homelessness

Camping Ban Proves to be Counterproductive and Cruel

queerwithoutborders — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 22:14:53 +0000

Survey finds law criminalizes activities necessary for homeless survival without providing alternatives.

The Report:
The Denver Camping Ban: A Report from the Street

Press Release:
Camping Ban Proves to be Counterproductive and Cruel

Videos:
Denver Commission on Homelessness and Report Release Events

Denver Homeless Out Loud (DHOL) is a coalition of individuals and organizations working hand-in-hand with and for the homeless on the impact of the “Urban Camping” Ban. The “Urban Camping” Ban authorizes the police to require the homeless go to a shelter or move along whenever they are caught protecting themselves from the elements or face criminal sanctions. The ordinance went into effect on May 28, 2012. DHOL works to insure that Denver’s homeless community has access to public space, adequate services, and a political voice in the City of Denver.

It's No Crime to Be Poor; Let's Keep It That Way

tina braxton — Sun, 06 May 2012 19:46:58 +0000

There are plenty of reasons why a homeless person might actually prefer not to go to a shelter--contagious diseases, tainted food, sex offenders, abusive practices by shelter staff, and better alternatives, like sleeping in one's own car. Despite all these, shelters remain continuously full, and people are turned away every night of the year. That's because there are so many homeless--more than 12,000 in Denver alone.

Homelessness is one of the few "growth trends" in our present economy. And it is, indeed, a purely economic phenomenon. Nobody chooses to be homeless. Kerouac was talking about low-budget tourism--a very different thing. This is not tourism, not a vacation, not camping. Let's be clear about that.

The three leading causes of homelessness are job loss, the high cost of housing, and break-up of a family. Mental illness and substance abuse do not cause homelessness. There are plenty of people who have these problems and yet have a roof over their heads. They have housing for the same reason you do. Either they have the money to pay for it, or someone who has the money is willing to provide a home for them. Those are the only reasons why anyone has a home.

Denver O22 reportback: Taking back the streets to remember Marvin Booker

spamsucks — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 03:31:04 +0000

In communities across North America October 22nd has become a day to commemorate victims of police repression and violence. For many communities, October 22, 2010 took on a more urgent meaning in the wake of severe police repression and violence that has plagued cities large and small. In Denver, this year's October 22nd event saw a rise in hostility towards the cops and an increased militancy from years' past.

Throughout 2010, police in the metro area have repeatedly made headlines with horrific acts of violence directed at community members. Ranging from allegations of sexual assault, rapes of children, murders, and beatings, news stories have painted a picture of a department that is clearly running amok and waging war on the residents of Colorado. Offending officers are rarely held accountable and department leadership deftly sweeps incidents under the rug to stave off an increasingly angry public.

One of the most violent and high profile incidents occurred in July. Denver Sheriff's Deputies serving as guards at the new Denver Justice Center murdered 56 year old Marvin Booker, a homeless preacher being held as a prisoner at the jail. Marvin had asked for access to his shoes before he would comply with orders to return to his cell. In response, five deputies tackled him, placed him in repeated choke and pain compliance holds, tasered him, and beat him. Marvin died shortly after the attack. While the local coroner deemed the death a homicide, the DA announced in late September that no charges would be filed against any of the officers involved.

Homeless Demand Action, Will Occupy

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 03:29:19 +0000

Grand Valley Homeless Children Need Day Shelter

On Wednesday, September 1, at South 9th St. and the railroad tracks (631 S. 9th St.), Housing First! No More Deaths!, homeless families and other supporters are holding a demonstration to demand action for homeless families. As wonderful of a community as Grand Junction is, there remains a void in services provided to homeless families with children. If this need can not be met before the cold weather of winter comes to the Grand Valley, Housing First! No More Deaths! is ready to take action.

There have been around 500 school-age children identified as homeless in District 51, and there are many more homeless babies and toddlers. There is no designated space in our community for homeless families, some of the most vulnerable members of our community, to safely spend time during the day.

The Catholic Outreach Day Center provides space for homeless adults to do laundry, receive mail, and have shelter from inclement weather during the day. But the Day Center has exhausted their resources and are unable to allow children in their facility. This means that Grand Junction’s homeless children and babies are left out in the elements, and single mothers and fathers are left with nowhere to do laundry or access the Day Center’s other services.

GJ Police Admit Guilt

Mon, 31 May 2010 20:56:30 +0000

On May 7th three GJ Police Officers were placed on administrative leave following allegations that police slashed tents, bike tires, and other things at a well-established houseless camp. Over three weeks later the police remain on leave as the investigation dragged on. But on Saterday May 29th GJPD dropped eleven brand-new tents to The Bad Water Flats Collective house where member of Housing First! No More Deaths! could then distro the tent to the victims. We view this as an admission of guilt and we expect further consequences in the future.

Loca Media Round-Up (so far)

NBC 11: http://www.nbc11news.com/localne...

