Good intentions gone wrong when Denver Police Department has arrested 10 housing advocates who are building small, single- occupancy houses in the city's Sustainability Park.
According to rawstory.com, activist group Denver Homeless Out Loud started to build small homes at the park to serve as free dwellings for the homeless in the area. The act was also part of their protest against the acquisition of the land by a private developer who will build an apartment complex on the said area.
The group said "Today hundreds of people came out to Sustainability Park in the Curtis Park neighborhood of Denver to build a tiny home village where three urban farms are being displaced to build an apartment development. The group, led by Denver Homeless Out Loud and composed of houseless people and supporters, had been constructing tiny homes and trying to find a location for the village for over a year but due to zoning and code constraints they have not been able to find a legal place to put the houses."
The park was previously a land farmed by a group named Urban Farming Collective, then it was turned to a location for low- income housing units which the Denver housing Authority eliminated to build the park and now the land is being sold to a developer. The group said that the developer's project of "multifamily housing that will support gentrification in Curtis Park" will cause for the rents to go up and make it harder for people to afford it.
In a report by denver.cbslocal.com, the park gates were chained and a 'No Trespassing" sign was put in the gates on Sunday. The police have already demolished the tiny homes inside the park. A homeless man named Kevin Beasley said that the police's actions upsets him. He's been staying in a shelter nearby and he shared his simple wish for their society.
He said "Where a man can wake up, get his breakfast, go to work, make his money, and come home" and he shared some of his previous encounters with police in the area. "I've even had the cops tell me, 'Hey, if you go around this area there are nooks and crannies.' And then another cop comes right back and says, 'Hey, get out of here,'" he said.
Kevin says that he understands why the police had to demolish the tiny dwellings made by the activist group but he's still disappointed. "People need to have hope that they can do something. So to quash something like that in an instant is to rob them of a dream," he added.
Denver Housing Authority refuses to give statements despite of CBS4's efforts to hear their side.
What can you say about the city authorities' move of selling the park? How about removing the small dwellings inside it? Share it in the comments!
