Denver’s new liberal mayor, Mike Johnston, wants to provide “housekeeping” for Denver’s homeless encampments and is rumored to be ending all sweeps of homeless camps for the rest of the year, according to a new report from CBS Colorado.
“Denver’s new Mayor Mike Johnston says he wants to improve the cleanliness of homeless encampments but sources tell CBS News Colorado he wants to go further and end all sweeps through the end of the year.
The mayor’s spokesperson said that’s not true. She says he will continue to close large encampments, but she says he also plans to make encampments cleaner by meeting the hygiene and housekeeping needs of the people who live there.”
The idea isn’t going over well with some residents of Denver.
Mike Arfsten, a member of Citizens for a Safe and Clean Denver, told CBS Denver, “”I heard the mayor is going to bring in port-a-potties, dumpsters, showers. The mayor is going to make their lives more comfortable but what about the lives of the residents that live around these encampments?” Arfsten asked.
“They’re involved in violent crime, they’re involved in property crime, and then just overall quality of life crimes. Why would the mayor want to continue enabling that behavior when we have such a great shelter system in Denver?” he asked.
“It’s really not addressing the core issues. The core issues are drug addiction and mental illness. The model needs to be recovery first not housing first. There needs to be a more serious look at how do we connect these individuals with professional addiction counseling and treatment, not a wraparound service,” he said.