Denver Mayor Michael Hancock said the city will seek to buy hotels and motels to serve as shelters as part of the overall strategy to help the sheltered people.
“We have proven that 24-hour shelters work during the pandemic,” Hancock said at a press conference at the 48th Street Shelter that opened last week, adding later that the pandemic gave the city the opportunity to take advantage Understand 24-hour accommodation and rethink safe outdoor areas.
Hancock also said Wednesday that “unsanctioned camps are not an option for the homeless” and plans to use a “civilian enforcement team” to evict camps.
“House keys have a lot more power to change a life than tents,” he said.
The mayor’s plans are part of a three-pronged strategy that he believes will help Denver recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
In April he announced that he would make a proposal $ 400 million bond issue Paying for projects across town and creating new jobs, though its administration still hasn’t determined what work the loan money would fund – what appears to some economists as “backward”. ”And in May, Hancock said he will Increase police presence in certain areas of the city to tackle a recent wave of violence and to link police officers with mental health providers and community organizations during these patrols.
Denver’s overall strategy for dealing with the homeless population – around 4,171 people according to the last full balance sheet in 2020 – Has received mixed reviews from experts, advocates, and people on the street.
The head of the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless praised Hancock’s plan announced in May to buy a hotel in northeast Denver accommodate up to 200 people. But another coalition official was reluctant to see Hancock’s continued commitment to costly clearance, which medical experts have repeatedly cited inhuman and ineffective.
Denver crews cleared more homeless camps in the past six months than in the whole of 2020.
