COLORADO SPRINGS — Colorado Springs has postponed voting on a plan that could make it easier for the city’s homeless to keep possessions such as prescription drugs during periodic sweeps of homeless encampments.
The City Council decided Tuesday to delay the vote until police and a city-sponsored nonprofit, Keep Colorado Springs Beautiful, meet again with homeless advocates later this week, said Patrick Ayers, a representative for the Catholic charity Pax Christi.
Homeless advocates say the plan, which would take effect March 1, still does not address all their concerns.
The proposal was drafted after homeless advocates alleged that KCSB, accompanied by police, confiscated or trashed property of the homeless during cleanup sweeps of campsites.
The complaints led to a moratorium on cleanups in October. If passed, the plan, developed by police, the city and homeless groups, will allow cleanups to resume but give the homeless notice as well as a chance to collect belongings from the city.
It also would require mental-health outreach workers to accompany cleanup crews to communicate with the homeless, two-thirds of whom are mentally ill, said Robert Holmes, executive director of Homeward Pikes Peak, a federally funded homeless organization.
Charles “Gunny” Ross lives in a tent on the banks of Fountain Creek. He says he returned from lunch one day at a soup kitchen to find his camp had been ransacked, most of his belongings gone. Ross blamed the police and KCSB, a state affiliate of the national environmental organization Keep America Beautiful. “I had a tent stolen, clothes, personal items,” said Ross, 49, who said he is a veteran of the Gulf War.
“They took pictures of my kids and grandkids. They’re irreplaceable,” said 51-year-old Karen Noble, Ross’ fiancee and tent-mate who said she is a former Air Force major who also served in the Gulf War.
Ross and Noble started camping by the river in September when Ross’ job as a construction day laborer ended. “Other camps up and down the river were hit,” Ross said.
“It’s frustrating, it’s angering, it’s demoralizing. If you’ve ever had your house burglarized, you know what that feels like.”
As part of a nationwide survey overseen by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Colorado Springs, population 360,000, reported 1,300 homeless in January. Holmes said the actual number is closer to 2,200, or 10 percent more than last year, and he blamed the increase on the recession.
Last fall, the Colorado Veterans Alliance, an organization dedicated to assisting Colorado veterans, threatened litigation over what it called police-supervised “raids” it alleged were carried out under the guise of cleanups by KCSB. Initially, seven victims came forward with complaints, but the alliance collected more affidavits, said spokesman Rick Duncan.
Parts of the last cleanup on Oct. 11 were caught on video posted to YouTube. It apparently shows court-ordered community service workers assigned to cleanup duty with KCSB confiscating personal belongings. One worker is shown searching a suitcase.
Crews seized ID cards and military discharge papers, service medals and prescription medications, said Duncan, a former Marine captain who served three tours in Iraq before founding the alliance.
Colorado Springs police say they don’t take personal possessions.
