LOCAL STORY BRUSH REMOVAL NEAR BROADWAY BRIDGE, FEB. 20, 2024. CREDIT: COURTESY OF CHARLES QUIMBY. FENCE GOING UP AT EMERSON PARK, FEB. 26, 2024. CREDIT: JACOB RICHARDS GRAND JUNCTION: BETWEEN A TENT AND A HARD PLACE BY JACOB RICHARDS “ENDING HOMELESSNESS is something everyone can agree on,” said Tom Gomez, currently in transitional housing. “The problem is nobody agrees on how to make that happen.” Grand Junction is the largest city on Colorado’s western slope. With a population of 65,000, Grand Junction also boasts the highest rate of people experiencing homelessness of any city in Colorado, according to the Common Sense Institute. The city has no easy answers, as the community grapples with an estimated 2300 people experiencing homelessness. In the early morning of Feb. 26, contractors began fencing off Emerson Park near downtown Grand Junction. The park is being developed into a “destination skate park.” This closure was not a surprise, unlike the indefinite closure of Whitman Park in September. The park’s closure means that both downtown public parks are closed to the public. “We didn’t even want to be in this park,” said Jade, while repacking her belongings on the sidewalk across the street from Emerson Park. “We liked Whitman because there wasn’t a playground. We don’t want to bother families.” Jade wasn’t sure where she would relocate to. “They don’t want us to be anywhere but their tents,” she said about the recently opened Resource Center, a city-funded project between United Way of Mesa County and Homeward Bound of the Grand Valley. “But where are we supposed to sleep?” Jade produced three trespassing tickets she had received since December, including one for felony trespass. “They are clearing out all the brush below Broadway Bridge; where are all those people going to go?” The Resource Center was “intended to replace and to improve the options and to give that alternative for somebody who’s spending their day times in the park.” said Grand Junction Mayor Anna Stout. But outside of a few weekly events, like Mutual Aid Partners’ Distro Day and Solidarity Not Charity’s (SNC) “Feed,” the sprawling Center is largely underutilized. SNC is a grassroots non-profit that has fed people in parks since 2008, but the organization now feeds folks at the Resource Center. “We are excited to work with the Resource Center and explore its possibilities,” said SNC volunteer David Stuart. “I am so glad I found this place,” said Brandon James Miller. “It’s a lifesaver.” Miller, who is new to the area, said the Resource Center was able to direct him to local resources, including a shelter bed. On Feb. 21, the Grand Junction City Council voted down proposed park rule changes, which included language based on rules passed in Denver and other front range cities that banned setting up tents or structures in public parks. “As soon as we have a place for them to go, you know, I’ll probably support this,” said Grand Junction City Councilmember Scott Beilfuss “Why now?” asked Councilman Jason Nguyen. “If I was sitting as a lay person in the city, with the closure of Whitman, with what’s happening at Emerson—it just feels like we’re consistently on a regular basis trying to push people around,” he said. The “tent ban” was defeated in a 5-2 vote. A surprise to many, including Mayor Stout and Mayor Pro Tem Abe Herman, the only votes in favor of the ban. “We literally just stood up a Resource Center… for people to have an alternative, somewhere they can go… where they can be safe, where they can rest during the day,” said Mayor Stout. “Why did we just do this if that is not meant to be an alternative?” ■ PROTEST SIGN ATTACHED TO THE FENCE AFTER THE CLOSURE OF WHITMAN PARK, SEPT. 14, 2023. CREDIT: COURTESY OF NICOLE INMAN. April 2024 DENVER VOICE 11
12 Publizr Home