By David Gordon
After the election of new mayor, Democrat Mike Johnston, in July, and a promise to end homelessness, Denver, Colorado, US has seen encampment sweeps and a lack of forward planning. David Gordon, who sells street paper Denver VOICE, seeks clarification.
Congratulations on your election.
You may be able to fill the shoes of the previous administration, but you have a tough job. You have inherited a stain left by your predecessor, that I hope you will be able to remove because no matter how hard you scrub, it’s not going to come out easily. It’s an emotional stain.
You said you wanted to get homeless people off the streets and get them the help they need. You have declared a state of emergency to address homelessness.
What is your plan? Should we expect sweeps? When we are told to move our tents, where are we supposed to go? We are unhoused. That means we can’t just pick up our belongings and move to another street only to have you come there and sweep us to somewhere else.
When we asked your predecessor where we were supposed to go between sweeps, he didn’t have an answer. If we have a job, we can’t take our belongings with us, so who’s going to take care of our stuff if you sweep?
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