I don’t blame anyone who’s homeless for trying their best to maintain a shelter, especially in the winter months. That said, something more needs to be done to manage homelessness in Durango, because the damage unregulated camping has done to our trails and forestry is more than a little bit noticeable. After seeing the pattern of city sweeps followed by evermore cleverly hidden campsites, the footprint left by those suffering from homelessness is only getting larger.
Hogsback, Purple Cliffs, X-Rock, Horsehead Gulch and the banks of the Animas River, to name a few. All of these locations and more have served as places for the homeless to congregate and call home – places I used to call home. The biggest complaint has always been the trash. Homes produce trash. People produce trash. Most of us just have a dumpster or trash bin a few feet away, and it really does make all the difference having these conveniences close by.
Unfortunately, our flora and fauna continue to suffer because our city would rather charge the same 50 homeless folk over and over again with the same tired petty offenses than “risk another Purple Cliffs.” But it’s already happened. Purple Cliffs was an unmanaged campsite, and it was shut down, so up shot more and more across the city, each one yielding the same type of mess, the same interaction between unhoused and law enforcement, and the same result. Nothing changes. This has been the theme for a while.
Now, perhaps this wasn’t the intent of the City Council or the city managers, and there’s a good chance I’ve taken this all a little personally, but the results remain the same. I’ve seen well over 100 campsites dug out across the parks and trails of Durango, and no matter how many sweeps occur, no matter how many times the unhoused are told to pack up their tents and “go somewhere else,” those patches of dirt still multiply and the branches remain broken.
When the unhoused asked, “Where do we go?” several Durango Police Department officers and park rangers have replied with some phrasing of, “We don’t have any place for you to go. It doesn’t make sense, but we have to enforce city policy.” Whether that’s meant with apathy or empathy is a case-by-case thing, but it is an acknowledgment that a fault exists. This idea is shared by those who enforce these policies and those navigating them. If we can agree a problem is present, I hope we can agree that something more, or at least different, should be done.
Which brings me back to the trash. We’ve established that our methods for addressing the unhoused are ineffective and/or incomplete. We know that an unmanaged campground failed, and we know that something needs to change. Is it really such a bad idea to have a managed camp? I could, and have, rattled off reasons both moral and financial as to why this city should take a different approach to those in our community facing economic crisis. But if you really couldn’t care less about either of those two reasons, then consider it for the city.
Durango is outstandingly beautiful. It is a tourist destination for a reason, and it has stayed that way through the tireless work of the people who live and work here. Unfortunately, our country is at a tipping point, and it affects Durango as much as anywhere.
Having a managed campsite with a few trash cans around isn’t a bad trade to keep our woods and trails healthy while we navigate these uncertain economic times.
Antonio E. Espinoza is a U.S. veteran who spent several years homeless in Durango. He writes from lived experience and is now an advocate for the unhoused.