VOICES OF OUR COMMUNITY OUR Streets: DJ BY PAULA BARD A FOURTH-GENERATION COLORADAN, DJ, lived briefly at Resurrection Village, the tent city north of downtown. “Suddenly, I had the blind light of reality smack me upside the head. I walked out of CU in 1997 with a piece of paper, English Lit, $38,000 in debt, and I went, ‘Well, what do I do now?’ And, yes, I knew there wasn’t going to be a job waiting for me at the end. I wasn’t able to get employment; wasn’t able to get the student loan thing settled down.” “I still have that debt, can’t get a telephone, can’t get anything that’s got any sort of credit required. It’s been so long now, I have no idea what it would be like to go purchase something, get a telephone, an apartment, you know. These are all tied in. They look at that background check, do a credit report to rent you an apartment. “Spent a couple of years down at Denver Health as a prep cook. Staying in a hotel was affordable back then. Now, 90 percent of my income is spent on rent. Or I sleep outside, what’s the choice?” ■ CREDIT: PAULA BARD Author’s Note: In the fall of 2015, just ahead of Colorado’s winter, Denver sent the full force of its police department and SWAT team to destroy five tiny homes that people “living without homes” had built north of downtown. Something in me snapped: Denver is behaving like a bully! Denver has more than 6,000 people without homes, and more than 3,000 trying to survive on its streets. It is an ugly business. In 2012, Denver passed an urban-camping ban making it illegal for the homeless to protect themselves with “any form of cover or protection from the elements other than clothing.” Violations can bring a $999 fine or a year in jail. I began walking those streets where the homeless are trying to survive, photographing the faces and collecting the stories of those my city has abandoned. So began OUR Streets – stories of Denver’s unhoused residents. HOW TO HELP The money we take in from vendors helps us cover a portion of our printing costs, but we depend largely on donations from individuals, businesses, and foundations to help us pay our rent and keep the lights on. DONATE Donations to the Denver VOICE are tax-deductable. Go to denvervoice.org to give a one-time or recurring donation. You can also mail a check to: Denver VOICE | P.O. Box 1931 | Denver, CO 80201 GET THE WORD OUT We rely on grassroots marketing to get the word out about what we do. Talk to people about our organization and share us with your network. Support us on @denverVOICE ADVERTISE Our readership is loyal, well-educated, and socially concerned. Readers view purchasing the paper as a way to immediately help a person who is poor or homeless while supporting long-term solutions to end poverty. If you are interested in placing an ad or sponsoring a section of the paper, please contact us about rates at ads@denvervoice.org. VOLUNTEER We need volunteers to help with everything from newspaper distribution to event planning and management. Contact program@denvervoice.org for volunteering information. SUBSCRIBE If you are unable to regularly purchase a newspaper from our vendors, please consider a subscription. We ask subscribers to support our program with a 12-month pledge to give $10 a month, or a one-time donation of $120. Subscriptions help us cover our costs AND provide an amazing opportunity to those who need it most. Go to denvervoice.org/subscriptions for more information. September 2020 DENVER VOICE 3
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