Colorado Springs’ mayor defends decision to restrict homeless at two city parks

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision earlier this week to decline hearing an appeal of a lower court's decision supports Colorado Springs' legal authority to enforce its homeless camping ban, Mayor John Suthers said Thursday.

The appeal, filed by plaintiffs in Boise, Idaho, sought to overturn an appellate court's ruling that such bans are unconstitutional and illegal.

However, Suthers -- a former Colorado attorney general who said he has followed the case closely -- emphasized that the ruling applies only in communities having a shortage of beds in homeless shelters.

"What has to happen is we have to have parks that people want to be in, and that means not having homeless camping there," he said. "And if we have the homeless pretty much taking over a park and depriving people of it, we're going to enforce no-camping bans."

Suthers said increased resources during the past year has raised the number of shelter beds to 670.

"That has been enough to handle even our worst winter storms such as the bomb cyclone last March," he said. "We can offer the homeless more beds. If they don't want them, they don't have to take them. But we'll move them along and close down their camps."

This summer, the city fenced off two pavilions at Dorchester Park, just south of downtown, and, more recently, used cables to restrict access to the picnic shelter at Antlers Park, on the western edge of downtown.

The fencing has essentially closed Dorchester Park but the Antlers Park pavilion can be used someone acquires a permit.

Both parks are small have been overrun with homeless people loitering and sleeping in them, trespassing after hours and trash.

Suthers said city leaders are formulating a master plan for downtown parks that may include redesigning them, but Dorchester Park's time may be running out.

"Unless something drastic happens, it won't continue to exist as a park," Suthers said. "We've had suggestions such as turning it into a dog park or making it a site for affordable housing."

While Dorchester Park attracted dozens of homeless people daily, neighbors of Antlers Park said no more than two dozen occupied the park daily in warm weather, and no more than a dozen in cold weather.

Micah McDougle, director of the nearby Paul Mitchell beauty salon school, looked at the cables and signs around the Antlers Park pavilion and said he has mixed feelings about the situation.

"We know it's a very complicated issue," he said. "It's not something that we want to push people out of, but it's also something that we have to make sure it's a safe area."

McDougle said the issue could potentially affect him and a handful of surrounding businesses unless there re more efforts to find a solution.

"Maybe if we could get a trash dumpster and some portable restrooms down here, this area wouldn't look so much like a hangout for the homeless," he said.

Two other people believe restricting the parks is the wrong approach.

"It's disconcerting," said Tom Noonan, a homeless advocate. "I have no idea what happened to the people who were sleeping at Antlers Park. And why is it that parks is nicer areas of town get fixed right away, but they don't here and elsewhere on the southeast side?"

Lawrence O'Daniel, 56, said he was among the homeless people sleeping in Antlers Park.

"Not everyone can get into a shelter," he said. "You move us from here, we'll just go somewhere else. We have to stay somewhere. I think it'd be a better situation if people got to know us. Then we could all work together to find a solution. Restricting parks doesn't hurt just us, it hurts the entire community."

O'Daniel said he plans to start a group -- called Street People, Unite! -- that will allow the homeless to speak as one voice, and be better heard and understood by the public.

Another park that has been affected by homeless issues is Bancroft Park, on the city's west side. The park's bandshell was damaged by a fire, possibly from homeless people trying to stay warm.

The bandshell has been repaired and the city is spending $550,000 to upgrade the park.