It makes a really difficult situation even more difficult, and there’s no reason for it,' explains 46-year-old Jeni Shurley, who has been homeless on and off since 1996. 'I would like to see the criminalization of our lifestyle stopped. 'They’re doing it without regard for whether people can actually access shelter in the city and, really, without regard to the kind of weather outside.'įiled in Boulder County District Court, the lawsuit alleges that the ordinances and the enforcement of the laws violate the Colorado Constitution's sections on cruel and unusual punishment, state-created danger and the right to use public space. The purpose of them is to target unhoused people and to try to exclude people from public space in Boulder,' says Annie Kurtz, an ACLU of Colorado attorney working on the case. 'The city is enforcing ordinances pretty much just against unhoused people. The lawsuit names the City of Boulder and Maris Herold, the Boulder police chief, as defendants.
On May 26, the ACLU of Colorado filed a lawsuit on behalf of three homeless plaintiffs, two housed residents of Boulder and one organization, charging that the city's camping ban and tent ban ordinances violate the Colorado Constitution.
