Denver’s STAR community says program has been ‘misused’ and is demanding change

Story and Photo by Robert Davis

Members of Denver’s Support Team Assisted Response Program (STAR) say the organization is being “misused” with increasing frequency and are demanding that local leaders work to improve the program.

Photo: Robert Davis

Vinnie Cervantes, organizing director for the Denver Alliance for Street Health Response and a STAR advisory committee member, said during a press conference on March 22 that STAR has been asked to perform policing activities like giving move-along orders to encampments in Capitol Hill and the 16th Street Mall.

Ana Cornelius, who chairs the STAR advisory committee, added that some STAR members have tried to connect people with disabilities to services. In one instance, he said STAR brought an individual who uses a wheelchair to a homeless shelter only to be turned away because the shelter couldn’t accommodate them.

“This is the exact opposite of what STAR was designed to do,” Cornelius said.

The demands come amid a tense 2023 election season, one where affordable housing and homelessness have taken center stage. Advocates have said the election of a new mayor and city council represents an opportunity to depart from past policies that criminalize homelessness, like the city’s urban camping ban. 

But mayoral candidates like Chris Hansen, Kelly Brough, and Andy Rougeot have all said they would continue enforcing the camping ban. City council candidates like Travis Leiker would also enforce the ban.

Cornelius said there are many candidates running for office who applaud STAR’s work but have not said anything about how to improve it.

STAR is a group of mental health and substance abuse professionals that respond to calls for health and safety issues that would otherwise go to the police. The program began in June 2020 as a partnership between nonprofit organizations, the Denver Police Department, and the city’s public health agency.

A 2022 study conducted by Stanford University found that the program helped reduce crime by as much as 34% in neighborhoods where the organization works. STAR also helped reduce the number of citations handed out by police and reduced repeat offenses by connecting individuals with the help they needed, the study found.

“We have the resources to serve our community in a way that meets their needs, and we’re damn well going to do it,” Cervantes said. “We just need Denver officials to support us in this effort instead of working against us.”

However, the public hasn’t been privy to STAR’s work because Denver’s Department of Public Health and Environment, which oversees STAR, shut down the advisory group meetings in September 2022. The public meetings are expected to resume on March 29, Cornelius said.

Going forward, Ariel Lipscomb, an organizer with DASHR, said local lawmakers need to focus on providing shelter space that can accommodate people with disabilities. That includes adding shelter space for people who need wheelchairs and adding medical staff who can attend to people suffering from incontinence or who have trouble eating.

If shelters are unable to meet these demands, then Lipscomb said they need to allow STAR to provide those services in their facilities.

“Our demands are simple, and the needs of our community are simple,” Lipscomb said. “We must act now.”