by Nancy
Thanks to the work of Denver Homeless Out Loud (DHOL)--in collaboration with the Western
Regional Advocacy Project in four states and with local organizations across Colorado--a “Right
to Rest” bill will soon be introduced into the Colorado State Legislature.
If this bill passes, local governments and the state will no longer be allowed to pass laws that
make it illegal for people to carry out acts of survival--like sleeping, sitting, lying down, eating, and protecting their belongings-in public. Laws already on the books that violate this bill--like Denver’s Urban Camping Banwould have to be rescinded.
So it would end the criminalization of homelessness in Colorado?
To find out how people experiencing homelessness are being treated, and how their lives are being “criminalized,” DHOL and partnering organizations surveyed nearly 500 unhoused people across Colorado. Based on what DHOL learned from the survey, they decided to include the following four “rights” in the first bill:
1. The right to move freely, rest and sleep and to protect oneself from the elements in public spaces and without time-limitation that discriminates based on housing status.
2. The right to occupy a legally parked vehicle.
3. The right to a reasonable expectation of privacy of your property in public space. The right to eat, share, accept, or give food in any public space in which having food is not prohibited.
The right to 24-hour access to “hygiene facilities,” which was also a key need brought out by the survey, will be included in a future bill. Each village, town and city in Colorado has its own set of ordinances that attempt to keep homeless people “out of sight.” In Colorado Springs the courts are banning from the downtown area anyone who has been arrested there five times in 18 months. This proposal aims to push people “away” who ask for help and donations due to poverty, who “trespass” in order to sleep or rest due to having no private home of their own, and who urinate in public due to the absence of publicly accessible bathrooms.
In Fort Collins last August police issued 32 summonses--mostly for illegal camping during a sweep of 54 outdoor public sites that unhoused people called “home.” And in Boulder last spring City Council voted unanimously to “get tough” on “social misbehavior” on its municipal campus by once again imposing jail time for “municipal offenses” ranging from illegal “camping” to littering; making it a crime under the city code to violate a rule, such as the one
banning smoking on the municipal camps; and making it a crime carrying possible jail time for panhandlers to interfere with traffic.
And nationwide, the trend toward passing laws criminalizing people’s right to exist in public space is increasing rapidly. In 2011 the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty surveyed 234 cities about their laws which criminalize acts of survival. They found that 40% of
these cities prohibit camping, 33% prevent sitting and lying, 56% prevent loitering, and 53% prevent begging in “particular public places” (read “downtown areas where businesses believe the sight of people experiencing poverty will discouraging customers from spending money”).
To make it clearer just what this bill would do, let’s look at the case of Denver. What currently existing Denver laws affect people’s right to exist in public spaces? And what criminalization laws--perhaps unlike some other cities--does Denver NOT YET have on the books? (After reading this, you may have a better understanding of which orders the local cops give you are lawful, and which ones they are just making up as they go along. But we all know who has the power on the street--you may need to save your argument for the judge.)
The Urban Camping Ban prevents people from lying down/sleeping (unless you’re not covering yourself with anything except your clothing) in any public or private place unless you’ve been given permission to do so. 70% of those responding to DHOL’s homeless criminalization survey said they’d been harassed, ticketed or arrested for sleeping.
This law would no longer be allowed if the Right to Rest Act passed. The Park Curfew ordinance prevents anyone from being, and therefore sleeping, in a park between 11pm and 5am. 43% of criminalization survey respondents reported being harassed, ticketed or arrested for park curfew issues. Since it prevents sleeping in public spaces and places a time limit that discriminates based on housing status (only unhoused people need to sleep in the park overnight), this law would also have to go away.
The Right to Rest Act would not give people the right to use or sell drugs or alcohol, disturb the
peace, litter, fight, or engage in any other illegal activity in the parks. The Sit/Lie ordinance prohibits anyone from sitting or lying down--whether directly on the ground surface or on something like a chair, sleeping bag or stool--in a public right-of-way (including sidewalks, streets, alleys, medians, traffic islands, and other passage ways for pedestrians and vehicles) in the Downtown Denver Business Investment District, or BID (which includes the 16th Street Mall and surrounding streets as well as parts of Colfax Avenue), between 7am and 9pm. (You can sit on chairs or benches provided by the City, the BID or any other public agency.) 64% of survey respondents reported being harassed, ticketed or arrested for sitting or lying own. This ordinance would need to go, because it prevents people from resting in a public space. (A separate ordinance which prohibits people from obstructing or blocking a road, sidewalk or other right of way would not be affected.)
