The Heat is On: The Convention and Where the Poor Are Not Going?

The heat always gets turned up on homeless people when there are big events. (It’s taken for granted.) Despite Denver’s Road Home’s great progress, people who used to be visible and holding signs, in many spots now are gone—not because they are housed, but because they are panhandling, and therefore less visible. Does a person, homeless or not, have a right to hold a sign? The First Amendment and the Colorado Supreme Court says they do, but in fact this is not true. DRH has reduced homelessness by 75%? ...If it’s true that’s great!

My opinions are not to be shared in public? Why not? I should be seen as a token homeless person but not say what I think? Denver’s Road Home’s letter “hmmm...sounds defensive. Maybe things aren’t as rosy in the kingdom as the kingdom would like to believe.” Homeless people are engaged in an expanded democratic conversation, in which we are considering the human rights of all citizens in this land and how we relate to immigrants and this nation’s history. We must press on in the struggle for equality and for decision makers to stand up and take notice of our role and contributions in America.

Denver has always been good about registering homeless people to vote thanks to the Colorado Coalition For the Homeless. They have registered people to vote for twenty-five years. It has nothing to do with Denver’s Road Home. Of course homeless people with their stuff on their back will be held suspect. If you have no ID then you may be subject to search or worse with national security protocol? Maybe instead of bothering about one’s credibility to use the word “sugarcoat” Denver’s Road Home should plan a communication campaign focusing on helping people who are homeless not to be targeted. We are all targets in the post 9/11 world.

I can still hear Commander Dilley saying that police have to prosecute lawbreakers, people who violate quality of life issues like peeing in public. We asked for a break when there are no known options for people to sit/lay/pee and they do this in public. Who is she to say “appropriate decisions...”? The meeting of People Living in Public Places was created to solve the issues that homeless people face in the right of ways and the streets. We meet at 850 Lincoln at 9 a.m. the second Thursday every month in the dining area of Christ Body’s Ministries. We hold a similar meeting the first Thursday at the Gathering Place in their dining room from 9 to 10:30 a.m. for women and their children. If a person who happens to be poor is offered money to stand with a sign about something they don’t believe in, at least the person can be paid. Is Denver’s Road Home giving out cash? The parking meter gimmick is a quirk. It is good publicity but does it accomplish anything when the revenue comes from leasing the meter for 1,000.00 dollars a year?

What if I want to support a homeless person’s habit? What is the issue? It does not take away from the revenue of anyone but the intentions of the person giving the money, and that is his or her business. Even though I cannot see the point of flying signs and panhandling? I find these behaviors are destructive of a person’s will; it isn’t anyone’s business to judge the matter. It is not the business of the Downtown Denver Partnership to make a marketing campaign against these pursuits. It is a relationship between the person giving and the beggar.