Inside the blue tent is a young man, maybe 20, munching on snacks on a late Monday afternoon. He entertains a visitor curious to know if he’s heard the city of Alamosa is looking to close the public area where he’s pitched his tent, a homeless camp called St. Benedict, and where he’ll go if the public space goes away.
Yes, he’s aware of the discussion and figures he and others living in tents at the homeless encampment will end up back in the “wilderness” of public lands that dot the landscape of Alamosa County. There are neighboring federal lands and, of course, there’s the Rio Grande levees and areas to tuck away, unseen, and hope for the best.
“It’ll leave a lot of us on the street again and there will be a lot of different people bouncing in and out of wildlife. It would put a lot of people in predicaments,” the young man said. He said he’s from Alamosa and has been homeless the past four months.
Across the St. Benedict camp is a woman visiting with her sister. She’s trying to figure out whether to move the tent she’s at to another location in the camp area for a change of scenery. She’s also aware of the discussions around closing St. Benedict, and thinks maybe it’s a good idea since people don’t clean up their campsites and maybe don’t deserve to have St. Benedict. People will figure out where to go if it closes, she reasons, but most likely she said, it’ll mean more people on the streets.
There are 38 individuals camping this week at St. Benedict, according to La Puente Executive Director Lance Cheslock. The homeless camp has been operational since 2020 and is jointly operated by the city of Alamosa and La Puente.
But the city is raising the question of whether St. Benedict should stay open in light of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling this summer that upheld a Grants Pass, Ore., ban on homeless people camping in public spaces. A public meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Aug. 14, beginning at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall, to get community input on St. Benedict.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser has said he thinks there is a misunderstanding around the U.S. Supreme Court ruling and that municipalities like Alamosa have to be careful not to “criminalize homelessness.”
“This case does not, and this has been I believe a misimpression, allow the criminalization of homelessness per se, and the reason I say that is if you had a case where there was not enough shelter opportunity for homeless individuals, there was a ban on parking and sleeping in your car anywhere in the city and there was no public area in the local environment that you could camp if you were homeless, then we’re getting to a situation that meets the description of you’re criminalizing someone being homeless, which I find that to me, a really problematic situation if it were to occur,” said Weiser during a recent taping of The Valley Pod.
Cheslock said the homeless population in Alamosa and the San Luis Valley continues to be at a 10-year low, but still hovers around 100-plus individuals week-to-week. Some take shelter at La Puente, some sleep in their cars or couch surf, and others pitch a tent at St. Benedict.
“We try to keep our spirits up when we talk about it, but we know they’re going to take it away,” the young man in the blue tent said. “Can’t really complain. We’re all out here just trying to survive.”