Daily Sentinel: http://www.gjsentinel.com/breaking/articles/police-give-tents-to-transients-as-part-of-misconduct-probe

CBS 5: http://www.krextv.com//index.php/site/article/grand_junction_police_give_new_tents_to_homeless/rex779192/

Three Officers on Administrative Leave For Slashing Homeless Camp

Thu, 13 May 2010 06:53:58 +0000

<code>Three Grand Junction Police Officers were placed on administrative leave on Friday May 7th under allegations of damaging homeless peoples’ property. The officers are under criminal investigation by the Mesa County Sheriff’s Department and under internal investigation at the PD.

On Monday May 3rd, GJ Police Officers were in the area of a well-established homeless camp near the confluence of the Gunnison and Colorado Rivers. Some residents were denied access to the area by the police during their visit. No known residents were in their camps at the time. Residents later returned to slashed tents, scattered belongings and slashed bike tires. On Wednesday, Jacob Richards, long time Red Pill editor and contributor and Housing First! No More Deaths! activist, filed a complaint about the incident. By Friday, three officers were placed on leave. The story was picked up by all local media outlets, the Denver Post, and even hit the AP wire.

The fact that the GJPD are conducting an internal investigation and the Sheriff’s Department is investigating the matter criminally indicates that the powers-that-be may actually be taking this seriously.

Criminalization and harassment of the homeless is nothing new to Grand Junction. Police officers and the law itself target the homeless. The City attempted to virtually illegalize flying a sign in the city in the summer of 2009 as an emergency ordinance, but was shut down by the power of the people. In July of 2009, two undercover GJ police officers were ousted from the organization Housing First! No More Deaths!. Panhandling within a median began became illegal in the fall of 2009, and overnight Colorado West Park became a median without any formal process.

As odd as it may seem, the system might actually bring some form of justice for the houseless, and some accountability to the GJPD.

Harrassed and Manhandled: GJPD and the Homeless

Sun, 04 Apr 2010 01:39:01 +0000

Saturday, April 3rd, 5pm. Whitman Park Grand Junction, Colorado

In an all to common of incident, three houseless people were contacted by the Grand Junction Police Department, for nothing more then being in a park frequented by houseless people. Officer Winch approached Juile and Johnny A Martinez and engaged the two in small talk about an incident from the day before in the park. Officer Winch then asked to see a waterbottle that Juile had. She gave it to him. He smelled it and "got pissed saying 'You lied to me.'" said Juile. Officer Winch then said that he wanted to see what was in Julie's backpack, she refused, and according to Julie and Martinez Winch yanked the backpack from Juile and began searching. "That's when he cuffed me," Juile said. They had Juile in cuffs for over half an hour for a drinking in public ticket.

When Juile's partner, Lumber Jack, came back to the park he headed to the public bathrooms where now two officers and a sergeant were talking to Juile and Martinez. "I told them I just needed to go to the bathroom," he said. "Then I told them they have no right to search her backpack. That's when they grabbed me and took me to the ground." Lumber's arm was turning more and more purple.

"He was so verbally aggressive," said Juile. "I asked for a female officer to search me, but he searched me anyway," she added.

After a little over half-an-hour all three people were released all with blue tickets. Julie for drinking in the park, Lumber Jack for crossing a street while intoxicated, and Johnny Martinez for interfering with an officer for refusing to leave while his friends were being manhandled, cuffed, and ticketed.

The High Cost of Making the Bad Guy Pay

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 04:02:00 +0000

By Tom Gomez

Until 2004, Colorado State prisoners were paid $2 a day for our labor, roughly $40 a month. Since that time the Colorado State Legislature, in an attempt to reduce the cost of incarceration while it enacted more laws to lock up more people, for more time, reduced the amount paid to prisoners to $0.62 a day, roughly $13 a month. While the change has made prison conditions harsher, it has done nothing to reduce the spiraling cost of incarceration in Colorado. Despite the change the Department of Corrections budget has grown every year since. Colorado now spends more on prisons than it does on higher education, and there is no end in sight. Last year the DOC population grew by another 2% despite a falling crime rate. At a cost of $30,000 a year for each prisoner it houses DOC is not likely to be able to significantly reduce, or even offset, the high cost of incarceration by such methods as raising the cost of phone time or cutting back on food. Instead state university students and their parents will pay the bill, by absorbing another 9% increase in tuition next year. It will be paid by cuts in services to seniors, by public education, and by the improvised children of the men and women doing time here.

State legislatures across the country have built prisons while cutting funding for education and public health for 30 years now. In the name of cutting the cost of ‘big government’ and getting ‘tough on crime’ they have made prisons harsher, more crowded and dangerous, but not cheaper. Led by ‘tough prosecutors’ who view not only crime, but poverty itself as a moral failing they have given us a nation of tent cities that stretch from sea to shining sea bursting with the nation’s three-million homeless people, and interstates from coast to coast dotted with razor ribbon and guard towers. In many American cities more than half of all public school students will not graduate high school.

