The Denver City Council will likely decide Monday whether to ban homeless encampment sweeps during weather below freezing.
If the ordinance is approved, city encampment sweeps would be delayed if the National Weather Service reports temperatures below 32 degrees in the previous 48 hours.
Encampment residents are normally given seven-day sweep notices. If an encampment sweep gets delayed, another seven-day notice would be given to the encampment, according to a spokesperson from the Denver Department of Public Safety.
Mayor Mike Johnston’s administration closed several encampments in December to reach his goal of housing 1,000 homeless people before the end of the year.
“Mayor Johnston’s first priority is keeping Denverites safe and healthy,” a mayor’s office spokesperson told The Denver Gazette last week. “We know that cold temperatures pose a serious danger to people living outdoors, and this proposal will limit the actions the city can take to keep people safe.”
The goal of the ban, proposed by some homeless advocates, is to avoid exposing homeless people to dangerously cold weather because the sweeps disrupt their current sheltering in tents that keep them warm.