‘It’s never been this bad’: Trash, encampments concern families in west Washington Park

DENVER — For months, Norman Brown has been watching homeless encampments and rubbish piles accumulate simply down from his Denver residence on the I-25 off-ramp to Lincoln Road and beneath the I-25 overpass of Broadway. He reached out to Denver7, saying he has turn out to be more and more involved for his household’s well being and security.

“During the last yr, there was loads of buildup of rubbish and trash, which is basically affecting the neighborhood right here,” mentioned Brown, who has lived within the space for seven years. “It’s by no means been this dangerous. And with the wind, there’s loads of particles that flies into the realm. I’ve received a younger household, and during the last yr, it has been troublesome to cope with. [There’s] drug use, crime.”

Brown says every day now, he wakes as much as trash in his yard, and has seen automobiles get flat tires from particles strewn throughout the highway. He says he has been reporting the difficulty to each the town of Denver and the Colorado Division of Transportation (CDOT) for months, however has not seen lasting enchancment.

“If this isn’t resolved, I do know loads of households right here would possibly transfer away, which isn’t going to assist,” Brown mentioned.

Trash and encampments alongside streets, highways, and interstates is a rising downside in Colorado — one which prices greater than $2 million annually to deal with, based on CDOT.

A spokesperson for CDOT advised Denver7 that the company can not filter out encampments till native regulation enforcement has safely eliminated the folks residing there. Even with that, CDOT clears out two to 3 encampments every week, including as much as a number of tons of trash and particles.

“CDOT’s primary precedence is the protection of the touring public and the crews who preserve and construct roads for the thousands and thousands of people that use the transportation system every single day,” mentioned Tamara Rollison, a spokesperson for CDOT. “Crews additionally clear up trash from roadways that automobiles go away behind. Quite a lot of coordination with different companies is required for CDOT to take away homeless encampments on CDOT property.”

Even when an encampment is cleared and trash is eliminated, it’s common for the issue to return shortly after. Brown says metropolis crews cleared one of many camps he had reported on Broadway in late January. Inside every week, the trash had returned and was as soon as once more blowing into his yard.

“Each morning you simply discover, you understand, packets of cigarettes and simply trash in your yard. And when you’ve got your youngsters, toddlers, strolling round and simply choosing it up — it is simply gross,” Brown mentioned. “All this site visitors, the very first thing they see once they meet Denver from the freeway is principally all of the trash. So it’s considerably embarrassing to say I stay in Denver in the mean time as a result of each time I invite somebody, that is the very first thing they see… This isn’t consultant of Denver.”

Experiences of trash or particles alongside state roads, highways, and interstates could be made to CDOT by means of the company’s web site. For metropolis streets inside Denver, experiences could be made by means of pocketgov Denver.