Homeless people in a park in downtown Denver. (Courthouse News photo / Chris Marshall)
(CN) Denver health officials explained in federal court on Wednesday why they shirked Covid-19 guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and cleared homeless encampments without notice a move a class of Denverites experiencing homelessness say violates a settlement agreement.
According to the lawsuit filed Oct. 5, Denver cleared at least 11 homeless camps between April and August, displacing more than 1,000 unhoused citizens. Covid-19 guidelines from the CDC advise against clearing encampments unless adequate housing is available.
“We always consider CDC guidance, but we don’t always follow it,” Bill Burman, Denver’s public health director, told the court. “These are guidelines, they are not mandates.”
During two days in federal court this week, Denver officials and a group of homeless individuals who ve sued the city painted vastly different pictures of homeless encampment sweeps during the COVID-19 pandemic. I think the presence of encampments is a complex and very difficult issue. I don’t think there’s a clear right and wrong answer in how we handle this complex problem, Bill Burman, director of Denver Public Health, testified.
The evidentiary hearing stemmed from a lawsuit filed in October by Andy McNulty of Killmer, Lane & Newman LLC on behalf of Denver Homeless Out Loud and ten homeless plaintiffs against the City of Denver, the State of Colorado and a contractor that works with the city on homeless encampment sweeps. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises municipalities not to sweep encampments during the pandemic, to avoid furthering the spread of COVID-19; the plaintiffs want Denver to stop the sweeps for the duration of the pandemic.
Homeless people in a park in downtown Denver. (Courthouse News photo / Chris Marshall)
(CN) A class of homeless Denverites asked a federal judge on Tuesday to bar the city from clearing encampments without notice, which they say violates a settlement agreement.
According to the lawsuit filed Oct. 5, Denver cleared at least 11 homeless camps between April and August, displacing more than 1,000 unhoused citizens. Covid-19 guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advise against clearing encampments unless adequate housing is available.
“We’ve seen how the Covid-19 pandemic has reordered our lives, we’re sitting in court today in masks because of Covid-19,” said attorney Andy McNulty, of the civil rights-focused firm Kilmer Lane and Newman in a brief opening statement.
we re not seeing any rain inside the beltway. but up to the north is where we re seeing rain showers across northern portions of the chesapeake bay and out to the west. leesberg, south of leesberg a couple of showers toward westminster a little bit of rain as well. that s about it for now. maybe later on we ll see por showers more showering during the morning. here is a big picture. just to show you where the bulk of the moisture is concentrated across the mason-dixon line up to pennsylvania into new jersey, some heavy rain and thunderstorm activity in new jersey. this is moving from west to east and will continue to move that way. we ll see a couple of showers spring through the region. right now reagan national reporting a temperature of 53 degrees. relative humidity 80% and winds out of the north at 16 miles per hour. clouds this morning. a couple of showers here or there. later on sunshine breaks out. look for a high today of a few degree below normal, with 64 degrees f