them. But I don’t think you can enforce your way into that relationship,” she said.
Denver and other communities across the country have policies that perpetuate the notion all homeless individuals are criminals, and arresting people for urban camping does the same, she said.
Any homelessness plan that does not start with improving housing “is not really a homelessness resolution plan at all,” she said, adding the city’s next mayor should ideally address the issue with not only housing but services and relationships building.
The division among candidates underscores how homelessness has come to dominate the public policy debate in metro Denver, where 7,000 are homeless and cities struggle to address the crisis, which shows no signs of abating even as they pour significant resources into programs.
What's clear is that Denver residents want their city to tackle homelessness. In a recent poll, Denver voters say the homeless situation is dire, with 96% describing it as a major problem and nearly half labeling it as a “crisis.”
Michael Dino, a political expert who served as campaign manager for former mayor Wellington Webb, told The Denver Gazette that all the the "top tier" candidates have offered a "reasonable public safety approach, and voters will give them the benefit of the doubt that as mayor, protecting Denver citizens will be a priority."
Brough spoke about working in the 1990s developing Denver’s first drug court, a model she said was about recognizing that criminalizing the issue does not work but neither will ignoring it. The city can use tools, such as mental health holds for people who are unable to make decisions for themselves and will not go to a sanctioned location, she said.
Brough said she shares concerns that an arrest would make it harder for someone to later access housing and find work, and she prefers deferring judgement and deferring sentences. She declined to discuss what sort of charges a person might face if arrested, saying a mayor does not control that.
Brough added that she believes her homelessness reduction strategies will result in fewer calls to law enforcement “because we are going to be able to get supports and services to so many people more effectively than we do today.” Her priority, she said, is sending outreach workers to interact with the homeless community, not officers.
“Even if we arrested someone, ultimately to me, the opportunity would be to say our purpose is not for the criminal justice system, our purpose is to make sure you are safe,” she said.
