Some activist groups claiming to represent the homeless seem to spend more time litigating in court than ministering to their needs out on the streets. If the same groups put as much effort into addressing the biggest challenges facing the chronically homeless – addiction and mental illness – Denver’s cityscape might look quite different.

As reported last week by our news affiliate Colorado Politics, a lawsuit that for two years had further constrained Denver City Hall’s efforts to rein in proliferating camps of street dwellers finally was decided in the city’s favor. The action by a Denver federal court reminds us there is no “right to camp.” Attempts to recognize one are a waste of precious time and resources.

In the ruling earlier this month, U.S. District Court Judge William J. Martínez echoed a higher court decision from last spring – and essentially retracted his own finding a couple of years ago – by dismissing the lawsuit by Denver Homeless Out Loud. The suit had alleged Denver violated the rights of the homeless by conducting “sweeps” of encampments on short notice.

As it is, Denver is still stymied by a prior, court-brokered agreement requiring seven days’ notice by City Hall before it clears out an illegal camp, unless health or safety requires quicker action. So, it’s hardly as if “campers” don’t still have legal safeguards – however unwarranted.

Denver needs as free a hand as possible. The camps not only are a blight on the community but also jeopardize the health, safety and even lives of those who dwell in them. They are magnets for rampant drug and alcohol abuse, petty crime and violence. Campers harass passersby and panhandle nearby traffic intersections.

There is no question many if not most of them need help – but not through terribly misguided “housing first” policies that would throw the keys to someone hardly capable of catching them. Indeed, many reject even overnight shelter – not wishing to spend one night clean and sober.

The help they need is treatment for addiction and mental illness. That is the first step for most of them to get back on their feet and hold a job and, ultimately, return to the housing market.

The last thing the street drifters need is more legal buffers that let them keep on camping. Any group that supports that approach is undermining not only the community but also the campers themselves – consigning them to lives of misery or worse.

The latest court ruling falls far short of curbing the camps, of course. But it does at least provide an opening for the many candidates in Denver’s upcoming mayoral race this spring to state publicly what they would do to clear the camps out.

Let’s hear from all the mayoral hopefuls about how they intend to end the siege of Denver by drug- and alcohol-addled drifters and reclaim our parks, medians, off-ramps and the rest of our public spaces.

Denver’s next mayor should push the envelope in aggressively restoring public property to its rightful owners – the general public. A true leader will unflinchingly test the limits of the city’s authority in court if needed and stand up to shrill, bullying “activists” who are more interested in advancing their fringe agenda than in helping the truly homeless.

Denver has a camping ban on the books, and it was overwhelmingly reaffirmed by voters just a few years ago. What it now needs is to be decisively enforced.

Which mayoral candidate will take the lead?

Denver Gazette Editorial Board