Homeless is a far larger category that includes people who are housing unstable due to low income and many other people who may be temporarily down on their luck. We recognize that the city of Denver has many established programs for these people. The topic at hand is the people who are unsheltered, living in tents or exposed on our city streets and in our neighborhoods. These people are nearly all addicted to drugs or alcohol and some of them have an overlapping mental illness. Our city is being destroyed by this small percentage of our population. Grouping the unsheltered addicts with the working poor does a disservice to all involved.

Let's be realistic. Every hungry person in Denver can receive three meals per day at the many outreach locations and at the shelters. Free clothing is widely available. Stealing tools, bicycles and catalytic converters to sell for a quick fix is not a crime of survival. It is a crime of addiction. The rampant theft is primarily fueling drug habits. Items for survival are provided at no cost. There is no need to steal to survive.

Sweep implies moving people just a short distance down the road to reset up a camp. The city calls the process cleanups. They are required to mitigate the health and safety risks accumulated at campsites that have remained for some period. A cleanup is a humane process that follows a carefully established checklist that has been approved through court settlements. When someone says stop the sweeps, we agree. The illegal campers should be given choices between addiction treatment, established shelters, or jail.

Minneapolis Hell Hotel in Ruins

San Francisco Disaster: Hotels for Homeless

This is what happens when addicts are given free housing without any accountability, including required treatment for their addiction issues.

The people living on the streets are offered mental health and housing and addiction services at least once per week. They actively decline. When a cleanup occurs, it is only after countless visits to encourage people to accept services. It is not true that the services are unavailable to this population. These people do not act like our neighbors.

Harm reduction does not aim to stop illegal drug use but rather to make inevitable drug use “safer”. This is misleading as drug use is not safe, even with extra precautions. Harm reduction centers promote illegal activity and often prolong addictions.