Please write to local, small or alternative media, and to national news media, such as the New York Times, saying that you want to hear the voices of the poor and homeless. In this land of freedom of the press, where are their voices?


The untold story: The media side-steps its freedom of the press by failing to report that many part-time workers are paid less than $172 a week after taxes--while most US Senators are paid roughly twenty times that amount, or $3346 a week. It ignores its freedom to expose governmental and corporate wrongdoing while keeping the financially poor, the hungry, the homeless silent.

The homeless are just regular folks who are usually at the bottom of the poverty ladder.

In its government-approved misguided coverage of poverty, one story the news media hardly ever covers is just how difficult it is for the working poor and their families--about 150 million Americans--to obtain healthy food. Lacking cars or easily accessible public transportation, as well as being exhausted from their daily  grind, they are often unable to get to the market, purchase and then lug home even this country’s poor excuses for food--like canned vegetables with most of the nutriment drained out of them, processed mashed potatoes, and Twinkies--let alone find, afford and bring home fresh meat, fruits and vegetables.

This is one of many aspects of human suffering gladly overlooked by the print and broadcast media. Why would the vanguard of society, our media, disregard the pain of one third of our population? (For I contend that is the proportion of people in our country who are “lacking the resources to meet the basic needs for healthy living; having insufficient income to provide the food, shelter and clothing needed to preserve health,” which is how Wikipedia defines the absolute poverty line.) Simple--the media is owned by billionaires. Their advertisers want you to believe the lies and propaganda which for thousands of years have promoted a lifeless and colorless society, and which have failed to reveal the inhumanity which underlies the functioning of our economy. They do not want anyone to suggest or experiment with more humane and equitable economic models.  They are afraid of the untried! 

The elite fear trying a “humane income for all,” even though it is hidden in the New Testament  that a leader called Christ said the proper amount to give the poor is "the full need.”  That would entail asking the poor how much more it would take to break even and feel human. The answer would be two to three times their minimum wage, or two to three times what the disabled are paid by the government.

The term "homeless" is a misnomer and the cause would be helped if we would all stop using it. There are 18-million vacant homes in the USA. Everyone has a home. People struggling to survive without shelter are not "homeless." They are refugees.

When your job or career has been stolen or destroyed, and they send armed men to evict you from your home, you are being subjected to an act of war. This is a civil war and the classes of people being attacked have yet to respond because we have unconsciously continued to use the language of the forces that are attacking us. This language is designed to obfuscate the facts of the war and protect its aggressors.

There are no homeless people. There are only refugees in the widening civil war being waged by wealthy ruling classes. Under international law, refugees are officially defined as people who have been displaced by armed force not only from their home but also from their country of origin. The USA is bounded by oceans with Canada on the north and Mexico on the south. Unlike smaller countries, most US citizens displaced by the ongoing civil war against them haven't the means to escape across the oceans or into Canada or Mexico. So, the official term for them is Internally Displaced Persons. Most Americans have no idea of the difference in these two types of refugees, so the persons you are presently calling "homeless" are most accurately described simply as refugees or internal refugees.

The United Nations has established a documented set of Guiding Principles of Internal Displacement. Principle 3 states:

3.1 National authorities have the primary duty and responsibility to provide protection and humanitarian assistance to internally displaced persons within their jurisdiction.

3.2 Internally displaced persons have the right to request and to receive protection and humanitarian assistance from these authorities. They shall not be persecuted or punished for making such a request.

Some of us are experienced with sheltering women and children. The government has consistently and egregiously defied Principle 4.2:

4.2 Certain internally displaced persons, such as children, especially unaccompanied minors, expectant mothers, mothers with young children, female heads of household, persons with disabilities and elderly persons, shall be entitled to protection and assistance required by their condition and to treatment which takes into account their special needs.

The so-called urban camping ban in Denver is a direct violation of Principle 12.3:

12.3 Internally displaced persons shall be protected from discriminatory arrest and detention as a result of their displacement.

