Tents are gone, but homeless camping remains

Covering nonprofits and regional social service agencies

June 10th, 2010, 3:42 pm · 8 Comments · posted by Barb Cotter

The tent cities of Colorado Springs might have disappeared, but homeless campers haven’t.

“There are still quite a few people out there. They’re not just as visible,” says Officer Brett Iverson with the Colorado Springs Police Department’s Homeless Outreach Team.

Iverson said most of these people are ”cowboy camping,” meaning they’re sleeping on bedrolls and moving from place to place, instead of putting up a tent and calling it home.

“All the big camps are gone. There are no more,” Iverson said Thursday.

He and his colleagues have noticed some new faces among the homeless campers, but he said many of them are people who are on their way to somewhere else, and are just staying here until they have the means to move on.

Estimates on how many people are still camping vary. Iverson estimates that 100 people are living on the streets; Bill Lawson, a private citizen who blogs about homelessness and works with the homeless population, puts the number at 400 to 500 — a discrepancy that I’m trying to reconcile.

In any case, the HOT cops are still trying to work with homeless campers to get them into programs that would help them become self-sufficient.

“There’s still a lot of work to be done as far as we’re concerned, but it’s nothing like the 500 who were out there,” Iverson said.

A no-camping ordinance that took effect in March has helped the HOT cops clear out the tent cities. The ordinance gave them the authority to issue citations for camping on public land, but Iverson said that so far, they’ve only had to issue written warnings.

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8 Comments

Matt Parkhouse says:

June 11, 2010 at 12:31 pm

This dynamic has been going on since the Reagan Administration: Back then it was Mitch Snyder shouting about the “Two Million Homeless” while Reagan’s minions were stating: “There’s only a quarter million of ‘em”. At least now we are providing services whilst we argue numbers. I lean toward agreeing with the HOT cops’ estimate of “around 100 people”. There sure are not 500 out there. The Marian House Soup Kitchen has recently bumped DOWNWARD its estimate of the percentage of homeless people served the daily lunch.

We HAD an opportunity to place a system of community case management in place that could have identified EVERYONE in need and guided them to the necessary services. For a variety of reasons, our “homeless industry” has chosen not to make use of this proven system. We have what we have here because we SUPPORT it.
The New Homeless « Main Street says:

June 15, 2010 at 8:50 am

[...] springing up across the country. Apparently the media lost interest in that story. Some cities have eliminated the tent cities. In Colorado Springs: A no-camping ordinance that took effect in March has helped the HOT cops clear [...]
patchsl says:

June 16, 2010 at 12:33 pm

The no-camping ordinance had the effect of motivating many to find jobs and housing, or take a bus ticket to return to families or friends.

Some have shown that no amount of help will motivate them to change – they choose to live “rough”, rather than conform. Quite a few were housed and fed, and chose to fight the rules at Express Inn, resulting in their expulsion. Now, Patrick Ayers, misguided “homeless activist”, is soliciting them to sue the Good Samaritans that tried to help…. very sad way to pay back Karl and Theresa’s kindness.

Soft-hearted, soft-headed bloggers, like Lexiii and Manitou Mom, said passing the ordinance would result in all kinds of bad things happening… the only bad thing that happened is that the enabling organizations continue to hand out fish (daily) and resist a coherent, coordinated approach to give fishing lessons (job training coupled with personal accountability).

Some in our community talk of how they’ve been handing out fish for 30 years… and wear it as a badge of honor… rather than consider it the definition of insanity it is… doing the same thing, over and over… expecting different results…

The only thing that works is work… and you can’t work until you sober up, clean up, and make yourself fit for work…until we accept that truth, we’ll continue to try solutions that won’t work…
elizabeth sapp says:

December 9, 2010 at 2:00 pm

i do not understand why the city cant put some of the homeless people who are not into drugs or alcohol move into some of these houses or apts that nobody is renting ??the shelter on sierra madre is far from being a good resource for the homeless because it is not as sanitary and clean as they want you to believe and their are also some women there that have access to clean water and a shower but they do not take the time to take a shower and the people who work at the shelter do not clean the place like it should and people can get things that are hard to get rid of.
Suicide Clean-up says:

