Minus 15 before daybreak on December 5th in Denver. At ten pm it’s minus 13, and with the wind chill we’re down to minus 31. Yesterday we had a high of 8 and a low of minus 8. It will be another four days before the low zooms up to zero.

With temperatures this frigid, it’s best to hunker down at home and go out as little as possible. 

But wait! You don’t have a “home” like that. No warm inside place to call your own. “Home” for you tonight might be your car, behind a dumpster, under a bridge or bush, on a grate, riding the light rail, walking all night to stay warm, in detox, a shelter until daybreak if you can get in and tolerate that situation--and in the daytime, a number of community places of refuge that you scurry between, any place that will let you in, where you can keep yourself from succumbing to the elements (i.e., getting frostbite or hypothermia, or pneumonia if you didn’t have it already, and maybe losing some fingers or your leg or dying). 

In the best of weather, not having your own place--where you can turn out the light and sleep through the night, store your stuff, lock the doors, stay warm or cool or dry, have privacy, be alone when you want or need to, lie on the couch and watch TV, go to the bathroom, take a shower, wash your clothes, drink a beer, keep your dog, make your own meals, have a life--it’s an incredibly hard road to travel, full of danger, struggle and heartache. During severe weather, you fight to stay alive. 

One good thing that seems to happen when temperatures drop so low is that housed people are more apt to think about the plight of the unhoused. “Who’s outside tonight? Homeless people. That’s unacceptable. Find them and bring them in.”

In service of this goal the city, in conjunction with the homeless services providers, implements a “severe weather emergency plan” which is designed to help ensure unhoused people do not succumb to the elements during that time period. Outreach workers comb the area trying to bring the outside people inside, or to provide warm gear to those who don’t see shelters as a viable option. Extra shelter spaces are temporarily provided in kitchens, churches, and recreation centers, and buses are found to take people there. Motel vouchers flow more freely to women, families and others who are deemed most vulnerable when shelter spaces can’t be found. Day and overnight shelters stay open longer. (See page x for more details.)

But in fact severe weather periods merely amplify and underscore the ongoing social catastrophe which is in plain view every day. To put it bluntly, the inhumane and unjust ways in which our society as a whole treats unhoused poor people suggests a complete breakdown in the fabric of our society. The daily sight of hundreds of people--including children, the elderly, the disabled--struggling against enormous odds to survive and carry out necessary activities of daily living on the streets has become so commonplace--such a regular part of our day--that circumstances which any decent human being should reject and refuse to tolerate come to be viewed as acceptable, asthe new normal. 

For example, every day we see people struggling with the burden of hauling their worldly possessions around in carts, on bikes or on their backs. At night we see folks huddled (in violation of the “urban camping ban”) under blankets or in sleeping bags, on grates, behind dumpsters, and in doorways. And we see long lines of people waiting to get into shelters, meals and clinics.

When we see the circumstances under which so many are struggling to survive, do we proclaim the situation to be utterly unacceptable, or do we accept it as the new normal, and get on with our day?

One thing we can count on--more cold weather is on the way. When it comes, we can count on many people and organizations throughout the city to pull together to help protect those on the streets. But the courage to speak out against the injustices and acts of inhumanity which we are witnessing, and the will to end homelessness by providing actual homes to people who need and deserve them no matter what the weather--can we count on that?

N---

The night before Thanksgiving, November 27th 2013, it was  about 30 degrees. Staying warm outside in that kind of weather is not easy for anyone, and much less so for people with no money for warm gear or place to store their gear even if they did have it. Thanksgiving morning 17 people were arrested at gunpoint for trying to stay warm inside an abandoned building. 

Around 20 people who have found themselves homeless in Denver found that sleeping inside one of the many empty, unused buildings in Denver was a safer and warmer option than sleeping outside somewhere or in a shelter. For Karen and Tony, a couple in their 50s, if they want to stay in a shelter they are forced to split up and sleep separately. Their friend Rabbit cannot stay in the shelters because he has a dog, Gentleman Jim, who he looks after and who looks after him. 

So for Karen, Tony, Rabbit, and many others, sleeping in an abandoned building that has four walls and a roof is a way to stay warm. 

A handful of people had been sleeping in this particular abandoned building for a few nights. There was a side door that was not locked through which they entered. They did not break any doors or windows to get inside. In fact, they seem to have been very careful to keep the place as safe and clean as possible. 

Three nights before Thanksgiving, the first night Karen and Tony had slept there, police showed up and came into the building with flashlights asking for a specific woman. When the police found that the woman they were looking for was not there, Karen said, “We asked the police if we had to leave, and they said 'no, you guys are ok.'” 

But three days later when police returned to the building, they treated the people sleeping there much differently! They broke down a door and came in with guns pulled. The assortment of people, all waking up to a raid with police and guns, scrambled to get up from their sleeping bags. When Tony tried to reach for a personal item on the floor, police screamed at him, “If you reach for anything I'll shoot.” They proceeded to ask for everyone's ID (no warrants?) and to handcuff them. After arresting Rabbit, in what he describes as a “rough” way, he explained to the police that if they arrested them all, his dog would have no one to take care of it. So one young woman was set free to stay back and take care of the dog, Gentlemen Jim. The rest were taken to jail. 

This was the first time Karen had ever been arrested for anything. She explains she was “shocked at how brutally the cops treated us.” They wouldn’t let her go back into the house to get her medication. They shoved her around. In jail “I asked myself, ‘What am I doing?’ I couldn’t believe this was happening to me. They treat us homeless like we have a disease.” 

They spent Thanksgiving day and night in city jail. The next morning they went to court and  pleaded guilty, and the judge released them all with “time served.” (If they hadn't pled guilty they would have spent days in jail if they couldn't post bail.) When they all were arrested the police had not let them take any of their belongings with them. These belongings included Karen's medications. When they asked to get their belongings back from the building, they were told they needed to get a “civil assist” (an officer to go with them) to do so. (Did they ever get these things back?)

This Thanksgiving did not give Karen, or Tony, or Rabbit, or any of the others arrested for seeking a safer, warmer place to sleep, much to be thankful for. 

Terese