DENVER — Calls among homeless rights activists are growing louder for Denver City Council to override the mayor’s veto on homeless camp sweeps on cold weather days.
City council voted in January to ban homeless encampment sweeps when the temperature drops below 32 degrees, but Mayor Mike Johnston vetoed that ban just days later.
“He’s a liar because he campaigned that he would not have sweeps during cold weather. So, I have lost all hope in him,” said Virya Kelsang with Mutual Aid Monday , a grassroots, mutual aid community in Denver.
Cesar Pulido, founder of The Give Back , which works to help the community in various ways, said Johnston has his own agenda.
“He’s a politician,” he said. “He doesn’t care about us out here or anybody what we’re doing.”
At a Mutual Aid Monday event, advocates said they will continue to call on city council to override the mayor’s veto.
“I’m just livid,” Kelsang said. “I mean, even if you do not like the unhoused, you do not like the encampments — that’s fine. Perfectly fine. But to make people move when it’s below 32 degrees and their stuff is frozen to the ground and you have to chip it up, move them and then put it in a new place that’s frozen — that is inhumane.”