City to clear out encampment in Baker neighborhood Thursday

DENVER (KDVR) — On Thursday morning, Denver city crews will clear a camp off West 4th Avenue and Kalamath Street in the Baker neighborhood.

Officials estimate about 30 to 40 people are living at the encampment. Fencing will go up at 6 a.m. when the city begins dismantling the camp.

FOX31 was told that many of the campers moved from a larger camp that was cleared near the Lincoln Park neighborhood.

City officials said outreach workers met with people to help connect them with housing, and it will be offered through Mayor Mike Johnston’s “All In Mile High Initiative.” So far this year, about 1,480 people have been connected to housing through the initiative, according to the city dashboard.

The mayor’s office said a seven-day notice was given to people living at this encampment that the cleanup would happen on Thursday.

We are extremely proud of the work we’ve done to help thousands of Denverites move off the streets and into safe, stable housing, and continue to work around the clock to help more individuals move into units as they become available. Last week, we made the difficult decision to close the very large encampment near West 8th Avenue and Navajo Street due to significant public health, public safety and right-of-way concerns. Unfortunately, we were not able to provide All In Mile High transitional housing units to the people who had been living in that encampment due to the large number of people. As a result of that closure, a smaller group of unhoused residents moved south several blocks.

Earlier today, HOST outreach workers visited an encampment near 4th and Lipan to establish a by-name list. The 30 to 40 individuals on that list will be transitioned next week into All In Mile High units. As with past encampment resolutions that involve relocating people from the street to indoor solutions, this afternoon we posted the encampment with a 7-day notice of closure.”

City of Denver

In the statement, the city confirmed that the dozens of people at the encampment will be moved into housing.