Denver's practice of harassment and stealing property from refugees proves a very embarrassing fact: Expecting market forces or big business clubs to provide for refugees is the height of ludicrous thinking. Once everything has been stolen from a person, they are no longer allowed to live. The flouting of principle 12.3 was codified into an ordinance at the behest of the Downtown Denver Partnership and its influential business executives.

Such organizations and governmental bodies influenced by them go far beyond being unethical. American business people have chosen to be perpetrators of war crimes against their impoverished fellow citizens. Compare their conduct to the idea embodied in Principle 18:

18.1 All internally displaced persons have the right to an adequate standard of living.

18.2 At the minimum, regardless of the circumstances, and without discrimination, competent authorities shall provide internally displaced persons with and ensure safe access to:

(a) Essential food and potable water;
(b) Basic shelter and housing;
(c) Appropriate clothing; and
(d) Essential medical services and sanitation.

The ruling classes can't even do these few simple things for their fellow citizens. How can any rational person deem them competent much less entitled to rule over us with the tools of state violence and aggression at their disposal?

The 27th Annual AIDS Walk Colorado was held in Cheesman Park on August 16. The Walk is the Rocky Mountain Region’s largest and most successful HIV and AIDS fundraiser. An estimated 8,000 people from throughout the state came together to raise money for the Colorado AIDS Project (CAP) and more than 20 other outstanding AIDS service organizations. The event served as a day to remember those we have lost to the disease, with prominent speakers, panels of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, a Celebration of Life Festival, live music, food, beverages, and the 6th annual AIDS Walk Colorado Volleyball Tournament, held in conjunction with the Colorado Gay Volleyball Association. 

What does that mean to advocates of people experiencing homelessness?

According to Metro Denver Homeless Initiative’s 2013 Point In Time survey there were 120 people living with HIV or AIDS who were dealing with homelessness. Keep in mind, these counts always miss people, which is unfortunate.

Living with HIV and AIDS means that people need to eat healthy, but how does a person do that when they don't have the funds and the facilities to provide for themselves? Pasta and pastries are easy to get when one is living on the street,  but a more healthy diet is difficult to maintain.

Another issue that people have is the need to take medication. Storing it where there is daily access can be difficult. Most of these medications work better with food while others have to be taken with food. So people have to find food at the proper times of the day in order to take their meds. And if they lose meds it can be difficult or even impossible to replace them.

There are some housing options. CAP supports two facilities that house people living with HIV and AIDS. Dave's Place provides permanent housing for 16 people. This facility is an old mansion near 14th and Josephine. Juan Diego provides housing for 21 individuals and is located just south of the current CAP offices in northwest Denver. There are also funds that come directly from HUD that help to house people living with HIV and AIDS. These funds also help pay deposits and app fees when individuals are trying to get housing.

Within the homeless community there are other issues people face daily. Many times people living with HIV or AIDS won't tell a service provider he or she has AIDS unless they feel that doing so will bring a benefit. This is primarily due to confidentiality. Essentially, providers need to be aware of CAP so that if someone says they have HIV or AIDS they can be referred to CAP in order to get services. CAP has money to spend on hotel rooms and other things that other providers don't necessarily have.

People living with HIV or AIDS need to go to the doctor once every three to six weeks in order to maintain the best health possible. This can use up a lot of time and also requires a person to always be looking for funding for transportation. CAP is usually able to give their clients a book of bus tickets each month. Most of the providers in the homeless community are more limited in what they can give out.

The fact that there are people living with HIV or AIDS who are dealing with issues of homelessness means that the community needs to be aware of the specific issues these individuals face. By helping to provide for them, we can insure that they don't die on the streets waiting for housing.

