Housekeys Action Network Denver, or HAND, an advocacy group for people experiencing homelessness, will rally at City Hall at 11 a.m. Saturday in front of the mayor’s office to protest his veto of the ‘No cold sweeps’ bill.
The City Council approved this week a bill that would end city sweeps of homeless encampments in temperatures below 32 degrees. But on Friday the mayor vetoed the bill, listing the following reasons:
· The legislation “prevents our ability to close encampments and move people into housing. The encampment resolution model is the cornerstone of our approach to encampments and successfully brought more than 1,135 people indoors in under six months while permanently closing those locations to future camping. This legislation would infringe on the success of our housing strategy which relies on two components: moving people into housing and closing encampments at the same time.”
· The legislation “overturns the city-adopted camping ban for up to one third of the year. As written, the legislation would allow small encampments to return to areas already closed to encampments. This is contrary to the will of more than 80% of voters who affirmed the camping ban in 2019. For the first time in decades, large parts of the city are permanently closed to camping. We have moved people off the streets into transitional housing and re-opened and activated public space for businesses and neighbors. And with your help we intend to expand this success to other sections of the city.”