The Denver City Council public comment section slipped into chaos on Monday, when the 30-minute session was supposed to end but an organized homeless advocate group pleaded for everyone – including some homeless people – to have a chance to speak to council.

Protocol led all but three councilmembers to leave the council chambers, delaying the meeting for more than an hour.

The weekly public comment section limits 10 speakers to three minutes each, requiring people to pre-register to speak and be called out when their time comes.

Each speaker on Monday talked about homelessness after the council voted to extend Mayor Mike Johnston’s homeless emergency declaration to Nov. 13. The council also voted to add $3,666,000 on a contract with The Salvation Army for additional programming at New Directions, the former Best Western on Quebec Street that is now a government-owned, non-congregate shelter.

Meanwhile, outside city hall, the Housekeys Action Network Denver held a rally, asking for Johnston to keep his promise of housing 1,000 homeless people by year’s end and holding service providers accountable.

“The barriers are vast in terms of the houseless being heard,” Terese Howard, a Housekeys Action Network Denver organizer, told The Denver Gazette. “It takes a lot for us to organize and for people to show up to speak. And when that does happen, they show and won’t be heard. Action was needed for open space for everyone to be heard.”

Those who spoke during public comment cited poor treatment of homeless people and noted spending on homeless initiatives.

Some mentioned the council’s decisions to spend more tax dollars on needs that “shouldn’t be priorities,” citing “housing first,” mental health and the building of micro-communities, perhaps the most controversial strategy Johnston has adopted.

Johnston’s primary strategy is to move homeless people from encampments into shelters, and then work to get them into permanent housing opportunities.

Among those who spoke was Housekeys Action Network Denver advocate Ana Gloom, who told The Denver Gazette she was once homeless.

“We all want housing, we all want out off the streets,” Gloom said. “We’re humans and we understand what it’s like. But send the people who need it. The people who are going to die out there.”

A homeless woman was given 30 seconds of extra time to speak. She talked about her experience on the streets.

The public comment section started at 5 p.m., but things escalated around 5:32 p.m., when the council was supposed to start public hearings.

Yells rang out among the crowd: “You have to let everyone speak!”

Council President Jamie Torres banged the gavel multiple times before councilmembers began leaving the chamber. Meanwhile, the crowd continued to yell and to plead for more time.

Three councilmembers stayed: District 8 Councilwoman Shontel Lewis, and at-large councilmembers Sarah Parady and Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez.

Parady told The Denver Gazette: “I was aware that there were delays getting through security because several of the people speaking use wheelchairs and other assistive devices, which meant public comment moved more slowly than usual, and by the time our very brief window for public comment ended, several had not been able to speak.”

“I knew that these speakers, many of whom are experiencing homelessness, had made a great effort to get to the City and County Building, and it was important to me to hear what they had to say,” Parady said. “I felt it was my responsibility to stay in chambers and listen.”

“It was very powerful and it makes all the difference they are willing to stay and listen to people,” Howard of Housekeys Action Network Denver said of the three councilmembers staying. “Folks stood up and continued to speak. A good amount were homeless people wanting to be heard.”

The council’s protocol for these situations is to leave the chamber until things de-escalate, according to councilmembers.

“This is not the first time it’s happened, and it’s not going to be the last time that it happens,” District 5 Councilwoman Amanda Sawyer told The Denver Gazette. “I certainly understand that they wanted to be heard … But you know, what we did last night was follow the protocol that we have in place because everyone has to receive the same treatment from the government, no matter what it is that they want to say.”

Councilmembers went back to their seats around 6:40 p.m., according to District 2 Councilman Kevin Flynn.

“We can’t have organized groups take over the meeting,” the councilman told The Denver Gazette. “New members weren’t aware that this was the protocol adopted by the prior council. If we did permit it to happen once, then we’re in it for every group that wants to use the floor of council and us as props for their political theater.”

“It doesn’t matter how much I might sympathize or oppose, it has to be consistent.”

More than 50 people were in city hall, according to Howard.

“It was overwhelmingly clear that these homeless people needed to be heard,” she said.

Three councilmembers voted against extending Johnston’s homeless emergency declaration, and some may not be voting for another extension on Nov. 13, Lewis said.

“I will be voting in support of this, but I’ll be honest with you all, you’re slowly losing me,” Lewis told Cole Chandler, the mayor’s senior homeless czar and his team. “When these contracts come to us, I’m having a difficult time understanding what the vision is, where you all are going and how a specific contract feeds into that vision.

“This is just a message for the mayor and his administration generally that I am thirsty for the vision, and I’m having a really hard time finding it,” Lewis added. 

In a previous vote, Sawyer was the only councilmember who balked at Johnston’s emergency declaration extensions.

“The mayor’s office made a mistake in declaring the emergency order before there was the staff to fulfill the emergency order before there was a clear understanding of the budget and what it looks like,” she said.

“You can’t build a plane while flying it,” Sawyer added. 

Councilmembers deliberated about getting better metrics on homeless people for the expected emergency extension vote in November.

District 7 Councilwoman Flor Alvidrez also raised concerns about environmental impact studies for a confirmed micro-community site at 2301 S. Santa Fe Dr., where residents expressed worries about it being near a Denver Radium Superfund Site.

Meanwhile, Gonzales-Gutierrez mentioned the urgency of rental assistance. The council proposed allocating $17.5 million in 2024 for the Emergency Rental Assistance program.

“I think we’re probably starting to see some of the concerns that I had,” Sawyer said of fellow councilmembers. “I think some councilmembers were willing to give the mayor the space to get this started and see where it goes. But at the end of the day, we have a job to do, and we can’t do that job if we’re not provided the information.”