Cleanup sweeps suspended while city studies law

Colorado Springs will suspend publicly financed cleanups of homeless camps until the city can clarify legal and ethical issues surrounding the monthly sweeps, Mayor Lionel Rivera and other city leaders said Thursday.

Part of what's at issue: whether the city has the right to remove blankets, sleeping bags and other belongings the homeless keep on public lands - and whether it's appropriate to exercise that right.

"Is it gray? Are we OK to do it? Even if it is OK, should we?" Rivera asked at a public meeting at the Gold Hill police substation in west Colorado Springs, summarizing issues to be addressed before the cleanups continue.

The meeting was called in part to address stinging criticism from the Colorado Veterans Alliance, which alleged at a news conference at City Hall this week that the sweeps violated the rights of the homeless because, the group said, their belongings were illegally searched and sometimes tossed out with the trash.

Veterans' papers, service medals and medication have gone missing in the cleanups, the group charged, saying it had gathered affidavits from homeless veterans and plans to file a civil rights lawsuit in federal court in Denver.

A notice of intent to sue the city and the group it pays to supervise the sweeps, Keep Colorado Springs Beautiful, was filed Wednesday and set the stage for the legal battle, said the group's director, former Marine Capt. Rick Duncan.

He said he will drop the plans if the city ends what he called illegal activities.

Keep Colorado Springs Beautiful denies the allegations.

Without acknowledging wrongdoing, Rivera and other city leaders pledged to re-examine the homeless camp cleanups while defending their purpose: ensuring that trails and parks are safe for the public and that creek beds and other sensitive areas are free of environmental threats such as trash and human waste.

"If anything we do violates any laws, we welcome a court test to determine what should be done instead," said Deborah Cunningham, executive director of Keep Colorado Springs Beautiful.

Cunningham said she routinely reaches out to the homeless during the sweeps, offering to arrange trips to the homeless shelter and calling 911 when someone appears to be suffering in the cold or in need of urgent medical care.

Several speakers said Keep Colorado Springs Beautiful has been unfairly targeted for its role in filling the terms of a contract with the city to clean up litter at homeless camps, parks and arterial roads.

The nonprofit - active since the late 1980s - received $45,000 in public money last year. Cunningham, the only full-time employee, supervises volunteers and juveniles sentenced to perform community service by municipal court.

"Keep Colorado Springs Beautiful does basically what the contract calls for and what we ask them to do," said City Councilman Jerry Heimlicher.

Although he said he believes criticism of the program has been "blown out of proportion," Heimlicher said he welcomed a discussion about the rights and well-being of the homeless, adding that a lawsuit could produce the "silver lining" of clarifying what he characterized as ambiguous legal territory.

City code makes it illegal for homeless people to settle on public or undeveloped lands.

Since 1998, Keep Colorado Springs Beautiful has led 120 homeless camp cleanups, collecting 5,211 cubic yards of trash, including 1,442 hypodermic needles as well as weapons, drug paraphernalia and other hazards, Cunningham said.

Every month, police escorted workers into areas frequented by the homeless and identified areas to be cleaned, focusing on litter, spoiled food and clothing, bedding and other material that has been obviously abandoned, Cunningham said.

According to Cunningham, anyone inhabiting a camp was asked to leave and given the chance to gather their belongings, which critics dispute.

Camps were searched to ensure there were no safety hazards for the workers and to look for clues as to their owners, said Colorado Springs Police Chief Richard Myers. Anything deemed of value was collected and could be retrieved from police, he said.
Several people disputed that account.

Robert Moran of The Street Church said he receives complaints every weekend during a Saturday and Sunday meal and service with about 150 homeless people. He said they complain that bedding, sleeping bags, medicine and other important possessions disappear - even possessions that are relatively new.

Moran also disputed that advance warning is given, saying many homeless return to find the possessions have been raided.

"We are very concerned that these people are not being treated as we do other people," said Patrick Ayers, a veteran and member of Pikes Peak Pax Christi.

Thomas Savells, who said he spent 3½ years on the streets before getting an apartment this month, said that during a homeless sweep in February a police officer called him a "scumbag" and refused to allow him to gather his medication before he was rousted from under the Cimarron Street bridge.

After the meeting, Savells was asked to sign a written complaint against the officer, whose business card he still carries in his wallet.

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Contact the writer: 636-0366 or lance.benzel@gazette.com