City Council Voted for Enforcement over Outreach – the Fight to End SET continues…
Monday (11/4), the City Council voted against defunding SET and moving the funds to real outreach. This vote was a vote to continue the ‘enforcement not resources’ approach to houselessness. It was a vote to prioritize the desire of rich white housed people and businesses to not see houselessness, over the needs and survival of houseless people who must live on our streets. It was a vote to continue to push houseless people around and away from resources, rather than allow people to be where they are safest near resources.
It was a vote to believe the lies of City officials claiming 7 day posted sweeps were down because they only do those when they have All In spots open for people to go to. The truth: they have done many 7 day posted sweeps without All In or housing offers, and that the real reason 7 day posted sweeps are down is because of enforcers, significantly including SET, pushing houseless people away into hiding, with no tents, unable to gather in groups so much that large encampments can’t even form and the City can just sweep individuals and small groups under the camping ban, trespass, or no law at all with no notice!
It was a vote to believe the lies of Council members (like Councilman Flynn) who say that we need enforcers, not just outreach, because houseless people are “service resistant” and therefore must be forced to move since they won’t take “services.” The truth: houseless people are not “service resistant” to actual useful services! If the service is real and useful – like housing – people are not resistant to it! If the service is a deadend or not useful or sucks people don’t take it. And that is even under the assumption that services are offered – which over 90% of the time they are not even offered by SET!&^
This was a vote that will continue to harm our community and put lives at risk as the winter is here.
Our fight is not over! SET can still be ended and real outreach teams can still be supported beyond this budget vote. The Mayor has the power to do this at any time! We will continue to fight to end SET and support actual outreach!
Please thank the five Council members who supported this vote to end SET – https://www.denvergov.org/Government/Agencies-Departments-Offices/Agencies-Departments-Offices-Directory/Denver-City-Council/Council-Members-Websites-Info
Sarah Parady
Shontel Lewis
Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez
Paul Kashmann
Stacy Gilmore
Watch video of the hearing here https://denver.granicus.com/player/clip/16499?view_id=180&redirect=true
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