The Red Pill Vol. 8 No. 1 SIX YEARS IN PRINT!

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 18:18:33 +0000

IN THIS ISSUE:

Secret ICE Detention Centers

Criminalization of the Homeless in Grand Junction

Top Ten Movies to Watch this Winter

War is Peace: Obama Sends More Troops to Afghanistan

March For No More Deaths on The Streets of Grand Junction

Cointelpro: Black Panther Coloring Book

The Boogers: Music Review

Foreclosures Way Way Up in Mesa County

Read and/or Download This Issue at:

http://issuu.com/gjredpill/docs/...

Grassroots Homeless Organization to March for No More Deaths on the Streets of GJ

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:33:00 +0000

Grassroots Homeless Organization to March for No More Deaths on the Streets of GJ

Local grassroots organization, Housing First! No More Deaths!, will be holding a March for No More Deaths on the Streets of Grand Junction on December 20th. The march will gather at 1pm at Whitman Park and march at 1:30pm to Hawthorn Park. At 3pm at Hawthorn Park the Grand Valley Coalition for the Homeless will be having their annual memorial for those who have died in our community without homes.

“We need to be both sad and angry,” said HF! NMD! organizer Mallory Rice. “That’s why were marching.”

With the economy sinking to new lows, a record number of foreclosures in the community, and a tightest job market in years homelessness is a problem that is not going away.
In 2008, sixteen people died houseless in Grand Junction. In 2007, eleven people died. Many died alone in the cold on the streets of downtown.

“Homelessness is an issue that is not going away. The city has tried to ignore and police away homelessness, and it hasn’t gotten any better. Its time the city becomes part of the solution not part of the problem,” said HF! NMD! organizer Jacob Richards.

Many who will be marching have lost friends and family to the streets of this city. Many are marching in their friend’s memory. Many facing full shelters and the cold streets are marching for their very lives.

“When is the city going to do something?” asked HF! NMD! member Towtruck.

“Cities that have become proactive about the issue of homelessness are seeing amazing results using housing first models,” said Richards. “The real solution for Grand Junction’s homeless problem is housing. We hope the city will soon step up to its responsibility.”

The Occupation Movement: Take Back The Land Call To Action For Mayday 2010

Dirty Hands — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 22:00:15 +0000

The USHRN Land and Housing Action Group is calling for a month of direct actions throughout the country, commencing on May Day 2010 (May 1st, 2010) to reclaim our homes and communities from the banks, speculators, and gentrifiers. Join us by organizing actions in your city and region, designed to meet your own local conditions and needs. We also ask everyone who supports this initiative to spread the word and help the campaign reach the critical mass necessary to effect change.

Building a Movement

A severe housing crisis exists in the United States. All across the country, despite courageous struggles against divestment, land speculation and gentrification, public housing communities are being permanently displaced as developments are razed to the ground. Millions of families have been dispossessed of their homes, wrongly evicted and displaced from their communities by the escalating foreclosure crisis. Homelessness is escalating to levels unseen since the 1930’s as a direct result of the various forces of displacement stated above and economic dislocation from increased automation, deindustrialization, and the globalization of production.

Historically oppressed peoples and women are bearing the brunt of the housing crisis. Working class African Americans in particular are being devastated by the destruction of public housing, evictions from foreclosures, the record loss of home equity, and spiraling homelessness.

GJ Fire Fiddles While Homeless Camps Burn

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 18:54:46 +0000

In journalism, sometimes the story comes to you, envelopes you, and you become part of the story, and you really don't have a choice in the matter. Objectivity is impossible and yet the truth comes out. This is one such story.

The Homeless Go to the Zoo

Couch Potato Revolution — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:43:17 +0000

With the Democratic National Convention coming to town, city planners and police have had to wrangle with questions about the fate of the homeless during late August. Many rumors have spread that homeless people will be removed during the DNC. People have reported incidents of increased police harassment. None have seemed to create a workable plan.

The Red Pill Vol. 6 No 1

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 04:50:08 +0000

In This Issue:

Women in the Struggle: Report-back from the First Encuentro of Indigenous Zapatista Women with Women from Around the World by: Victoria Law

Death on the Streets: Homelessness in the Grand Valley

An Iraq War New Years Resolution

Toxic Mold: A Public Health Battle Ground

Re-Declaration of Independence by the Lakota Nation: A Red Pill Interview with Duane Martin Sr. (Canupa Gluha Mani)

My Mother Wears Combat Boots: A Parenting Guide For the Rest of Us --Book Review--

http://www.gjredpill.org/files/page2_1.pdf

Death on the Streets: Homelessness in the Grand Valley

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 22:09:54 +0000

On December 16th, the Grand Valley Coalition for the Homeless held its annual ceremony for those who died on the streets during the last year. It was bitter-cold despite the bright sun shine, and three inches of snow blanketed the ground. Dozens of men and women gathered early to get into the soup line, The Red Pill was able to sit down with Wild Man a Grand Junction native who has been on the streets for that last year and half.