Denver, CO – The largest tent encampment in the city, which sprung up in October 2019, is being cleared early Monday morning as about 60 advocates protest the move.
Unicorn Riot is on-the-ground covering the sweep, with live coverage starting at 5AM.
Residents at the…
Denver, CO – A four-day Race and Homelessness Vigil began early Wednesday morning opposite the Denver City and County Building. It began primarily as a space to educate the local community on how Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) are disproportionately affected by houselessness,…
Minneapolis, MN – On Monday, July 20, dozens of houseless people were displaced and about 20 people were arrested as law enforcement executed an eviction of the eastern portion of a sanctuary tent encampment in Powderhorn Park.
After the raid, Unicorn Riot spoke to community…
Denver, CO – On Thursday morning, Denver city employees including police officers will be telling the more than 100 unhoused people living in the downtown city blocks near the homeless shelters that they need to pack up and move. The city posted notices around the…
Denver, CO – For nearly eight years Denver police officers, public works employees, park rangers, and occasionally inmates have been carrying out and enforcing the Unauthorized Camping Ordinance (camping ban) signed into law by Mayor Michael Hancock during his first term in 2012. When investigating…
Denver, CO – Jerry Burton has been living on and off the streets since around 1983 when he left the Marine Corps. During his periods of surviving outside in Denver, he has received three tickets for violating the Unauthorized Camping Ordinance, also known as the…
Denver, CO – In the afternoon of October 21, 2019, local advocacy group Denver Homeless Out Loud (DHOL), along with other social justice and human rights groups, held a rally outside City Hall to continue to demand that the city government take action in support…
Denver, CO – The contentious ballot initiative 300, or Right to Survive, was voted down in Tuesday’s municipal elections with 81% of votes being against the ballot question. The initiative would have effectively repealed the Unauthorized Camping Ordinance (camping ban) passed in 2012, which criminalizes…
Denver, CO – In less than a month, Denver residents will get to vote on an unprecedented ballot initiative in the United States, which would effectively make it illegal to criminalize people who are without housing. To substantiate I-300, also known as the Right to…
Denver, CO – For at least two years, the city of Denver has been contracting Custom Environmental Services, Inc. (CES) to assist in clearing out camps of people without housing. Unicorn Riot filed Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) requests and received about 50 invoices sent…
Denver, CO – Over the past six months, with the direction of Denver Homeless Out Loud (DHOL), community members gathered nearly 10,000 petition signatures to get the Denver Right to Survive Initiative on the city’s May 2019 municipal ballot.
The ballot initiative asks:
“Shall the…
Denver, CO – On July 9 and 12, 2018, Denver Homeless Out Loud (DHOL), an advocacy group for people without housing, published two videos documenting Denver police and city workers seizing people’s belongings and throwing them away; also known as “sweeps.”
These ongoing sweeps continue…
Denver, CO – The class-action lawsuit against Denver, which claims that the city has been repeatedly violating the constitutional rights of residents without housing, was officially ordered to move forward by Judge William Martínez on March 26, 2018, when he denied the motions for summary…
UPDATE: After seven hours of testimony including over 100 people testifying in favor of the Homeless Bill of Rights and about five testifying against, the bill was voted down for the fourth year in a row with a vote of 10-3.
Denver, CO – For…
Denver, CO – On July 21, 2017, after four years of fundraising, community building, and meetings with politicians and city workers to change city codes, sixteen formerly unhoused Denver residents moved into Denver’s first tiny home village called Beloved Community Village.
However, the village was…
Denver, CO – On Tuesday, November 7, 2017, despite below freezing temperatures and snowfall, daily sweeps of unhoused Denver residents continued.
As usual, Denver police, city workers, and park rangers descended on people keeping warm under blankets and inside their tents and told them to…
UPDATE (8/24/17 at 11:30 AM MDT): On Thursday morning during the press conference outside the Lindsey-Flanigan Courthouse in Denver, Terese Howard spoke to a group of supporters and fellow activists about the city’s back-tracking:
Because of a lot of the public pressure that has ensued…
Denver, CO – On Monday morning, August 14, 2017, Denver Homeless Out Loud, along with other advocacy groups and lawyers, held a press conference outside the Denver City and County Building (City Hall) to shed light on new developments in the class-action lawsuit against the…
Denver, CO – On Friday, May 19, 2017, people living without housing in downtown Denver were approached by police and given the equivalent of eviction notices. These interactions with the Denver police are not new or surprising for unhoused residents, but these most recent interactions…
Denver, CO – On Thursday, April 27, 2017, the United States District Court of Colorado, Judge William J. Martinez, certified class-action status for the lawsuit filed on August 25, 2016 on behalf of unhoused residents in Denver whose rights have been repeatedly violated during the…
UPDATE – 4/5/17: Wednesday afternoon, the jury announced that they had found all three co-defendants guilty of violating the Unauthorized Camping Ordinance. Denverite reports:
Jerry Burton, Randy Russell and Terese Howard were each charged with violating Denver’s ban on urban camping and interference with a…
Denver, CO – For the third year in a row, the Homeless Bill of Rights, also known as the Right To Rest Act, is going to be reintroduced to Colorado’s legislature, the General Assembly. Denver Homeless Out Loud (DHOL) is the bill’s organizational sponsor and…
Denver, CO – After Mayor Michael Hancock released a statement on Saturday, December 10th, about a supposed policy change to the confiscations of people’s survival gear including blankets and tents, over twenty five news outlets have praised him for this apparent temporary winter-month “end” to…
Denver, CO – On Saturday December 10th, 2016, Mayor Michael Hancock “announced a cold-weather adjustment to enforcement of the city’s unauthorized camping ordinance.” After much public outcry from local residents and civil rights attorneys, including a letter from the ACLU, the mayor has finally taken…
Denver, CO – On Wednesday, October 12th, 2016, Judge Craig B. Shaffer’s court room was packed during the first hearing in the class-action lawsuit against the city and county of Denver for violating the human rights of people without housing.
Attorney Jason Flores-Williams filed the…
Denver, CO – On September 21st, 2016, Attorney Jason Flores-Williams filed a Motion for Recusal of Judge Craig B. Shaffer who is set to hear the pretrial of the class-action lawsuit filed on August 25th, 2016, on behalf of people without housing who have had…
Denver, CO – When traveling through downtown Denver, it is impossible to go a few blocks without seeing construction projects for new apartment buildings. Some may see these new developments as necessary improvements for an up-and-coming booming hipster city, however the ones who are being…