The Urinating in Public ordinance makes it illegal to “urinate in any public way or place which is public in nature or any place open to the public view.” 23% of DHOL survey respondents said they’d been harassed, ticketed or arrested for this offense, even though the availability
of public restrooms is vastly inadequate for the need. Also, 74% of survey respondents reported being denied access to bathrooms, and 52% said they’ve been denied access to water.
The Right to Rest Act will not address this problem, because the solution here is to provide public bathrooms and hygiene facilities--which the Homeless Bill of Rights campaign plans to focus on at a later date.
The Trespassing ordinance, which prohibits a person from being or remaining on another’s property against the other’s expressed wishes, would not be affected by this bill, which focuses on protecting people’s rights in public spaces. If a cop or private security guard tells a person
they are trespassing while on public property, such as a sidewalk or park, that’s bogus!
Public property is owned by the public, including unhoused people. At the same time, if you refuse to leave a public space after being ordered to do so by law enforcement based on violating a rule or regulation of that space, then you could be charged with trespassing. The rule itself could be in violation of the Right to Rest Act if it unfairly restricts access to public space.
Sharing Food--While there is no Denver ordinance that specifically prohibits groups from serving meals to hungry people in city parks or other outdoor public spaces, 24% of survey respondents said they’d been harassed, ticketed or arrested for giving or receiving food. Also, a number of people have reported being harassed or threatened with a ticket or arrest for
handing out food on the 16th St Mall.
Denver Parks and Recs rules require a permit (at a cost of $51/day) for any event in a park for 25 or more people. According to a 2008 report by the National Coalition for the Homeless, Denver city officials have said that “mass feedings are not among the accepted activities for city parks.”
In 2008 the City of Denver created the Public Feeding Coalition to encourage groups to serve meals to homeless people in indoor “soup kitchens” rather than in outdoor spaces. Yet for many people, who may be mobility impaired, lack transportation, have schedules that conflict with soup kitchen meals, or be mentally unable to tolerate eating in indoor spaces, free meals in parks may be their only means of being nourished. This bill, by protecting the right to share food in public spaces, would prevent Parks and Recs from establishing rules that prohibit these public meals.
Since other cities in Colorado and across the nation are increasingly enacting laws preventing the sharing of food, and since this topic keeps coming up in Denver, the Right to Rest coalition believes that, absent a Homeless Bill of Rights, it’s just a matter of time before Denver passes laws restricting this right.
Loitering--Except as pertains to intoxicated people or for the purpose of getting cabaret patrons to purchase drinks, there is no loitering law in Denver which allows cops to legally “move people along.” Yet we still see it happening. 50% of DHOL’s criminalization survey respondents said they’ve been harassed, ticketed or arrested for loitering. This bill would prevent passage of loitering ordinances which criminalize people for standing around or being in public spaces, such as on the 16th Street Mall or in public parks.
Even though such laws have been struck down in Denver and many other places for being unconstitutionally vague, they are still on the books all over the country. As for harassment by police and security guards for violating ordinances that DON’T EXIST, we already have protection against this it just needs to be enforced!
Encumbrance of the Right-of-Way ordinances authorize the City (through its Public Works manager) to order you to move if it deems you are encumbering (restricting or burdening) someone’s free action or movement in a right-of-way or on public property. The same goes for your belongings--which Denver’s finest have the DUTY to both report and remove if you leave them unattended in public spaces. Furthermore--the Public Works manager has the right to treat your personal property as trash--i.e. just throw it away--totally ignoring the fact that you as a houseless chap have NOWHERE ELSE TO PUT IT!
60% of survey respondents reported that police or city employees have taken their belongings. Let’s not forget that, for many people, these belongings are all they have left in the world, and often include IDs, birth certificates, medications, and irreplaceable photos and family mementos. This bill before the State Legislature would force municipalities like Denver to treat your personal property with respect----giving you the same expectation of privacy in public space as you’d have in your own private home--and to NOT search through your stuff without probable cause--a protection which our constitution’s search and seizure clause already grants all of us!
