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Calvin Rolark, 49, who works with the homeless community in downtown Denver, says they have been missing from their usual haunts during the Democratic National Convention. (Photo by Zenitha Prince)
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By Zenitha Prince
Washington Bureau Chief
DENVER (August 28, 2008) - No one can’t say officials responsible for hosting the Democratic National Convention don’t care about the homeless. In fact, it was almost impossible to spot a homeless person on the streets during the week of the convention.
“All our homeless buddies were telling us we weren’t going to see them during the DNC,” said Calvin Rolark of suburban Parker County. “’[They said] we don’t know if they’re going to ship us out of the city but already they’re starting to clear us out.’ “
And so far, that prediction has come true.
“We’d heard the city was going to give them passes to the zoo and passes to the museum to get them off the streets.”
“I can’t say I saw it happen, but I can’t find them,” Rolark explained. He said he’s seen a few working for the convention, but, “the majority of them, we’d heard the city was going to give them passes to the zoo and passes to the museum to get them off the streets.”
Benilda Samuels, a spokeswoman for the Department of Human Services, said the city has “done nothing different with regards to our homeless citizens…. They haven’t been housed anywhere or moved anywhere.” In fact, she said, the city has made a special effort to ensure that that indigent population was taken care of during the convention —30 homeless providers had extended their shelter hours and were also opened during the day. And, they also tried to engage them in the process.
Rolark marvels at his own involvement with the homeless population. “I was one of those people that would look at homeless people and think, ‘Get a job,’” recounted the former Washington, D.C. native. “Once we started spending time with them and getting to know their stories and developing relationships, my entire paradigm about the homeless shifted completely.”
Like clockwork, Rolark and other members of Southeast Christian Church would get together on weekends, put together care packages and take them to the shelter-less men and women finding refuge in Civic Center Park, Triangle Park, Five Points and other areas. “I’ll come down sometimes on a Wednesday and buy 50 hamburgers and some bottles of water on hot days and just hang out,” he said.
In this political season, many of the homeless are being viewed in a different light. There have been several voter registration drives targeted specifically at the homeless. City officials say their interest doesn’t stop there.
The goal of the city’s Denver Road Home program is to end homelessness within seven years, said Samuels, the Human Services representative. She said the city has reduced chronic homelessness by 30 percent and overall homelessness by 11 percent. They have increased the housing stock by 1,243 units for that population. Additionally, 957 families have received eviction assistance and 3,200 homeless people have received employment assistance.
That progress is, to a large degree, attributable to the work of community organizations like Southeast Christian Church, who try to provide basic needs and services on a regular basis. “We asked what they needed and they said socks. Socks were like gold downtown,” Rolark said. “They said, we’ve got to walk, we’ve got to take care of our feet or we’d be really messed up. I can’t tell you how many thousands of pairs of socks we’ve given away at this point.”
The 49-year-old restaurant consultant said he’s been amazed by the impact of the community outreach on the teenagers involved. “They absolutely get it,” he said. “And the best thing that’s happened is that we actually have a few kids now who go out and do their own thing. And they’re not trying to get any attention for it; and they get their friends involved. It’s amazing how we’ve seen those kids lives turned around,” he added. “They’ve realized they’re making a difference.”
Still, he says, more can be done. “Just seeing what they’ve done for this one week—and I know Mayor [John] Hickenlooper has a really nice initiative and there is great cooperation between the city and the churches—but it just seemed to me if they could do this now, how much more they really could be doing to help these folks on a regular basis.”