Life or Death
Winter is here in Loveland, CO, and despite having plenty of time to plan, the City of Loveland has refused to create solutions to keep our unhoused from dying in winter conditions.
They’ve known about the problem. There’s been plenty of pressure to fix it, and now we find ourselves scrambling every day to try to find accommodations that the City is derelict in providing.
These are our neighbors; this is our community.
Normally, when releasing an email, I pull out Copilot and pull it apart. There simply isn’t time. Please read this. Please share it with your friends. Make people uncomfortable. People, real human beings, are already uncomfortable.
The following email is from Jen Castaneda to Loveland City Government
Camping bans, tickets, arrests violations of human rights
Tim and Jim,
I am reaching out today to request that Loveland Police Department is willing to cede and cease and desist with regards to issuing camping ban, loitering, obstruction of sidewalk or public esseways and trespassing tickets for our homeless community members in front of LRC and surrounding areas throughout our city as many have had to scatter to find a safe place to hide from the elements and from the activity of the police officers of LPD. Any unnecessary arrests also have become an issue. Criminalizing humans for exisiting is unwarranted, these areas all to be immediately addressed during this crisis. There is no other shelter in nearby communities that has accessibility for the influx of persons in Loveland. With the number of individuals, families, youth, disabled and even service animals who are unhoused in Loveland and have no where to go, we are talking about 500 to 800 people in Loveland alone… and that number is going to exponentially change and grow over the course of the next 3 to 6 months due to economic constraints evictions and the inability to cover utilities, metro tax increases, property tax increases, insurance increases, medical insurance coverages, food costs and more. The inhumane treatment of our community members who are unhoused is unacceptable. Following the letter of the law is important but when it is a man-made governmental crisis that was created by our government bodies; does not make it right nor does it make it legal or acceptable. In addition, the fact of the matter is officer discretion is still written in to the ordinances pertaining to these and officers do have discretion, therefore, I’m asking for our police chief Tim and his oversight direct manager Jim, to both take appropriate action to cease these tickets and FTA warrants being issued. I will be advocating for our unhoused in the courtroom the entire month of December and January pertaining to all of these tickets that have been issued unnecessarily. Please do the right thing by your community who pays your wages.
Jim, I requested from you to authorize a Red Cross emergency shelter for inclement weather during this next 5 months. I informed you that I did contact the Red Cross pertaining to this crisis and the need for inclement weather emergency sheltering for those in our community. This needs to occur because the voucher program is not accessible to all and is being withheld from many who also deserve a right to survive. I have been in communication with Alison throughout this holiday weekend trying to get these vouchers issued and get people into rooms. I have checked vacancy rates at motels and there are some but for whatever reasons LRC staff has made decisions to pick and choose certain persons to issue those too, many are not being permitted to have access to a voucher. There seems to be little to no communication to those in our community who are unhoused that they have access to obtain a voucher. I contacted Community Kitchen and left a voicemail pertaining to notifying those in our homeless Community utilizing their services that vouchers would be available on Thanksgiving afternoon. The city of Loveland has a responsibility to protect lives of people in this community. For those who may suffer hypothermia, frostbite, complications to health or disabilities and fatality due to the fact that their basic and human rights and needs are not met by the city, there will be future actions taken to hold the city responsible for any deaths incurring due to unwillingness to protect life. We can talk about what taking an oath means to your community and we can talk about how much you get paid to protect this community, we can also talk about the potential for lawsuits and the risk that the City of Loveland is putting themselves in right now by all of the actions that have been wrongfully done to thier community members. We can talk about the waste of money and resources that are being spent to harm this community during a crisis that this city created. Please do the right thing today, inform your staff to cease these actions immediately against your community members. ACLU is being notified an updated regularly pertaining to all of these complex issues. Jim you stated in the meeting that I had with you and folks from Together Colorado that it’s challenging because you receive pressure from all sides and I understand that however, what I think is imperative is to take executive action as the city manager of Loveland. I also think it’s imperative for the other sides of this issue, to understand is that if the basic needs are being met and we can find non-profit partners who are willing to assist in a wraparound services shelter model, the financial burden can be lifted from the city budget, that would be the goal but to make matters worse for everyone involved due to not coming up with a strategic preemptive Plan before making the moves this City government body has chosen has made, opened the city up to extreme risk and the potential for further Financial harm which seems completely unnecessary and all sides on this matter are going to be disappointed by those truths. There are ways to create strategic planning and to bridge the gaps and plug the financial drainage holes by working together and that is what I’m requesting today. We can’t wait any longer because people are going to die and that is unacceptable on all levels.
Jen Castañeda
Loveland Justice League
For The Love Project 
Let Us Vote Loveland
Camp Hope Loveland
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Survivor Literacy 
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