08/27/2020
One lives in a house. One lives in a tent. During a neighborhood meeting Wednesday, two Curtis Park residents had similar reactions to plans the city has to conduct cleanups along Park Avenue next week.
Khaled Yohannes said such cleanups lead to the displacement of people experiencing homelessness, making it hard for them to maintain connections with services that might lead to housing and support to stay housed.
“People are so scattered,” said Yohannes, who has been living on Denver’s streets since last summer. “And the neighbors are getting pi**ed off.”
His housed counterpart was Jeff Baker, president of the Curtis Park Neighbors group. Baker said the cleanup would likely move people experiencing homelessness “to another corner of the neighborhood” without addressing underlying problems.
“Let’s change the world. Let’s put people in housing.”