Denver begins cleanup of Zuni Street migrant encampment

A fence enclosed the hundreds of tents lining the blocks around Zuni Street and Speer Boulevard on Wednesday morning as Denver police guarded the area and outreach workers helped the migrants who have been living there get ready to leave.

The city of Denver on Wednesday began the process of shutting down the makeshift campsite that first popped up in October, busing the Venezuelan migrants who had been subsisting on the streets to large shelter spaces or apartment units.

People packed their belongings into big yellow trash bags, some taking their tents with them, others leaving them behind. Workers called it “organized chaos” as they figured out where to send everyone — though a tent that caught fire early Wednesday morning briefly paused that work.

In October, the number of asylum seekers who came to Denver rose significantly, reaching a peak at the time of 3,000. But the numbers haven’t slowed, and as of Wednesday afternoon, 4,394 migrants were staying in city shelter spaces — with hundreds more living on the streets.

Since the first bus of new arrivals to Denver in December 2022, the city has helped 36,059 migrants, the majority of whom are fleeing humanitarian and economic crises in Venezuela. Officials estimate about half decided to stay in Denver rather than move on to other cities.

There are now 10 times more migrants in city shelters than there were when the new Denver City Council members took office a little more than five months ago. At this capacity, Mayor Mike Johnston told council members on Tuesday, the city may spend about $180 million on migrant response in 2024 — about 10% to 15% of Denver’s general fund budget.

With restrictions on how long individuals can stay in city shelters, combined with the influx of people — including some of whom were sent on buses chartered by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott — several hundred migrants have ended up in tents, living on Denver’s streets, with the largest encampment forming at Zuni and Speer.

“The number of people hasn’t slowed down at all and has been going pretty much nonstop for the last month,” said Jon Ewing, spokesperson for the Denver Department of Human Services. “December was a very challenging month to have that many people come in.”

Influx of migrants continues

With the holidays and time off, there already was a staffing deficit. Denver is still working to get a contract approved to hire nonprofits and local companies to provide migrant sheltering and support services, but until that happens, it falls to city staff and the partners.

In December alone, 144 buses dropped off migrants in Denver, according to city data.

City staffers said they have been working with the people living at the Zuni campsite for the past couple of weeks to help them fill out applications for rental housing or to get ready to move into one of the two large city-designated shelters or into the Mullen Home — leased from the Archdiocese of Denver — as a 30-day stopgap to permanent housing. They also helped others who wanted to get to other cities secure transportation.

There were about 300 to 400 people at the site Wednesday, and about 95 had approved rentals, Ewing said. The City Council allocated about $330,000 to the effort to help pay for security deposits and first month’s rent for migrants who are working, and up to three months’ rent for migrants who are not.

The city already runs seven shelters for migrants out of hotels — individuals are limited to 14-day stays, while families can remain indefinitely (a change that occurred in November because of the cold weather). Despite the waiver allowing families to stay inside city shelters without a time limit, it was clear Wednesday that the outdoor campsite served as a temporary home for at least a few families and their children. Part of that could be because members of a family didn’t all arrive in Denver at the same time, Ewing said.

Seeking asylum is legal, though the cases take months or even years to go through the immigration system and get a final decision. To access city services, migrants must have what’s known as an “A-number,” which they are assigned by border officials before they head to their U.S. destinations.

“I need to get to work”

Henry, 57, who spoke on the condition his last name not be used because he was a lawyer in Venezuela and fears political retribution, was one of the people at the Zuni campsite who started sleeping outside after he reached the time limit at his last shelter. His wife and kids immigrated from Venezuela first and ended up in Nebraska, but he’s trying to find work in Denver so he can bring them here to join him.

He chose Denver because he initially was going to stay with someone who lived here, but that fell through. Even though he said he never thought about leaving his country before, “I had to do it because it was necessary.” Henry said he’s grateful for the help he’s received and he wants people to know that Venezuelans are coming to the country to contribute.

“What we want is work, tranquility,” he said. “But first we want work. We don’t want to sit on the streets asking for money.”

Gabriel Bermudez, 51, shared those sentiments. Choking back tears, he said he left his wife and children in Venezuela so he could find a way to make money because there’s no opportunity in his home country, and he had a friend in Denver who told him to come.

“I went through the jungle, 12 countries, 12 cultures to get here — it was a lot of work. It was cold, hard,” Bermudez said.

But the one thing on his mind: “I need to get to work,” he said.

Despite the pledges of housing, Denver’s shutdown of the Zuni encampment to direct people to congregate shelters and the sizable presence of police during the cleanup has been frustrating to advocacy organizations such as the Housekeys Action Network Denver.

The group organized a protest Monday, saying the city wasn’t providing enough resources and housing to match the need and therefore shouldn’t sweep the camp, demanding that it remain a “backup safe space with access to regular community support for migrants in desperate need.” Members also voiced their opposition at the City Council meeting on Tuesday.

V Reeves, one of the group’s organizers, arrived at the Zuni campsite at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday and said the metal fences already had been put up. Reeves was able to get inside and talk to migrants at first but then was asked to go back outside the fence.

“(The mayor) could have decided to do things differently without enforcement today, and that’s really what we’re concerned about,” Reeves said. “There’s so many cops.”