Denver quietly enters next phase of plan to address homelessness with new “Street Enforcement Team”

Editor's note: This story was originally published by The Denver Voice and was shared via AP StoryShare. 

On July 9, the City of Denver quietly took its next steps towards addressing homelessness, when it published a job posting for its new “Street Enforcement Team” (SET).

According to the job posting, SET will be made up of “unarmed civilians” who are responsible for enforcing 20 of Denver’s “quality of life ordinances.” The ordinances include unauthorized camping, trespassing, urinating or defecating in public, and possession and consumption of marijuana. 

SET’s goal is to “enhance public safety through proactive patrols and enforcement of ordinances,” the posting says. As such, team members will have the ability to issue citations for ordinance violations but cannot make arrests. 

Applicants are required to have only one year of customer service experience or similar training to apply. The job is full-time and pays between $18.94 and $28.41. SET members will be trained in “crisis intervention and de-escalation techniques,” the job posting says. 

All active-duty team members must have a valid Denver Street Enforcement Team Official Certification and maintain daily activity logs as well. 

Similarly, SET officers are expected to patrol assigned areas of the city on foot or in a vehicle to act as a “visual deterrent to code violations,” the job posting says. Team members must also communicate with law enforcement personnel to “provide information, request back-up, and coordinate assistance.”

According to a document provided to the Denver VOICE by the City, SET is approved to operate until the end of the year. The Department’s Executive Director, Murphy Robinson, reserves the right to terminate the program at his sole discretion.  

Mayor Michael Hancock first alluded to the team during a press conference on June 30, when asked by reporters about the City’s plans to address homelessness. Hancock said at the time that the team is part of a “better and more dignified” strategy for serving Denver’s growing homeless community outside of traditional housing development. 

Denver VOICE reached out to the Department of Public Safety for specific details about the program. The Department said that it is still in the very early stages of developing the program. 

A ballot initiative is currently gathering signatures asks voters to approve an ordinance with similar language. If enacted, it would require Denver to provide up to four safe outdoor spaces with running water and bathroom facilities while also allowing for “civil enforcement” of the city’s urban camping ban. Denver residents would be allowed to file a civil complaint against the city if a complaint is not remedied within 72 hours, according to the proposed ordinance. 

The measure was introduced by Garrett Flicker, the 25-year-old chairman of the Denver Republican Party. In June, Flicker told Complete Colorado that the ordinance is necessary because Denver is not taking care of its people experiencing homelessness. 

“What this initiative seeks to do is offer the City and County of Denver a road map to beginning to rein-in the situation,” Flicker told the digital news website. “We want to limit to four specific areas because realistically we think that will be manageable by the city. We don’t want to have a tragedy of the commons situation where other public spaces are being used to house homeless people. We don’t want to turn our parks into homeless camps.” 

Denver VOICE reached out to Flicker for comment about the ballot initiative but did not receive a reply by press time. 

In response to the job posting, Denver Homeless Out Loud (DHOL), a street outreach nonprofit, issued a statement calling the idea a “recipe for disaster.”

“Increased policing of our communities for crimes of poverty and existence will not lead to housing, sanitation, health, or safety for anyone in our community,” the organization said.

“Instead, it will lead to unpayable tickets, debt, later arrest, and jail time, increased poverty and desperation, distrust and heightened tension on the streets, and violation of human rights to exist in public space.”

Ana Cornelius, a member of DHOL’s outreach team, told Denver VOICE that the move is a “big step in the wrong direction.”

“Residents of Denver asked for programs like the Support Team Assistance Response (STAR) team that delivers quality clinical services with community accountability,” Cornelius told the VOICE. “Why is more money being spent on creating more problems such as traumatizing and displacing humans rather than providing more quality housing and healthcare?”

Vinnie Cervantes, director of the Denver Alliance for Street Health Response (DASHR), described the creation of Denver’s Street Team as “troubling.” 

“Representatives of the City of Denver have previously said that we can’t ‘enforce’ our way out of some of the issues the city faces, and yet that continues to be its approach to homelessness as Denver insists on harassing, traumatizing, and criminalizing people trying to survive,” he told the VOICE in an emailed statement. 

“DASHR rejects any effort by the city that will result in more harm, especially as they avoid the most immediate, cost-effective, and humane solutions: providing housing and treatment services. The new initiative by the Department of Safety to effectively deputize civilians to enforce the camping ban and intimidate unhoused folks from setting up tents is a severe distortion of community demands to reduce law enforcement’s role in public health issues and will definitely result in more conflict and escalation. And our organization will be there when it happens.”