DENVER – This spring, the city of Denver will weigh a ballot measure that offers expansive protections for its homeless population, an initiative that could open the door to statewide laws that guarantee homeless people the right to live in public spaces.
That is, at least, what Rep. Jovan Melton, D-Aurora, hopes will happen. For years, Melton, a longtime homeless-rights advocate, has introduced nearly identical statewide legislation that would bar cities from enacting or enforcing laws that dictate where homeless people can sit, sleep or eat. But his legislation, known as the Colorado Right to Rest Act, has never made it out of committee.
On Tuesday, Melton asked a committee of lawmakers to postpone his latest version of the act pending the outcome of Denver’s May municipal election.
“If it passes in Denver, then I think that we do have a kind of a mandate from the voters, at least from one city, that this is the right thing to do,” Melton said Wednesday.
But the Right to Rest Act was not designed to protect homeless rights in smaller cities, which might be exempt from the act’s provisions based on the size of their homeless populations. Abandoning the act, at least for now, will mean that struggles between smaller cities and their homeless populations will continue in places like Durango, where officials have renewed efforts to limit homeless encampments and use of public spaces.
Denver’s initiative would allow homeless people to sleep and rest in public spaces and live in legally parked vehicles, among other things. Melton will consider reviving the Right to Rest Act if Denver passes its ballot initiative, but his focus has always been the capital, which counted more than 5,300 people experiencing homeless last year.
Last spring, Durango passed a so-called sit-lie ordinance, which prohibits people from sitting or lying down in public spaces, and the City Council followed up in December with a proposed camping ban. The Colorado chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which advocates for homeless rights, has criticized both ordinances and suggested the proposed camping ban would violate constitutional and federal law.
The Right to Rest Act, which Melton has sponsored unsuccessfully for five years, would allow people to rest, sleep and eat in public spaces, to live in a legally parked motor vehicle and to expect a “reasonable amount of privacy over personal property.” But, all of these rights would be waived if a city could demonstrate that it has three consecutive months of waiting lists of fewer than 50 people for all public housing. The act would also give $10 million to the Colorado Department of Local Affairs to reduce public housing wait lists around the state.
A statewide ban on laws regulating homeless populations might propel cities toward other solutions, like providing more shelter beds or affordable housing, said Nathan Woodliff-Stanley, the executive director of the Colorado ACLU.
“Without a statewide measure, it’s tempting for communities to, in effect, solve the problem by being so unfriendly that homeless go somewhere else,” he said.
But Melton’s required wait list of more than 50 people for three months would be a loophole that exempts cities with smaller homeless populations from complying, said Brian Schowalter, a Durango attorney who does pro bono legal work for the homeless. Durango, for instance, might not have a consistent wait list of more than 50 people waiting for shelter beds or public housing.
“It’s like an escape clause,” Schowalter said. “That 50 number makes it totally inapplicable to Durango.”
Melton sees no problem with that exemption, which he added might make more sense for smaller cities with fewer resources to house homeless people.
As of 2017, the most-recent year available with comparable data, there were at least 91 people in La Plata County living in shelters or uninhabitable conditions. To be sure, the number of homeless people can fluctuate based on counting methods. But local homeless advocates believe the 2018 numbers could be at least double, partly driven by more than 100 Durango 9-R School District students who lack permanent housing.
rhandy@durangoherald.com