Denver Metro to Coffman: Your Homeless Stunt was Insulting

Story By Robert Davis

Photo By Giles Clasen

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Elected officials, homeless service providers, and advocates from organizations across the Denver Metropolitan Area gathered Thursday to forcefully denounce Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman’s one-week camping trip among Denver’s unhoused, saying it was “ill-informed,” “a publicity stunt,” and “insulting.”

Speakers and attendees included city councilors from Aurora, Denver, Englewood, and Broomfield; a former director of Aurora’s homelessness service programs, state-elected officials, and directors of private street outreach organizations.

“We can’t move forward in our discussions on how to solve homelessness without acknowledging the false narratives going around,” said Aurora City Councilwoman Crystal Murillo.

The story emerged after CBS4 reporter Shaun Boyd revealed Coffman had alerted the station in advance of his plan to sleep rough for a week. In turn, Coffman tweeted that he was “Taking a vacation.” CBS cameraman captured footage from afar, and Boyd interviewed Coffman about his experience on the eighth day.

Coffman told Boyd about the rampant drug use he saw in homeless encampments and described homelessness as “a lifestyle choice” for many out on the street. He said leaders of encampments force squalor on their residents, and are themselves “the product of drug culture.” He also castigated those who offer food to people experiencing homelessness as “enablers.”

The Mayor didn’t attend the press conference, but he issued a statement shortly thereafter saying “No doubt, I was surprised by the level of drug use inside the encampments and obviously, they would be restricted inside a shelter. My intent was not to say that homelessness is a choice.”

But, the damage had already been done. Coffman’s comments incensed attendees like Eva Henry, the District 1 commissioner for Adams County and director of the Adams County Housing Authority. She spoke forcefully about her time living in unstable housing as a single mother.

“You can’t just dip your toe in and out of poverty,” Henry said. “Poverty is the result of generations of systemic abuses. Homelessness is not a vacation, unlike what the Mayor thinks.”

John Stone, an at-large member of Englewood’s city council, said he experienced homelessness for five years before someone gave him a job as a union carpenter. Since then, he has become a business owner, a community advocate, and an elected official.

“It is absurd that an elected person in power decided to make a mockery of the suffering of the people he claims to represent,” Stone said.

According to the 2019 Point in Time Count (PiT), nearly 430 people live unhoused in Aurora, and that number is growing. PiT data shows the City has added 70 people to its unhoused since 2018.

Several speakers were concerned about the unsheltered population exploding after the state and federal eviction moratoriums end, and eviction proceedings begin again. At one time, Aurora had one of the nation’s highest eviction rates at 5.52 percent, according to research by Eviction Lab.

Coffman said his mission was to gain a first-hand understanding of what it’s like to be homeless, hoping the experience would inspire future region-wide policy decisions that will address the underlying causes. The Mayor also said he plans to partner with Denver Mayor Michael Hancock to find regional solutions.

However, speakers like Candi CdeBaca, who represents Denver’s District 9, worry about the partnership. In 2011, Denver enacted its urban camping ban, which CdeBaca points to as the central factor driving the increase in homelessness in the city. Worse still, CdeBaca said elected officials don’t have a clear picture of how much enforcing the ban costs the City.

“Enforcing the camping ban is an egregious waste of money during a time when dollars are hard to come by,” she said. “COVID-19 has only made this situation worse, especially for our unhoused neighbors. We need to be looking at regional solutions. To miss an opportunity to work together on this would be a dereliction of duty.”

In July, the Tri-City Homeless Policy Group—made up of representatives from Englewood, Sheridan, and Littleton governments—issued a report that identified several areas where the group could improve their efforts to address homelessness. Mentioned among the issues were coordination of government policy, internal and external funding considerations, and access to resources.

However, these efforts will be fruitless if they are born from the “illusion of understanding” Coffman displayed during his interview with CBS, CdeBaca said.  

“To even paint homelessness as a lifestyle choice is not only sad, it’s irresponsible. Housing is the solution to homelessness. Right now, these policies are only addressing the aesthetics of poverty,” she continued.