Closing Civic Center Park: A “band-aid” for homelessness in Denver

Photo: Logan Weaver/Unsplash

By Robert Davis

Several service providers and outreach organizations say Denver’s decision to temporarily close Civic Center Park for rehabilitation is just a “band-aid” for the issues facing people experiencing homelessness. 

On September 7, Denver officials announced they will be closing the park for “at least two months,” while Denver Parks & Recreation (DPR) works to remake the park “a stable and safe state that is welcoming for all Denver residents.” 

Officials said the area has become a “hotspot for violence, crime, drug sales, and substance misuse, jeopardizing the public’s ability to safely enjoy one of Denver’s treasured outdoor spaces.”

The Park will officially close on September 15. However, notices of the closure and fencing have already been put up nearby. During the closure, city teams plan to lay turf, re-do the park’s irrigation system, and add lighting. 

“The current challenges within Civic Center Park have reached a tipping point, creating conditions that put the public’s health and safety at risk,” Mayor Michael Hancock said in a press release. “This cannot and will not be allowed to continue. This is the people’s park and we are taking steps so that everyone can once again feel safe and welcomed there.”  

Civic Center Park is one of the places where homelessness in Denver is most visible because it is often used by people experiencing homelessness as a campsite. But several service providers also rely on the park as a common ground, where they can serve a host of individuals at once. These services can include everything from shelter outreach to healthcare and food and clothing donations. 

“The safety issues that Denver lists for closing Civic Center Park will not go away, but rather be pushed into the neighboring communities,” Vinnie Cervantes, organizing director for the Denver Alliance for Street Health Response (DASHR), an alternative emergency response team that provides overdose and other health care services, told the Denver VOICE. 

Meanwhile, other organizations that provide food and other services for Denver’s unhoused say the closure will force them to pivot their services. Some others anticipate needing to serve more people as those who once lived in and around Civic Center Park begin to migrate elsewhere. 

Blake Brouillette, managing director at Christ in the City, which often hosts free meal events at Civic Center Park, told the VOICE that his organization is among those that are forced to pivot their services because of the closure. 

Brouillette says the group fortunately already has a loose plan in place to begin doing mobile outreach. Christ in the City is hoping to use between four and five vehicles to take food to encampments rather than having people experiencing homelessness meet them in a common area. 

“Closing Civic Center is going to compromise our efforts to distribute food, but we will pivot and do what we need to do to help feed those in need,” Brouillette said.

Similarly, Tara De La Fuente, an organizer with Cats Not Cops, a group that distributes food and other supplies, told the VOICE that she is planning to serve more people at her Benedict Fountain Park location now that the park is closing. 

“We will continue hosting dinners at 4 p.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays, though we do expect an increase of people needing food and other resources because many people will have to relocate,” De La Fuente told the VOICE in a text message. “We believe closing the park is only a band-aid to the real issues facing many individuals such as mental health, physical well-being, affordable housing, substance abuse, discrimination, and trauma.” 

Other organizations expect to lose contact with some of the people they’ve built relationships with. Pastor Logan Robertson with AfterHours Denver, a faith-based outreach organization, told the VOICE in an email that the universal question people at the park are asking now is “Where do they expect people to go?”.

“I’m not sure a closure is the remedy for what the city wants to address but I also see it simply as a part of the wider disruption so much of society has experienced throughout the pandemic,” Robertson wrote. 

For many, the closure of Civic Center Park is reminiscent of when city officials closed the state capitol lawn in June 2020, after a picture was posted on social media showing it was lined with tents. The photo was taken during the George Floyd protests after Denver painted “Black Lives Matter” on N. Broadway, which sits between the capitol and the Civic Center. 

At the time, city officials said they found infected vermin and several cases of trench fever in the camp. Gov. Jared Polis later described the sweep that moved more than 200 people off of the Capitol lawn as a “relief.” 

Similarly, DPR said there are several “health and environmental hazards which create ongoing unhealthy conditions for all users of [Civic Center Park].” Some of which include excessive trash, rodents, human and pet waste that “creates risks to people visiting the area and to workers tasked with maintaining the area.”

“The goal of [DPR] is to restore Civic Center Park, Denver’s beloved National Historic Landmark in the heart of our city, by providing a safe, clean, and inviting public space”, Happy Haynes, executive director of DPR, said in a statement. 

Despite the disagreements over the Park space, Civic Center has become an increasingly important figure in Denver’s plans. DPR’s “Outdoor Downtown” plan describes the park as part of Denver’s “front yard” that “has served as Denver’s most significant gathering spot for cultural events, festivals, and First Amendment rallies for over 100 years.”

The Park has also donned a more modern wardrobe in recent months. In July, Denver began its “Bar Civic” pop-up events, where the city hosts a happy-hour bar at The Seal Pond at Vorhees Memorial. Civic Center also hosted five of the 12 events Denver hosted as a part of the 2021 Major League Baseball All-Star Game weekend celebration. 

For their part, city officials say outreach teams will “continue to engage with people in the downtown area and throughout the city to provide resources for substance misuse, mental health services, and access to temporary and permanent housing.”

To Cervantes, however, this stance shows that Denver is “perfectly willing to provide trash services and bathrooms,” just not for people experiencing unsheltered homelessness. 

“There should be no excuse as to why issues like trash and human waste persist while the city has resources to address them. As with most issues, the city’s administration is moving a problem, not solving it. And as well with most issues, it will be our unhoused neighbors who will suffer the most,” he added.