Denver sweeps homeless encampment but offers no shelter this time

Alexandra Holt said she woke up on Tuesday morning to the police asking her to clean up her tent and leave the 8th Avenue and Navajo Street homeless encampment, where she had been living for a month.

“We thought we were going to wake up to housing,” she said.

That wasn’t the case on Tuesday.

For the first time in six months, Denver swept a homeless encampment without offering shelter. Mayor Mike Johnston previously said the city wouldn't do so.

The situation is yet another stark reminder of the challenges facing Johnston, who has made curbing homelessness in the city his top priority. During his campaign for mayor, Johnston promised to eradicate the problem in his first term in office.

While there had been instances in which homeless people couldn't get inside a shelter following an encampment sweep, it's the first time the Johnston administration cited space limitations as the specific reason for not offering shelter at any one of the city-run or contracted facilities.

The struggle to house Denver's homeless population is occurring at a time when the Johnston administration also announced a major shift in the city's response to the illegal immigration crisis — extending support for immigrants to six months but with only about 1,000 spaces. The mayor's pivot followed failed attempts to get federal aid and deep cuts to the city's budget, as Denver served a total of nearly 41,000 migrants since the end of 2022.

The two different populations face a common problem — housing.

Jose Salas, a spokesperson for Johnston, said there isn’t enough combined vacant space among Denver’s eight non-congregate, temporary shelters for the 138 homeless people living at the Navajo Street encampment.

The administration initially planned on offering housing to the encampment residents, and the city was poised to move 40 homeless people indoors, Salas said.

“(But) this encampment grew at a rapid pace,” Salas said, adding there isn’t enough shelter to accommodate that growth.

“Some camps will need to be cleaned up without direct access to housing,” the mayor's spokesperson said, describing the sweep as a "difficult decision."

Denver officials cited "public health, right of way and private property infringement" as reasons for clearing the encampment, the city's biggest as of Tuesday.

Holt, one of the encampment residents, defended the condition of the encampment.

“We trashed it like this because there were no trash cans,” she said. “There were no bathrooms. We have no choice. Our trash has to go somewhere.”

She added, “Nobody wants to be living like this.”

Holt said she was given 90 minutes to clear out her tent and move. City officials said the residents have been notified since April 9 that the area would be cleared of tents.

As Holt packed her belongings and walked out of the encampment, she looked back and said, “It’s been a nightmare. It’s like I feel totally trapped.”

Holt said she is heading to a Regional Transportation District light rail station “until things calm down.” Traveling alone, Holt added, is "really scary.”

The Johnston administration has created an expectation from homeless people that they will be offered housing if their encampment is swept. In the past, a city notice that an area would be cleared of tents sometimes led to the number of residents growing substantially, and, as a result, the newer residents would fail to obtain a room at the city's hotel-turned-shelters.

Jessica, a homeless woman who declined to give her last name, said to not be offered housing is “frustrating."

“Everything would be better if we had somewhere to stay consistently,” she said.

“It’s us against the world,” Mike, another homeless person, said.

Jerry Burton, a former homeless man who volunteers to help other homeless people and has earned the moniker “Denver’s homeless mayor,” said if encampment sweeps occur but no housing is offered, “tents will just go back up.”