A leader in Denver’s efforts to reduce homelessness told city officials that urban camping bans make their job harder and more difficult to get people off the streets.

Given Aurora recently passed its own urban camping ban and Denver has had one in place for years, District 3 Councilmember Jamie Torres asked Metro Denver Homeless Initiative Executive Director Jamie Rife how the approach affects the work they do at the initiative.

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“I think it actually makes things more difficult,” Rife said during a Denver City Council Safety, Housing, Education and Homelessness Committee meeting Wednesday. “As we’re trying to rapidly house people – specifically people staying outdoors and move them directly from staying outdoors to shelter – when their availability comes up for a housing resource, if there are camping bans or sweeps or anything like that, it actually makes connecting with person more difficult because we don’t know where they’re staying.”

Rife added: “We have outreach workers that are building relationships, working really hard, and then when things like this happen, it does make it more difficult to outreach to people, as well as connect them with services.” 

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Rife presented a report the initiative released earlier this year, which noted the drastic increase in homelessness the metro area saw throughout the pandemic. The committee heard from Rife at a time when housing costs have skyrocketed, pricing out folks, while inflation is also soaring amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The report showed that people of color represent a disproportionally high percentage of the local homeless population and that the number of people using emergency shelters on a given night in the metro area increased 40% last year. This came as the number of people experiencing homelessness nearly doubled for the first time.

Councilmember at-large Robin Kniech asked if the initiative can collect data regarding the LGBTQ homeless population, which she said is typically hard to find for adults. She asked if it is possible to add questions on this issue to future surveys the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative conducts.

“We can’t respond to what we can’t identify,” Kniech said.

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Rife said the initiative is always open to collecting more data and adding questions that would yield more insight, and added she would follow up with Kniech.

Rife also said her group will host a second annual Regional Convening on Homelessness event from 8:30-10 a.m. on April 5 via Zoom, which aims to update elected officials on progress with the Built For Zero program, as well as veteran homelessness.