Lawsuit challenges Denver's sweeps of the homeless

Burton, a former Marine who has had trouble finding housing despite veterans' rental assistance, compared the city's seizures of the homeless' property with someone walking into a home and taking a television.

Maria Foscarinis, the executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, said she thinks such lawsuits have been bolstered by the U.S. Justice Department's decision to file a brief opposing punishing homeless people for violating public camping bans when there is no room in shelters, in a lawsuit challenging Boise, Idaho's enforcement of its ban, a case her organization is involved in.

The Denver lawsuit says the city, as part of an effort to clear the homeless from areas being gentrified, is violating their constitutional rights to be protected from unreasonable searches and seizures and to be treated equally under the law.

[...] the spokeswoman for the city's human services department, Julie Smith, said the city tries to connect people with services and treatment and typically gives people multiple notices before taking enforcement actions.