Sleeping in legally parked vehicles--This writer’s research yielded zero Denver ordinances relating to sleeping in one’s vehicle. Yet 24% of survey respondents said they were harassed, ticketed or arrested for sleeping in a vehicle. An email to the city’s parking office produced the
following reply:
“There is no specific ordinance for this, however if the vehicle is in the Public Right of Way, Police can check to see why you are in the vehicle (ie, inebriated or safety issues). Depending on why you are in the vehicle, the officers might ask you to move, or let you know you cannot do that. If the vehicle is on private property (ie store parking lot), it would depend on the owner of the lot. If they do not allow that, then police can come and ask you to move.
However, again, depending on the location of the vehicle, especially on a public street, if it poses any type of safety concerns, you would be asked to move.” Assuming they are not inebriated, it’s hard to imagine what “safety concerns” the sleeping occupants of a vehicle parked legally on a public street would present. The Right to Rest Act would make it clear that people have a right to sleep in their legally parked vehicles.
Panhandling--Denver definitely has ordinances that flat-out prohibit aggressive panhandling--including such behavior in the course of asking them for money as using violent or threatening gestures or language, blocking them, and persisting after someone has told you to stop. Nonaggressive panhandling is also prohibited in certain places (including on public transportation, on private property if told to leave, within 20 feet of ATM machines, public toilets, public transport stops, outdoor restaurant patios, or pay phones,
within 6 feet of a building entrance, after dark, and in a parking lot or structure.)
Passage of the Right to Rest Act would not directly affect panhandling ordinances. But by protecting your right to sit and move freely in public space, this law would help ensure your ability to exercise your right to ask for help.
So while the Right to Rest Act would not address every ordinance that tends to target homeless people, it would go a long way toward ending the unfair and unconstitutional practice of criminalizing people for conducting necessary activities such as sleeping, sitting, lying down, eating, and socializing in public spaces--the places where many people’s situations
cause them to live and which they therefore rightly call “home.”
Regional Advocacy Project in four states and with local organizations across Colorado--a “Right
to Rest” bill will soon be introduced into the Colorado State Legislature.
If this bill passes, local governments and the state will no longer be allowed to pass laws that
make it illegal for people to carry out acts of survival--like sleeping, sitting, lying down, eating, and protecting their belongings-in public. Laws already on the books that violate this bill--like Denver’s Urban Camping Banwould have to be rescinded.
So it would end the criminalization of homelessness in Colorado?
To find out how people experiencing homelessness are being treated, and how their lives are being “criminalized,” DHOL and partnering organizations surveyed nearly 500 unhoused people across Colorado. Based on what DHOL learned from the survey, they decided to include the following four “rights” in the first bill:
1. The right to move freely, rest and sleep and to protect oneself from the elements in public spaces and without time-limitation that discriminates based on housing status.
2. The right to occupy a legally parked vehicle.
3. The right to a reasonable expectation of privacy of your property in public space. The right to eat, share, accept, or give food in any public space in which having food is not prohibited.
The right to 24-hour access to “hygiene facilities,” which was also a key need brought out by the survey, will be included in a future bill. Each village, town and city in Colorado has its own set of ordinances that attempt to keep homeless people “out of sight.” In Colorado Springs the courts are banning from the downtown area anyone who has been arrested there five times in 18 months. This proposal aims to push people “away” who ask for help and donations due to poverty, who “trespass” in order to sleep or rest due to having no private home of their own, and who urinate in public due to the absence of publicly accessible bathrooms.
In Fort Collins last August police issued 32 summonses--mostly for illegal camping during a sweep of 54 outdoor public sites that unhoused people called “home.” And in Boulder last spring City Council voted unanimously to “get tough” on “social misbehavior” on its municipal campus by once again imposing jail time for “municipal offenses” ranging from illegal “camping” to littering; making it a crime under the city code to violate a rule, such as the one
banning smoking on the municipal camps; and making it a crime carrying possible jail time for panhandlers to interfere with traffic.
