10 arrested after building 'tiny homes' for the homeless in Denver park

10 Arrested After Building 'Tiny Homes' for the Homeless in Denver Park (TItle of the Article)

Link:
www.thedenverchannel.com...

This occurred in a place called Sustainability Park:

DENVER - The Denver Police Department arrested 10 people and destroyed "tiny homes" activists set up for the homeless at Sustainability Park Saturday.

Activists with "Denver Homeless Out Loud" were in the process of setting up a tiny home village to be occupied and managed by homeless people, organizers said.

The group posted photos of activists constructing the homes Saturday.

They didn't have the proper permits - so this was kind of justified on the part of the City, but the fact that they destroyed the homes and arrested all 10 people, essentially criminalizing that these people were trying to help out the homeless. Couldn't they have come to an understanding, to relocate and issue warnings, or even fines? But arresting them and destroying them?

Continued:

"Denver Public Works destroyed, threw into dump trucks, and carted away the homes that had been so badly needed by houseless people and so lovingly constructed by those who would have lived there and their supporters," activists said.

However, Denver Public Works said the activist was misinformed and the tiny homes were actually removed by a contractor hired by Denver Police.

Organizers said police arrested Terese Howard, Benjamin Donlon, Karen Caspary, Audrey Haynes, Andrew Tate Viviano, Raymond Lyall, Coby Wikselaar, Scott Hauck, Stephanie Marraro, and DJ Razee.

Police told 7NEWS they were arrested for trespassing.

"We will not give up! We will keep fighting to defend people’s right to housing," organizers wrote.

Denver police say they have returned some of the temporary homes that were confiscated.

Obviously we have 2 sides to this story. But from what I can tell, no charges are being dropped, and we have no idea what condition they were in when they returned the temporary homes that were confiscated - was it a disassembled pile of the pieces to the home, since they made it sound like they were all completely disassembled when being removed.

AT ANY RATE, not all of the facts are here yet but my initial impression is that the criminalizing of homelessness is on the rise and the "Justice System" is failing in yet another area of our society.

What do you think ATS?

P.S. I believe this is the organization if anyone is curious: denverhomelessoutloud.org...

a reply to: FamCore

Don't set up shop in a park

buy some land, build and they will come

Land of the free, eh?

Not in my lifetime it hasn't been.

a reply to: CharlieSpeirs

To be fair its public land, and ceases to be public when someone moves in

a reply to: FamCore

That was pretty dumb of them to build on park land without permission .

They should be raising funds to purchase land in areas with lax permitting laws if they want to be successful at getting a community up and running.

Police spokesman Tyrone Campbell says police gave the group several orders to disperse before making the arrests.

Sound like they chose to not leave and get arrested.

originally posted by: CharlieSpeirs

Not in my lifetime it hasn't been.

There is nothing more exciting then the future, we have a lot of work ahead of us.

a reply to: FamCore

They did this on public park land. That essentially means they stop the land from citizens and gave it to people. Can't do that. They should buy some land rather than steal some.

a reply to: FamCore

Are there no actual criminals in Denver to go after ?...surely there is a better way for police to spend their time and i think if the city can afford to spend funds on contractors and police for this clean up then perhaps the money would be better spent on a city funded housing project for the homeless .....

This topic has opened my eyes to better solutions for addressing the growing number of homeless people though - it's shown me that there are well-intentioned people and policies out there for the homeless, although the media likes to exaggerate or manufacture grandiose headlines that stray from the truth - which had me originally believing otherwise.

This one organization, Center for Problem-Oriented Policing has some great material on its website. However, text and publication is much different than action.

Which is why I still have respect for the philosophy and the purpose behind what these people did with the tiny homes- but they poorly executed this project and have suffered the consequences. I would imagine the police who handled the situation could have also handled it differently, but I wasn't there so they get the benefit of the doubt from my opinion.

Pop Center website:
www.popcenter.org...

a reply to: FamCore

The new thing they are doing for the homeless is encouraging them to buy tents and live on state parks by moving every 2-3 weeks . To be fair I have seen a few families do this during weekend rv excursions and they appeared to be very nice but just down on their luck. However, with alot of homeless people their is also mental and substance abuse related issues which might not be the best thing to intermingle with families and young kids.

Perhaps we need to start preserving areas like state parks but with very little gov't involvement. Call them FREEDOM PARKS for MERICA.

a reply to: CharlieSpeirs

NOTHING is free on the planet,there are ALWAYS strings.
I THINK you can still homestead however in Wyoming.

originally posted by: FamCore Couldn't they have come to an understanding

they do commanding, not understanding.

a reply to: FamCore

Seems they knew that they weren't legally allowed to build there, and that they did it anyway.

"...due to zoning and code constraints they have not been able to find a legal place to put the houses," organizers stated in a release issued Sunday.

source

Plus, the pics in that story show "homes" smaller than the typical backyard shed. Seems to me, if they really want to help, they need to purchase some land, or get permits to build.

Something else to keep in mind - some homeless people are there because they refuse to do anything for themselves. I have a relative like that. If someone gave him such a swelling, he'd complain about what it didn't have. Not even kidding there. He's complained that he has to show up at scheduled times for free meals.

a reply to: hknudzkknexnt

Buying land is not easily done. I see no harm in building small housing units for homeless on land paid for and owned by the US taxpayers, a small sum of whom are themselves homeless.

How many empty rooms are in the White house?

a reply to: FamCore

So let me get this right , they were arrested for putting up little homes in the exact same spot where homes used to be and where apartments are going to be built . You do know that in a lot of places these people would have statues made of them , not arrested .

originally posted by: OccamsRazor04
a reply to: FamCore

They did this on public park land. That essentially means they stop the land from citizens and gave it to people. Can't do that. They should buy some land rather than steal some.

Well no, they did this on housing authority land and the cops got involved because the housing authority already sold it to a private developer:

"In explaining why they had chosen this site on which to establish the village, the group recounted how the Denver Housing Authority, which owns the property, has torn down hundreds of low-income housing units, and after allowing the Urban Farming Cooperative to use the land for a few years, has agreed this year to sell the land to a private developer, who will build multifamily housing that will support gentrification in Curtis Park but be far beyond the reach of those for whom the Denver Housing Authority is supposed to exist."

If anything, the housing authority should be responsible for finding them land.

Who do they think they ARE ,CHINA?

Even if they purchased land, there are still building permits and codes they have to follow. I really don't see how the charges would really change had they purchased land.

If you read the article, they couldn't find land that allowed for the proper zoning and such. They choose the land because it was owned by HUD who kept tearing down low income housing.

originally posted by: hknudzkknexnt
a reply to: FamCore

Don't set up shop in a park

buy some land, build and they will come

That's a bit much? Why not just tell the homeless people to buy a house.

They're homeless. we can't feed nor shelter them, or we might get germs.

Someone should start a go fund me project to buy land for a wild people refuge. Something like Slab city. www.youtube.com...

www.kpbs.org...