Mr. Calloway must first say to the readers that the prolonged wait to hear my thoughts was because I did not finish what I meant to say last time. The topic is in reference to the governor of Colorado (formerly the mayor) who deceptively promoted that he would end homelessness in ten years. Now, the current Mayor Michael B Hancock (who was one of John Hickenlooper’s boys, as a city councilman) is following the same slanted, twisted and deceptive method as if he is going to complete the task of ending homelessness in Denver. Just like John Hickenlooper, Mr. Michael B Hancock is only saying the proper thing as a subterfuge in order to make the voters believe he has interest in the common man. Instead, Hancock has the interest of private and big business and their organizations (i.e Downtown Denver Partnership) because the underdogs can’t bring him any revenue. As stated by me, Mr. Calvin Calloway (AKA Mr. Anti Bull Shit), this is a statement which isn’t capable of being refuted or denied by any source on earth-- human, material or otherwise.

It is true that Mayor Hancock is rendering funds to nonprofits like St Francis Center, Jesus Saves-Rescue Mission,and the Salvation Army to subsidize (which is to assist and support) them. The bottom line is that it is a subsidy provided by a branch of government intended to be used for the needy and the homeless. The task, to end homelessness, isn’t difficult or complex from the standpoint of the nonprofits. Hancock and his administration could remedy homelessness if their intent was to do the right thing. One way they could do it is by formulating Individual Development Accounts (IDAs).

An IDA would consist of a small portion (for example, 2%) of the nonprofits’ donated funds that would be matched four times by a sponsor (such as the Untied Way) who participates in the IDA system. These funds could then be used towards providing housing for homeless people. 

But Michael B Hancock's professed intent is merely a platitude while his real intent--along with the intent of St Francis Center, Salvation Army, Rescue Mission and Father Woody’s, just to name a few of the nonprofits--is to keep the homeless in Denver homeless. I offer the following evidence in support of the ultimate truth of the latter statement.

(1) The nonprofits boldly want to oppress the homeless by using the homeless to obtain the nonprofits’ services. Oppression is defined as making one person or group of persons the other person’s slave to obtain what the enslaved person or group is offering or providing. For instance the Salvation Army (which runs the Crossroads Shelter) expresses that the homeless men wishing to sleep there comply with the wishes of the nearby businesses, who don’t want to see the homeless outside waiting alongside of the shelter property before 4:30 pm. The boss and his subordinates comply and threaten to terminate access to the homeless permanently if they don’t comply with the businesses' wishes.

(2) If Michael B Hancock and the nonprofits have sincere concern for the homeless to emerge from their condition, then they should advocate for funds to be donated by complainers like the Downtown Denver Partnership* and the businesses near the Crossroads instead of allowing them to oppress these underdogs. The rights of underdogs are equal to those of the irrational and incoherent complainers. But the nonprofits comply with the complainers and conform to these business associations’ every wish. They exhibit the will and desire to remove the underdogs (homeless) through oppressive and coercive measures. Couple this with Mayor Michael B Hancock allowing the Denver Sheriff and Denver Police to assist in committing wrongs like assault, trespass, deceit, malicious prosecution of the underdogs and homeless, and couple it with promoting to the general public spectators that they are enforcing the law in an equitable manner--and what is the only conclusion to draw?

The conduct of Hancock and the nonprofits clearly demonstrates that they are in alliance with and in favor of the controllers and producers in our society in their oppression of the homeless and underdogs. Advocating for the controllers and producers isn't an act of doing the right thing. This conduct is more than an insult to the religion the United States submits to. Such conduct is nailing the underdogs and homeless to the crooked crosses of the City and County of Denver and the service providers. This is the rape of democracy and implies that anarchy exists in the City and County of Denver as well as the state of Colorado.

All readers please take heed of the facts of this most fragile subject matter and get on the bandwagon for justice, that I Mr Calvin Calloway AKA Mr Anti Bull Shit AKA the Prince of Obfuscation AKA King of the Vituperators AKA the Governor of all Legislators is truly concerned about. Hopefully one day I Mr Calloway can obtain revenue to formulate the Church of Democracy and Socio-Politico Intelligence Agency. Socio-Politico will start paralegal careers for those who will become my agents for the cause of justice. It will equip people to carry out the most needed duty and obligation of any society--to monitor the ethics of all city governments, state governments, the federal government and big business in order to prevent the rape of democracy and the nailing of all public to the crooked cross that exists in the City and County of Denver and the state that this city and county has as its representative.

