October 1st 2025
Dear Mayor Johnston,
At many meetings we have spoken with you about the criminalization, terrorization and segregation of houseless people living on the streets of Denver. We have shared quotes and stories from houseless people who are suffering on the streets due to police forcing them to sleep without tents or often even without blankets – stories of houseless people who have lost all their property to the City taking and trashing it in violation of their rights. We have shown you police record data showing the increase in enforcement of anti-houseless laws since January 2024 when you ‘closed’ public areas where people had encampments so houseless people could not return (see latest data just released here).
Your response has been to defend police enforcement saying you have made promises to the rich to keep houseless people away, to pretend you have no idea what’s happening and say you have no control over the police, or to blame houseless people’s ‘bad behavior’ as requiring enforcement.
Your public statements about police enforcement against houseless people are blatant. In your state of the City speech you said, ‘we had large encampments spread around the city…strangling businesses and frightening residents” and “Now that encampments are gone and violent crime is among the lowest this century, we are turning our focus to the quality of life crimes” and ‘for those who refuse services and continue to commit crimes, we will hold them accountable.”
If you compare these statements to those of Trump in his executive order to criminalize houseless people, they give the same message.
While you oppose Trump and push back on his horrific actions in many ways, when it comes specifically to enforcement against houseless people on the streets you are on the same path as Trump. While you have joined suit against any attempt by Trump to bring in the National Guard for enforcement, you are already using City enforcers to sweep away houseless people everyday yourself.
In effort to make it appear like you have housed the majority of people houseless on the streets, you instructed police, Street Enforcement Team, newly created Yellow Vest enforcement, and other tools for enforcement to use every means possible to kick houseless people out of sight. As the data shows, this increased push really kicked off at the end of your first phases of ‘house 1000’ when you wanted to ensure no encampments re-appeared. So to do that you had, and continue to have, enforcers stopping houseless people from setting up tents or any visible protection from the elements the minute anyone tries to do so. Now police are known to show up within minutes of setting up a tent downtown and force the person to take it down (or in some cases the cop just takes the tent themselves).
Houseless people are still living on the streets of Denver. But now everyone is forced into hiding, has no protection from the elements, and is suffering in extreme ways.
If you appear houseless, especially if you are black or brown, even just being seen standing or sitting on a public sidewalk is cause for police to move you along. In spite of the fact that ‘loittering’ on a public sidewalk is not a law in Denver, police are actively out enforcing this against houseless people. This is the new Jim Crow under your reign. Just as Jim Crow laws of the past were used to segregate black people out of public spaces, this enforcement (both legal and outside the law) is there to push houseless people – especially black and brown houseless people – out of the public. Is this really the leader you want to be?
So why are we protesting at the re-opening of 16th street?
You and together with the Downtown Denver Business Partnership have invested $175mil in a facelift for Denver’s downtown shopping hub, while meanwhile people are living without housing on these streets and terrorized by enforcers. Repeatedly you have spoken to the need for investing in businesses and attractions for those with money so that the tax revenue will trickle down to houseless people. Hasn’t trickle down theory been long proven a farce?? Does Johnsonomics really have to be the new Reganomics?
Through your proposed City general budget that gives 40% of the money to ’Safety’ Police and Jails and 4% to housing and houseless services; through your investment in new stadiums; and on and on you continue to spend money on niceties for the rich and somehow expect that to trickle down to the poor.
We cannot sit back quietly as our community suffers with no housing while you buy facelifts for 16th st and police to push houseless people out.
We are telling you to stop and change your ways.
Stop pushing houseless people out of sight.
- Stop enforcing non-existent loitering laws
- Stop taking people’s property
- Stop telling people they can’t use cover from the elements
- Stop treating houseless people like trash
Start investing in houseless housing and resources.
- Open additional emergency shelter for families
- Open a shelter for queer people
- Follow our earlier demands for adequate cold weather shelter
- Fund Social Housing
These are not all the actions needed but a few key actions we are asking of you.
Until these actions are taken, we will be forced to continue to call out what is happening and be loud to demand to be really heard. You and Trump are doing the same things in regards to criminalizing houseless people. Do you really want to be known as the “Denver Trump”??
Sincerely,
Housekeys Action Network Denver
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