October 11, 2011 at 6:51 am

Suicide Clean-up…

[...]Tents are gone, but homeless camping remains – The Safety Net : Colorado Springs Gazette, CO[...]…
Camping Gear List says:

November 22, 2011 at 2:04 pm

Camping Gear List…

[...]Tents are gone, but homeless camping remains – The Safety Net : Colorado Springs Gazette, CO[...]…
tents says:

March 28, 2012 at 2:43 am

tents…

[...]Tents are gone, but homeless camping remains – The Safety Net : Colorado Springs Gazette, CO[...]…
linkbuilding service says:

April 12, 2012 at 1:05 am

linkbuilding service…

[...]Tents are gone, but homeless camping remains – The Safety Net : Colorado Springs Gazette, CO[...]…

Matt Parkhouse says:

June 11, 2010 at 12:31 pm

This dynamic has been going on since the Reagan Administration: Back then it was Mitch Snyder shouting about the “Two Million Homeless” while Reagan’s minions were stating: “There’s only a quarter million of ‘em”. At least now we are providing services whilst we argue numbers. I lean toward agreeing with the HOT cops’ estimate of “around 100 people”. There sure are not 500 out there. The Marian House Soup Kitchen has recently bumped DOWNWARD its estimate of the percentage of homeless people served the daily lunch.

We HAD an opportunity to place a system of community case management in place that could have identified EVERYONE in need and guided them to the necessary services. For a variety of reasons, our “homeless industry” has chosen not to make use of this proven system. We have what we have here because we SUPPORT it.

The New Homeless « Main Street says:

June 15, 2010 at 8:50 am

[...] springing up across the country. Apparently the media lost interest in that story. Some cities have eliminated the tent cities. In Colorado Springs: A no-camping ordinance that took effect in March has helped the HOT cops clear [...]

patchsl says:

June 16, 2010 at 12:33 pm

The no-camping ordinance had the effect of motivating many to find jobs and housing, or take a bus ticket to return to families or friends.

Some have shown that no amount of help will motivate them to change – they choose to live “rough”, rather than conform. Quite a few were housed and fed, and chose to fight the rules at Express Inn, resulting in their expulsion. Now, Patrick Ayers, misguided “homeless activist”, is soliciting them to sue the Good Samaritans that tried to help…. very sad way to pay back Karl and Theresa’s kindness.

Soft-hearted, soft-headed bloggers, like Lexiii and Manitou Mom, said passing the ordinance would result in all kinds of bad things happening… the only bad thing that happened is that the enabling organizations continue to hand out fish (daily) and resist a coherent, coordinated approach to give fishing lessons (job training coupled with personal accountability).

Some in our community talk of how they’ve been handing out fish for 30 years… and wear it as a badge of honor… rather than consider it the definition of insanity it is… doing the same thing, over and over… expecting different results…

The only thing that works is work… and you can’t work until you sober up, clean up, and make yourself fit for work…until we accept that truth, we’ll continue to try solutions that won’t work…

elizabeth sapp says:

December 9, 2010 at 2:00 pm

i do not understand why the city cant put some of the homeless people who are not into drugs or alcohol move into some of these houses or apts that nobody is renting ??the shelter on sierra madre is far from being a good resource for the homeless because it is not as sanitary and clean as they want you to believe and their are also some women there that have access to clean water and a shower but they do not take the time to take a shower and the people who work at the shelter do not clean the place like it should and people can get things that are hard to get rid of.

Suicide Clean-up says:

October 11, 2011 at 6:51 am

Suicide Clean-up…

[...]Tents are gone, but homeless camping remains – The Safety Net : Colorado Springs Gazette, CO[...]…

Camping Gear List says:

November 22, 2011 at 2:04 pm

Camping Gear List…

tents says:

March 28, 2012 at 2:43 am

tents…

linkbuilding service says:

April 12, 2012 at 1:05 am

linkbuilding service…

The Safety Net

Covering nonprofits and regional social service agencies