And nationwide, the trend toward passing laws criminalizing people’s right to exist in public space is increasing rapidly. In 2011 the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty surveyed 234 cities about their laws which criminalize acts of survival. They found that 40% of
these cities prohibit camping, 33% prevent sitting and lying, 56% prevent loitering, and 53% prevent begging in “particular public places” (read “downtown areas where businesses believe the sight of people experiencing poverty will discouraging customers from spending money”).
To make it clearer just what this bill would do, let’s look at the case of Denver. What currently existing Denver laws affect people’s right to exist in public spaces? And what criminalization laws--perhaps unlike some other cities--does Denver NOT YET have on the books? (After reading this, you may have a better understanding of which orders the local cops give you are lawful, and which ones they are just making up as they go along. But we all know who has the power on the street--you may need to save your argument for the judge.)
The Urban Camping Ban prevents people from lying down/sleeping (unless you’re not covering yourself with anything except your clothing) in any public or private place unless you’ve been given permission to do so. 70% of those responding to DHOL’s homeless criminalization survey said they’d been harassed, ticketed or arrested for sleeping.
This law would no longer be allowed if the Right to Rest Act passed. The Park Curfew ordinance prevents anyone from being, and therefore sleeping, in a park between 11pm and 5am. 43% of criminalization survey respondents reported being harassed, ticketed or arrested for park curfew issues. Since it prevents sleeping in public spaces and places a time limit that discriminates based on housing status (only unhoused people need to sleep in the park overnight), this law would also have to go away.
The Right to Rest Act would not give people the right to use or sell drugs or alcohol, disturb the
peace, litter, fight, or engage in any other illegal activity in the parks. The Sit/Lie ordinance prohibits anyone from sitting or lying down--whether directly on the ground surface or on something like a chair, sleeping bag or stool--in a public right-of-way (including sidewalks, streets, alleys, medians, traffic islands, and other passage ways for pedestrians and vehicles) in the Downtown Denver Business Investment District, or BID (which includes the 16th Street Mall and surrounding streets as well as parts of Colfax Avenue), between 7am and 9pm. (You can sit on chairs or benches provided by the City, the BID or any other public agency.) 64% of survey respondents reported being harassed, ticketed or arrested for sitting or lying own. This ordinance would need to go, because it prevents people from resting in a public space. (A separate ordinance which prohibits people from obstructing or blocking a road, sidewalk or other right of way would not be affected.)
The Urinating in Public ordinance makes it illegal to “urinate in any public way or place which is public in nature or any place open to the public view.” 23% of DHOL survey respondents said they’d been harassed, ticketed or arrested for this offense, even though the availability
of public restrooms is vastly inadequate for the need. Also, 74% of survey respondents reported being denied access to bathrooms, and 52% said they’ve been denied access to water.
The Right to Rest Act will not address this problem, because the solution here is to provide public bathrooms and hygiene facilities--which the Homeless Bill of Rights campaign plans to focus on at a later date.
The Trespassing ordinance, which prohibits a person from being or remaining on another’s property against the other’s expressed wishes, would not be affected by this bill, which focuses on protecting people’s rights in public spaces. If a cop or private security guard tells a person
they are trespassing while on public property, such as a sidewalk or park, that’s bogus!
Public property is owned by the public, including unhoused people. At the same time, if you refuse to leave a public space after being ordered to do so by law enforcement based on violating a rule or regulation of that space, then you could be charged with trespassing. The rule itself could be in violation of the Right to Rest Act if it unfairly restricts access to public space.
Sharing Food--While there is no Denver ordinance that specifically prohibits groups from serving meals to hungry people in city parks or other outdoor public spaces, 24% of survey respondents said they’d been harassed, ticketed or arrested for giving or receiving food. Also, a number of people have reported being harassed or threatened with a ticket or arrest for
handing out food on the 16th St Mall.
Denver Parks and Recs rules require a permit (at a cost of $51/day) for any event in a park for 25 or more people. According to a 2008 report by the National Coalition for the Homeless, Denver city officials have said that “mass feedings are not among the accepted activities for city parks.”