*Editor’s note: Downtown Denver Partnership members donate funds to Denver’s Road Home through the annual PJ Party event.

     I was sitting in front of the City and County Building. I was early for a City Council meeting that I had decided to attend. The Council was to decide on moving money from one account to another in order to pay a settlement to Jamal Hunter. He was an inmate in the Denver County jail whose abuse by Denver County Deputy Sheriffs had been caught on video. Shame on them!

I was there to hear if the Council members, as they voted for or against this financial outlay, would demand that these abuses end. I was early. The Council meeting was scheduled for 5:30 and it was 4:45. I was sitting there reading a book when I looked up and saw someone I recognized. It was Yoko, a lady I knew through my association with Denver Homeless Out Loud. I said “Hey Yoko” and she turned to me and said “Hey Debbie.”

She was with three other women. They were pushing or pulling all of their worldly belongings. My heart went out to these women.  I asked, “What’s up Yoko, where are you headed?"  She told me that there had been 19 women at the Women's Emergency Shelter lottery at St Francis that day and that she and her friends had lost out for a place to sleep. (St Francis allots 15 places each Monday and Thursday.) “So what are you going to do?" I asked. She said they were going to the Sheriff’s Office to request shelter because it looked like rain and she did not want to sleep outside in the rain. 

I thought of my own comfortable apartment and I wished I could accommodate them.  I am just a poor old transgendered woman living in a HUD VASH subsidized apartment on a very limited fixed income.  I am forbidden to have guests for more than one night and there can’t be more than one. I felt terrible!  I thought, what can I do to help these ladies? The answer unfortunately, was nothing. 
     I hate that feeling!

I asked Yoko, “What can the sheriff do?” She said “I don’t know, but it’s his job to make sure I don’t have to sleep outside in the rain.” (I later learned that the City's plan for homeless people requires the Sheriff's Department to provide another shelter option, which may be a motel voucher, for women who didn't get into the Women's Emergency Shelter.) I told her not to forget that and wished her well. She had wanted to be at the City Council meeting herself, but could not attend because of her unhoused situation. I would love to have been a fly on the wall, when Yoko and her friends stormed into the Denver County Sheriff’s office and demanded their rights of shelter as human beings. 




I stood there and watched them make their way down the sidewalk. Part of me wanted to follow them and lend my support, but Yoko had told me it was more important for me to go and see what them damn politicians were up to. So I stayed.




The political dog and pony show ran its course and I watched as the City Council voted to move the money around so they could talk about what it was really all about some other time. I will be there with my questions when that happens. I hope to help force a public comment period on the vote. We will see.




The memory that stuck in my head that sleepless night was not what went on in the Council meeting that evening. It was the picture in my mind of those four women pulling or pushing everything they owned down that street looking for a place to sleep, out of the rain. 




I wanted to cry, I wanted to scream, I wanted to kick some ass. This is not how it is supposed to be. What can we do to make the idea that shelter is a human right, a reality? 




I am working to find the answer to that question and it has become my quest. I expect it to be my last goal. I’m an old lady now (65 in September) but I have found my calling. I was homeless myself for two years, after living a middle class life for over forty years. I know how easy it is to go from middle class to destitute in the blink of an eye. I am working with Denver Homeless Out Loud to pass a Homeless Bill of Rights, which among other things might recognize shelter as a human right in Colorado.




Nobody should have to go through what these women have to go through every day. How can you even think of looking for a job, when you have to spend most of your time hauling all of your personal belongings all over town, looking for a place to sleep at night? Have you ever pushed a cart that contains all of your worldly goods to a job interview? I have and it doesn’t work. I am glad I am now living off my Social Security retirement account and no longer have to look for work. I have found that I can now live on a lot less money than I would have ever thought possible. 




I am going to end this rant with one message to all you young people out there. It was told to me by my grandmother many years ago. “Look out for your neighbors,” she said. "Whatever you give will come back to you in miracles.”