The city has offered shelter to families. Advocates are asking for the city to improve shelter conditions before migrants are moved there.
DENVER — The City of Denver will sweep a migrant encampment in Central Park Wednesday morning, citing safety concerns as well as the fact the encampment is on private property.
Roughly 100 migrants have been staying at the Central Park encampment, located on property owned by railroad company Union Pacific. Individuals as well as families and children have been staying at the encampment for seven weeks.
The city offered 30-day shelter to all families at the encampment. All of those offers were turned down.
A city spokesperson said they have been trying to remove children from living on the streets, but their attempts have been unsuccessful. Individuals without family units have been pointed to other shelter resources.
The camp was initially established by All Souls, run by Candice Marley.
Marley said many of the families were previously evicted from apartments, due to being placed in leases through city-run programs. Ultimately, those families couldn’t keep up with the rent payments and Marley said they later came to the encampment.
In the past week or so, the nonprofit Housekeys Action Network has also been working with the city on behalf of the people staying at the camp. On Monday, they made a list of 13 demands in order for the campers to consider going inside to shelter:
1. Migrants will cook their own food with fresh, culturally appropriate ingredients provided by the City instead of premade meals – rice, chicken, flour, oil, butter, tomatoes, onions, etc… Also people will not be punished for bringing in and eating outside food
2. Shower access will be available without time limits and can be accessed whenever
3. Medical professional visits will happen regularly and referrals/connections for specialty care will be made as needed
4. All will receive the same housing support that has been offered to others. They cannot kick people out in 30 days without something stable established
5. There needs to be a clear, just process before exiting someone for any reasons – including verbal, written and final warnings
6. All shelter residents will receive connection to employment support, including work permit applications for those who qualify
7. Consultations for each person/family with a free immigration lawyer must be arranged to discuss/progress their cases and then the City will provide on-going legal support in the form of immigration document clinics and including transportation to relevant court dates
8. The City will provide privacy for families/individuals within the shelter
9. No more verbal or physical or mental abuse will be permitted from the staff, including no sheriff sleeping inside and monitoring 24/7
10. Transportation for all children to and from their schools will be provided until they finish in three weeks
11. No separating families, regardless of if family members have children or not. The camp will stay together.
12. The City must schedule a meeting with the Mayor and those directly involved in running the Newcomwer program ASAP to discuss further improvements and ways to support migrants
13. The City must provide all residents with a document signed by a City official in English and Spanish with all of these demands that includes a number to call to report mistreatment or if they aren’t holding to their promises.
Migrants at the encampment said they don’t trust the solution that has been offered, 30 days in shelter, will become reality.
Mandy Pimentel, a mom of four, has been staying at the camp for about a month. She hasn’t accepted shelter because she isn’t sure that she will actually receive 30 days inside.
Pimentel said she was previously told she would be in shelter for a month when she arrived, but only received three days. She described her experience in the shelter system as “not that good.”
“It’s not a guarantee that they will, just from their word, that we are going to a shelter if they don’t give me a piece of paper that says, they guarantee that I am going to stay for 30 days,” Pimentel said.
While she said the experience has been “tough,” it’s “what she has to do” to protect her children’s dreams of studying while settling in the United States.
Right now, Pimentel doesn’t have a plan for what will happen once officers show up Wednesday.
“If tomorrow they kick us out with force, I don’t know where I will be, if I will be in a room or return to another place to camp,” Pimentel said.
Denver Human Services said they want to offer shelter to all families and have tried to do continuous outreach at the camp. Due to a case of chickenpox, DHS provided a three-day vaccine clinic to anyone living in the camp.
Jon Ewing, a spokesperson for DHS, said advocates are “preventing us from getting people inside.” That has left the agency with few solutions to offer that people have been receptive to.
Ewing said the agency believes it is the best option for families but has been unable to convince them to move from their tents.
Union Pacific, the railroad company that owns the property, prompted the sweep to be posted.
In a statement, the company said they “are working to address unsafe and illegal camping activities on our property, especially within a few feet of railroad tracks. Homelessness remains an ongoing societal challenge and we are committed to working with local, state, and federal agencies to address the issue as quickly as possible and in compliance with the law.”
On Tuesday, Denver City Councilmember Shontel Lewis of District 8 and her team were out at the camp gathering feedback from people about their desires for the next steps moving forward. The camp has asked that if they move, they all move together to shelter or a new location.
“Ultimately it’s no different than a lot of the things that we hear from communities is that there is an ask to stay together, which I think is a perfectly normal ask that we hear from folks that end up gathering in this way,” Lewis said.
She plans to take the information back to the mayor’s office and his team to figure out what they might be able to do to keep folks from being swept Wednesday.
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