DENVER — Protestors gathered outside the Denver Coliseum Saturday morning demanding the city update its Cold Weather Shelter plan. Homeless rights activists said the current plan is inhumane.
Every few days, Amy Beck climbs into the bed of a pickup truck to scope out the food she wants.
Not for herself but for folks living in homeless encampments, including many migrant families.
"A lot of them arrived here and didn't even know they were coming here,” said Beck. “So they step off the bus and they find out they're in Denver."
Beck is a homeless rights activist with the non-profit Together Denver.
"This is a lot of food, but we have a lot of camps,” said Beck.
She's making sure migrant families and others experiencing homelessness have something to eat. Beck is also making sure they stay warm in the cold weather.
"We have to teach them that they have to keep their feet dry and that they have to have gloves that stay dry and that are waterproof,” said Beck. “There are so many things that they need to learn to acclimate to while living in Denver. They're trying to learn this while living in a tent with their children. It is so unfair. It is so inhumane."
Beck said the city's Cold Weather Shelter plan is in desperate need of an update. "We knew there was a high probability that it was going to drop below the threshold, but the city did not activate [Thursday] night,” she said. “They should have activated."
Currently, that threshold is 20 degrees. When it gets that cold, the city opens its warming centers, such as the Denver Coliseum, at 7 p.m. But 12 hours later, at 7 a.m., Beck said everyone gets kicked out of the warming center, put on a bus, and then dropped off at another location in town where they stay during the day.
"They're afraid to get dropped off at the Coliseum with all of their belongings in tow and their kids in tow, and then have to board a bus the next morning, and go to another location that they're unfamiliar with, and then be bussed around. They're afraid of getting separated. They're afraid of being in locations that they don't know. They don't know how they're going to be treated at these locations. Because they don't know, they won’t go to these emergency shelters."
Instead, Beck said migrant families stay in their tents.
"We need to open the shelters 24/7 during a Severe Weather Activation,” said Beck. “That's what folks need, especially the migrant community."
Along with keeping the warming centers open longer, Beck is also urging the city to increase the temperature threshold from 20 to 32 degrees.
“We have got to do something different,” said Beck. “We have to take care of people. It is time to be focusing on the bigger picture and keeping people indoors and keeping them safe."
In the meantime, Beck will continue to make sure that families are fed.
The protest was set for Saturday, Nov. 25 at 6:30 a.m. outside the Denver Coliseum.
9NEWS reached out to the mayor’s office for comment. They sent us this statement:
"We are moving with urgency to help people living on the streets, both those experiencing homelessness and migrants, get indoors as cold weather arrives. There were [homeless] shelter beds available [Thursday] night, and City outreach teams and first responders worked through the night [Thursday] night to connect people living outdoors to those beds, and will continue to visit encampments throughout the weekend to help people get to emergency cold weather shelters. In addition to emergency overnight shelters, Denver is currently operating recreation centers and Denver Public Libraries as daytime warming centers and respite locations. As we continue to work to get as many people indoors as possible, we are always reevaluating our operations to ensure we’re serving Denverites in the best way possible."
For details on Denver’s Severe Weather Shelter Plan and locations to go to stay warm, click here.
SUGGESTED VIDEOS: Latest from 9NEWS