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DENVER, COLORADO, July 20, 2023 - Citizens for a Safe and Clean Denver, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to ending unsheltered homelessness and encampments in Denver, welcomed Mike Johnston and his new administration after he was sworn in as Denver’s new mayor this week. The citizens group, a founding member of the North America Recovers coalition, petitioned Johnston, outlining how their vision for the city aligns with his declaration of a state of emergency in response to the city’s growing homelessness crisis. Johnston made the declaration on July 18, his first full day in office.
“We back the new Mayor’s promise to end homelessness in our beautiful city,” said Citizens for a Safe and Clean Denver co-founder Craig Arfsten. “Together, we can provide honest, recovery-oriented solutions for Denver's addiction, mental health, and unsheltered homelessness crisis. Denver has placed a focus on housing affordability since 2005, and we all see the results. It’s time to consider the role that drugs and mental illness play into why someone remains chronically unsheltered.”
The petition describes Denver as a city at a crossroads, with the potential of becoming a beacon of recovery in the Mountain West, or the alarming possibility of following costly, counterproductive failures to address the unsheltered homelessness crisis in cities like San Francisco, Portland, and Vancouver.
Michael Shellenberger, a Greeley, Colorado native, New York Times best-selling author (San Fran-sicko, Apocalypse Never), and co-founder of North American Recovers, endorsed Citizens for a Safe and Clean Denver’s petition.
“Mayor Johnston did not so much as mention the roles that addiction and mental health play in Denver’s crisis during his emergency declaration, a glaring omission,” said Shellenberger. “An effective response cannot ignore the death and destruction wrought by fentanyl and methamphetamine. These dangerous, synthetic drugs are the primary driving factors behind chronic, unsheltered homelessness in Denver and throughout North America. The residents and business owners in Citizens for a Safe and Clean Denver have a clear-eyed understanding of the crisis, and they know that only a recovery-oriented approach can succeed.”
Citizens for a Safe and Clean Denver, in conjunction with North America Recovers, a coalition co-founded by Michael Shellenberger, Tom Wolf, is changing the conversation around homelessness. North America Recovers is a national coalition of community leaders, parents, and recovering addicts who advocate for models that result in addiction recovery, rather than enablement. Over a dozen prominent citizens groups, including Mothers Against Drug Deaths, comprise the coalition.
Shellenberger published San Fran-sicko in 2021 to provide practical solutions to the drug and homelessness crisis impacting many major American cities. Tom Wolf is a recovered addict and San Francisco Bay area resident who educates policymakers on the connections that hard drugs and mental illness have to chronic homelessness, while advocating for treatment and recovery programs that save lives.
To read Citizens for a Safe and Clean Denver's petition to Mayor Johnson, please visit their website.
To learn more about North America Recovers, please visit their website.
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