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Denver homeless have 24 hrs to clear tents

Posted at 5:58 PM, Mar 07, 2016
and last updated 2016-03-07 19:58:01-05

Even on a rainy cold day, a makeshift tent on the sidewalk is Anne Noel's only cover.

However, her tent has to be gone by Tuesday. The city of Denver has handed out flyers and posted signs alerting the homeless it will be removing tents from the sidewalks as part of enforcing the public's right-of-way code.

Noel, who got the notice from police Monday morning, says living in a tent is her only option.

“We have no other place to go, homeless is homeless,” said Anne Noel who has been living in a tent for the past four months.

Denver city officials declined to go on camera Monday but did say living in tents is considered unsafe, unhealthy and unsanitary. Officials believe this will push the homeless to use shelters and other under-utilized services.

Heather Beck, with Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, says she understands the city's decision but enforcing the code wouldn't erase the problem.

“It’s going to create another problem in a different part of the city," said Beck.

Beck says before removing the homeless, the city needs to create more variety of services rather than the current one size fits all.

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