LOCAL STORY VICKI SPENCER, WHO SAID SHE HAS BEEN HOMELESS IN GRAND JUNCTION FOR ABOUT 20 YEARS, SPEAKS AT PUBLIC COMMENT AT THE CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING ON NOV. 25. | PHOTO BY BETHANY COCHRAN HOMELESSNESS IN GRAND JUNCTION: A STATE OF EMERGENCY BY JACOB RICHARDS OUTSIDE THE SPECIAL MEETING held by the Grand Junction City Council on November 25, Melissa Lujan showed off a pink slip of paper. “Twenty-one of us were ticketed today,” said Lujan. “We have nowhere to go. That’s why I’m here.” “[The police] might be taking my things right now, but things have to be said,” Lujan explained. “Other people would be here, but they are worried about more harassment.” The “ticket” was a formal warning, not a ticket. It was issued by the police and stated that Lujan could not reenter the Unhoused Resource Center for three months. Lujan said she has received 17 tickets since she came to Grand Junction eight months ago from Montrose. The Resource Center is a large event-style tent where the unhoused can get their basic needs met and be connected with other services. Referring to a reaction to outrage sparked by the City of Grand Junction’s closure of Whitman Park in September of 2023, Council Member Cody Kennedy said, “It was a ‘kneejerk’ reaction,” echoing comments from the public at the November 25 special meeting Since the Resource Center opened, more and more people. have taken to occupying the alleys and rights-of-way Center. Many seek to remain close to resources and bathrooms but would prefer not to be in an institutional setting. Council Member Kennedy called the Resource Center a “crack house” in an October 5 article in The Daily Sentinel. Business owners also complained, and the fate of the Resource Center was up for debate. Forty people spoke during public comment. Most wanted the Resource Center to remain open. Many asked the city to reopen Whitman Park, and a few pointed out the need for more housing and shelter beds. The Council voted to amend the lease the City has with the Resource Center, shortening it by a year – including the rights-of-way into the lease – so that the facility can prevent people from loitering and camping outside, and reducing the “cure period” for the facility to fix any violations of the lease from 30 days to 15 days. Bill Wade, executive director of Homeward Bound of the Grand Valley, the nonprofit that operates the Resource Center, also presented several changes they are making, which will include limiting the number of people that can be outside, closing the Center for lunch, and requiring swipe card access to limit the number of people coming and going from the facility. These changes will move more people outside of the facility and into the neighborhood, where conflicts with businesses and residents happen. “Where are they going to go?” asked Council Member Scott Beilfuss. Beilfuss has long advocated for housingbased rather than displacement-based strategies to solve homelessness. “We are all owning this. The state’s not helping anymore, the Feds aren’t helping anymore,” said Beilfuss. “We need some help. We need to declare a state of emergency for homelessness for the winter,” Beilfuss said. Vickie Spencer is 61 years old and has been homeless in Grand Junction for the past 20 years. She struggled to get her wheelchair to the microphone. “Please don’t close the Resource Center. And please give us our park back … And let us put up tents so we can stay warm and not die on the streets,” pleaded Spencer. Spencer was also among the 21 people ticketed for camping near the Resource Center. “I don’t know where I’m going to sleep tonight, but I made a choice to come to this meeting,” she said. “It wears you out, having to hide from the police. I need resources; I can’t walk all over town,” she said. • In the days after the meeting, Spencer, Lujan, and the other occupants of the encampment who were ticketed relocated to just across the road from the Resource Center. 6 DENVER VOICE January 2025
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