HAND’s Week of Actions ends with a march

Story and Photos by Andrew Fraieli

“We called this week of action the Decade of Doom because that’s something you hear on the streets a lot. You hear, ‘we’re doomed. This feels like doom. What are we going to do?’ So we decided to name it that.”

This is according to Terese Howard, housing advocate and founder of Housekeys Action Network Denver’s (HAND). Friday and Saturday saw the end of this week of actions, with speakers and food at the Savoy on Friday, with music, free haircuts, more food, and a march on Saturday.

Photo Credit: Andrew Fraieli Protest sign outside the Denver City and County Building, the beginning of the march.

Paul Boden, Executive Director of the Western Regional Advocacy Project (WRAP)  — an organization advocating for housing rights across the west coast — was one speaker at The Savoy. He described the history of homelessness, saying the extent of homelessness today partly came from Reagan-era budget cuts to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and low-income housing.

“We didn’t decide in 1982 it was so much better to be living out in the fucking streets than it was to be in the units of housing that existed back in the 70s and 80s,” Boden said.

He elaborated that the criminalization we see today “started in the early 80s in full-force, because once they funded shelters, they had a place to stick us, and they could get us out of public view.” Talking about their fight against this criminalization, he highlights that they’ve had to draft legislation to make it legal to “just stand still” due to laws like Denver’s sit/lie ordinance.

“How fucking disgusting is that. It isn’t legal to sit on a public sidewalk. We had to actually draft legislation to accomplish that goal,” Boden said. In 9 years, their legislation has yet to pass in Oregon, California, or Colorado. “Standing still should never be an illegal act because it’s always going to be enforced discriminatorily.”

Another speaker, Chris Reda, who is experiencing homelessness, said how the ordinance, “in so many words, says you can’t exist. You cannot exist here because it’s illegal now.”

Shanna, who specified she is not homeless, but houseless, made the point that “the ‘homeless problem’ isn’t really a ‘homeless problem’, it’s a housing problem.” She then began stomping her foot, saying, “One drum sounds like this…,” while the room slowly joined. “But they’re going to hear us.”

Kenny White, another speaker, said the ordinance was an excuse for racially biased policing, saying that, when he was homeless last year, he was “getting kicked over, having my shit stolen, and being almost beaten and shot by cops. But, you know, it wasn’t a racial thing, it’s just ordinance now.”

In remembrance of the bill passing, they showed a short video of the council meeting where the bill for urban camping ban was introduced. One speaker at the public comment was Tamara Door, the President & CEO of the Downtown Denver Partnership at the time, saying the “vitality of downtown is at serious risk.”

“So much has not changed,” commented someone in the audience as the bill passed on screen.

Tony Robinson, associate professor at UC Denver, helped create reports by Denver Homeless Out Loud surveying the homeless on how the camping ban affected them. He presented some of their findings at The Savoy, like how the number of homeless people experiencing frostbite and heat stroke increased due to the ordinance forbidding protection from the elements other than clothing, and the police “incessantly” enforcing that.

Photo Credit: Andrew Fraieli Jerry Burton, the defendant in the case that led a Denver County Judge to deem the city’s urban camping ban unconstitutional, leading a protest march for housing rights through the 16th Street Mall.

Robinson also points out that “if you’re asked to move because of the camping ban, you’re more likely to be raped, or robbed, or beaten. That’s what 800 homeless people have said through our surveys.” This is because they are forced to move to more secluded and less well-lit places.

Jerry Burton, the defendant in the case that led a Denver County judge to rule the city’s urban camping ban unconstitutional, spoke about gentrification downtown. He pointed out the window of the Savoy to apartment complexes that he says used to be low-income housing but were torn down to create “mixed housing,” where only a third is low-income, and another third was “luxury.”  “For the homeless, a luxury apartment is anything with a ceiling, floor, and four walls. And hopefully, it has a bathroom,” he said.

Saturday, there was live music — Los Mocochetes — and food from Mutual Aid Monday, among other services like free haircuts, outside the Denver City and County Building for a few hours before a planned march to the Denver Downtown Partnership (DDP).

The DDP is the organization behind the Denver Downtown Business Improvement District, which covers all of the 16th Street mall and most of downtown, and who has been strongly supportive of both the urban camping ban and the city’s sit/lie ordinance.

Door, the President & CEO of the Downtown Denver Partnership at the time, expressed support for both these ordinances, and the partnership heavily opposed Initiative 300 — a bill that tried to pass ordinances that would make the current camping ban moot, but it lost to heavy opposition from the city.

Starting outside the City and County building, the about 30 people — a mixture of housing advocates and many experiencing homelessness themselves — marched to the 16th Street Mall, chanting, “No justice, no peace, fuck the police,” as well as holding signs saying, “Homelessness is not a crime,” “Housing is a Human Right for All,” and “Everyone Deserves a Right 2 Rest.”

Photo Credit: Andrew Fraieli Chants of “Fuck Mayor Hancock,” and “No gods, no masters, fuck these fascist bastards,” rang out during the march.

A few people joined the march as it traveled down busy 16th Street, with many honks from cars driving by.

Eventually, they stopped in front of the Denver Downtown Partnership offices where a few people spoke, including Jerry Burton on the need to end the ban, and Paul Boden on the negatives of Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), and how they worsen conditions for the homeless.

Marching by the Denver Fire Department, they spoke on how they will sweep encampments “constantly” in the winter, taking heating supplies, like small camping propane tanks. They left chanting, “If everyone can’t afford the rent, they shouldn’t take our fucking tent.”

Finally, they marched to the Denver Police Department building before ending back at the City and County building.