In 2008 the City of Denver created the Public Feeding Coalition to encourage groups to serve meals to homeless people in indoor “soup kitchens” rather than in outdoor spaces. Yet for many people, who may be mobility impaired, lack transportation, have schedules that conflict with soup kitchen meals, or be mentally unable to tolerate eating in indoor spaces, free meals in parks may be their only means of being nourished. This bill, by protecting the right to share food in public spaces, would prevent Parks and Recs from establishing rules that prohibit these public meals.
Since other cities in Colorado and across the nation are increasingly enacting laws preventing the sharing of food, and since this topic keeps coming up in Denver, the Right to Rest coalition believes that, absent a Homeless Bill of Rights, it’s just a matter of time before Denver passes laws restricting this right.
Loitering--Except as pertains to intoxicated people or for the purpose of getting cabaret patrons to purchase drinks, there is no loitering law in Denver which allows cops to legally “move people along.” Yet we still see it happening. 50% of DHOL’s criminalization survey respondents said they’ve been harassed, ticketed or arrested for loitering. This bill would prevent passage of loitering ordinances which criminalize people for standing around or being in public spaces, such as on the 16th Street Mall or in public parks.
Even though such laws have been struck down in Denver and many other places for being unconstitutionally vague, they are still on the books all over the country. As for harassment by police and security guards for violating ordinances that DON’T EXIST, we already have protection against this it just needs to be enforced!
Encumbrance of the Right-of-Way ordinances authorize the City (through its Public Works manager) to order you to move if it deems you are encumbering (restricting or burdening) someone’s free action or movement in a right-of-way or on public property. The same goes for your belongings--which Denver’s finest have the DUTY to both report and remove if you leave them unattended in public spaces. Furthermore--the Public Works manager has the right to treat your personal property as trash--i.e. just throw it away--totally ignoring the fact that you as a houseless chap have NOWHERE ELSE TO PUT IT!
60% of survey respondents reported that police or city employees have taken their belongings. Let’s not forget that, for many people, these belongings are all they have left in the world, and often include IDs, birth certificates, medications, and irreplaceable photos and family mementos. This bill before the State Legislature would force municipalities like Denver to treat your personal property with respect----giving you the same expectation of privacy in public space as you’d have in your own private home--and to NOT search through your stuff without probable cause--a protection which our constitution’s search and seizure clause already grants all of us!
Sleeping in legally parked vehicles--This writer’s research yielded zero Denver ordinances relating to sleeping in one’s vehicle. Yet 24% of survey respondents said they were harassed, ticketed or arrested for sleeping in a vehicle. An email to the city’s parking office produced the
following reply:
“There is no specific ordinance for this, however if the vehicle is in the Public Right of Way, Police can check to see why you are in the vehicle (ie, inebriated or safety issues). Depending on why you are in the vehicle, the officers might ask you to move, or let you know you cannot do that. If the vehicle is on private property (ie store parking lot), it would depend on the owner of the lot. If they do not allow that, then police can come and ask you to move.
However, again, depending on the location of the vehicle, especially on a public street, if it poses any type of safety concerns, you would be asked to move.” Assuming they are not inebriated, it’s hard to imagine what “safety concerns” the sleeping occupants of a vehicle parked legally on a public street would present. The Right to Rest Act would make it clear that people have a right to sleep in their legally parked vehicles.
Panhandling--Denver definitely has ordinances that flat-out prohibit aggressive panhandling--including such behavior in the course of asking them for money as using violent or threatening gestures or language, blocking them, and persisting after someone has told you to stop. Nonaggressive panhandling is also prohibited in certain places (including on public transportation, on private property if told to leave, within 20 feet of ATM machines, public toilets, public transport stops, outdoor restaurant patios, or pay phones,
within 6 feet of a building entrance, after dark, and in a parking lot or structure.)
Passage of the Right to Rest Act would not directly affect panhandling ordinances. But by protecting your right to sit and move freely in public space, this law would help ensure your ability to exercise your right to ask for help.
So while the Right to Rest Act would not address every ordinance that tends to target homeless people, it would go a long way toward ending the unfair and unconstitutional practice of criminalizing people for conducting necessary activities such as sleeping, sitting, lying down, eating, and socializing in public spaces--the places where many people’s situations
cause them to live and which they therefore rightly call “home.”
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