The top headline of the week!
Denver homeless camp features pop-up bar with rentable prostitution tents
By Katherine Donlevy
Published Sep. 14, 2023, 7:44 p.m. ET
It’s Shangri-La for the down and out.
A decked-out, open-air tavern for the homeless that also rents out tents for prostitution has popped up in downtown Denver, according to police.
The pop-up speakeasy — which features lounge chairs, umbrellas and Astroturf — has taken over the sidewalk at 23rd and Champa streets, which the city’s growing homeless population has turned into an encampment.
The tavern outside a tent.
A streetside bar reportedly popped up in a Denver homeless encampment.
CBS
“We’re hearing there was an open bar, sales of alcohol, things like that,” Denver Police Patrol Division Chief Aaron Sanchez told CBS Colorado while surveying the tent city saloon Monday. “We have officers looking into that.”
City officials have received “numerous complaints” about the encampment blocking the sidewalk, forcing pedestrians to walk in the street to pass the block.
One of the tents appeared to have been transformed into a speakeasy, complete with numerous couches, rugs and tables.
There have been complaints that the couches at the streetside bar and surrounding tents are being rented out for prostitution, Sanchez said.
Meghan Shay, an executive at homeless aid group Step Denver, told CBS she noticed the apparent bar herself during one of her morning drives to work.
She said an encampment serving liquor to the unhoused would only exacerbate the city’s homeless problem, citing a report claiming over 80% of the homeless have experienced lifetime alcohol and/or drug problems.
A 2022 report on street mortality showed that drugs and alcohol were the cause of 60% of homeless deaths, Shay said.
コメント