Denver Law Students Research the 鈥楥riminalization of Homelessness鈥
In December of 2017, a听听showed that Colorado鈥檚 homeless population had risen nearly 4 percent since the same time in the previous year. While it鈥檚 clear that homelessness is a real issue in听the state, many people remain unaware of the challenges that face people experiencing homelessness in Colorado cities.
A group of students at the 91看片 Sturm College of Law is trying to change that by looking at city ordinances in Boulder, Colorado Springs and Denver that disproportionately affect homeless people. Their report, 鈥淭oo High A Price 2: Move on to Nowhere,鈥 explains how laws that prohibit camping, sitting or lying down in public, as well as begging, and loitering, target the homeless.
The students, who are part of the听听(HAPP), conducted their research to follow up on a 2016 study, 鈥淭oo High A Price,鈥 that looked at similar laws.
鈥淒espite the concerns expressed in our first report, Colorado policy makers have continued to address 鈥榲isible poverty鈥 in their cities by enacting and enforcing 鈥榪uality of life鈥 ordinances,鈥 says Nantiya Ruan, professor of the practice of law and faculty advisor for HAPP. 鈥淭hese ordinances typically prohibit life-sustaining behaviors that homeless individuals need to survive, such as sitting, sleeping, camping and panhandling in public places.鈥
The group found that between Denver, Colorado Springs and Boulder, at least 37 ordinances criminalize behaviors associated with people experiencing homelessness. They also found four additional ordinances with similar effects in Denver that had passed since 2016. What鈥檚 more, Boulder and Colorado Springs have increased the number of citations issued under their camping bans. Of the 376 citations for camping issued in Boulder in 2017, 81.9 percent听went to homeless individuals.
鈥淚 was surprised that citations for the camping ban in Colorado Springs went up 545 percent in the span of three years,鈥 says Bridget DuPey, one of the report鈥檚 authors. She also noted that while the city of Denver has decreased its citations for camping-ban violations, the number of so-called 鈥渕ove-on orders鈥 has skyrocketed. 鈥淚t appears they are issuing those in lieu of actually writing tickets,鈥 DuPey says. 鈥淎t the end of the day, they鈥檙e not criminalizing the behavior, which is a step forward, but when you鈥檙e telling people to move on without enough shelter services available, they have nowhere to go.鈥
Another student-author, Darren O鈥機onnor, agrees. 鈥淭he most surprising thing we found was that between 2016 and 2017, Boulder increased its spending on programs to address homelessness by about $6 million. And yet for all that money, they actually have less shelter beds available and have made it harder for people to get into the shelters.鈥
One other finding related to the city鈥檚 smoking ban also stood out to O鈥機onnor. 鈥淵ou are 300 times more likely to get a smoking ticket in Boulder if you鈥檙e homeless,鈥 he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 hard not to conclude that this ordinance is a means to push people to move along out of the downtown area where the smoking ban is enforced.鈥
He adds, 鈥淭hese laws look neutral, but when you look at how they鈥檙e actually implemented, the neutrality fades away.鈥