Movie sequels are rarely as successful as the original. For example, The Godfather and sequel both won best picture Oscar awards. Sleepless in Seattle was a 1993 romantic comedy hit. Two decades later the sequel can be called Homeless in Denver, and may also prove to be a hit.
For those who have recently ventured into Denver, homeless camps and individuals are a noticeable part of the landscape. It is not just downtown Denver, but along some of the main roads leading into Denver, dotted with the homeless. From Santa Fe to Monaco and Quebec, the homeless are as common as speed cameras.
A recent report by Fox 31 News estimates, “Denver unsheltered homeless counts have almost tripled since 2014.” Sheltered homeless, easier to count and quantify since they are in one place, have remained relatively stable over the past decade. But the unsheltered homeless are the ones living on the street or in sidewalk camps that have noticeably increased, easily observed by driving into Denver.
The Denver Post observed much the same, noting that Denver has cleared out more homeless camps in the past 6 months than all of 2020. They say that these clean ups have absolutely nothing to do with the upcoming baseball all-star game coming to Denver in July. Yea right.
That’s as credible as claims in 2008 that Denver did not sweep their homeless under the rug ahead of the Democrat National Convention. What city, on the national or international stage, doesn’t want to be wearing a clean new suit, with a fresh haircut and make up? Homeless camps are a stain on that clean shirt, a blight on the spotlighted city.
As Denver is making little effort to slow or stop its growing homeless problem, it is much simpler to just move the camps out of camera range for the upcoming all-star game. After the game, the homeless can move back downtown near Coors Field.
Even Democratic Socialist Denver City Council member Candi CdeBaca acknowledged the obvious, “It’s the perfect excuse for them to do it,” CdeBaca said of the sweeps. “They have to clean up their image, right? The whole purpose of the sweeps is to improve or erase the aesthetic of poverty to drive commerce.”
Hiding a problem is one way to deal with it, rather than looking at root causes, such as mental illness, substance abuse, unemployment, and affordable housing. Anyone think all those high rises under construction downtown are for the homeless?
Denver is a sanctuary city, home to many illegal migrants, working off the books, driving wages down, aggravating the unemployment problem for the Denver homeless. President Biden’s open borders policy is only making this worse.
Open borders means not just people crossing illegally, but drugs too. Those down on their luck often turn to drugs, now more readily available. Instead of moving the homeless from neighborhood to neighborhood, Denver could support substance abuse recovery programs like Step Denver.
Think of the Denver commerce lost because people are afraid to go downtown for dinner or a drink. Who wants to be accosted by a crazed homeless person or worry about stepping in pile of feces or on a used hypodermic needle?
Denver is becoming San Francisco or Seattle, and simply moving homeless camps around the city, like a game of three-card Monte, won’t solve the problem, instead only perpetuate it. Expect the sequel Homeless in Denver to be a box office hit.