Denver and Colorado Foreclosure Resistance Coalition. He tried everything within his constitutional rights to hold Williams accountable for disarming her voters against the banks. She avoided all attempts to meet publically, privately and debate the issue. O’Connor pressed on tenaciously. He was a pit bull; one that Williams tried leashing with a temporary and unlawful restraining order. Magistrate Catherine Cary sided with O’Connor’s constitutional right to protest and free speech. Cary picked Williams’ faulty restraining order apart, charge by charge. She ruled that as a public official, Williams is subject to public scrutiny and any attempt to silence dissent will not be tolerated in a court of law. O’Connor won the case. I felt sad for Williams as she left the court room. Someone convinced her she was powerful enough to not answer to the people. Her public embarrassment likely resulted from whoever advised her to restrain dissent. This advisor, however powerful, is not her friend. Strangely enough and shortly after she killed HB 13-1249, Williams received an award from the Independent Bankers of Colorado. Don’t let the name fool you, these guys have assets into the billions. Many are listed by the Federal Reserve to have interests connected to the major banks; including mortgage holdings, some in Montbello. One can only wonder if there is an association with Pat Hamill of Oakwood Homes, the top real estate holder in Green Valley/Montbello. Oakwood has the most to gain by redeveloping that prime, near-airport land. It seems someone is using our public officials as patsies, fall guys if you will. Their signature on legislation is quite valuable if you want to make home snatching legal. Following the money revealed that all of Denver is in a downward spiral. A report published by KDVR-Fox 31 in October 2013 stated that Denver was one of the least affordable of the top 25 metro areas in America. In fact, Interest.com gave Denver a “D+” for the required income-to-expense ratio to live here. A “D” means that the average family can only afford the average house when reduced to 80 percent of its original cost. This wasn’t the case just a year ago. Since Hancock has been mayor, the living here has gotten worse for homeowners, according to the team at KDVR. The average interest is rising by 16 percent while income is rising only three percent. We are behind the curve. Annual income in Denver averages $61,453, yet the price of the average home is $286,500. So what’s to stop Denver from
becoming even less affordable than it is now? Currently, nothing. The trend is just the opposite. Montbello’s crisis could soon spread to the rest of Denver, starting with the Five Points area if developers have their way. On December 7, 2013 at The Points Housing Summit and Community Resource Fair held at Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library, Five Points Business District Executive Director Tracy Winchester revealed there are development interests looking to build at least 30,000 new housing units in the Five Points area. Are families who historically own property there complicit in this? What of the senior centers? What of the Platte Valley projects? Once prices rise, citizens fall. With all these Black people being affected in these areas, where is the Denver branch of the National Urban League on this issue? Who dropped the ball? If their main platform is jobs and housing equality, the foreclosure crisis should have sprang them into action like never before. Black folks are estimated to have lost $400 billion of asset wealth in this crisis. That’s catastrophic, especially in Denver, because if homelessness is illegal, but people are losing their homes, there’s only one place to go. According a governor’s office report on the Colorado Prison Utilization Study published at Colorado.gov in June 20, 2013, prison populations in Colorado are expected to increase in the coming years. This comes after a recent tapering off of the inmate population. What is scary is the fact that they never said how they knew there’d be more prisoners in the coming years, only mentioning a recent uptick in the last three months. Sadly, the news came as a relief to those Colorado communities relying on prisons for their economy! That’s right; we have communities that need crime to survive. Empty beds mean empty wallets to many Coloradans. Then it all started to make sense. Follow the money here: Colorado has incentivized prisons, and they need to fill the beds. It is illegal to be homeless in Denver. The homeless are being corralled into tighter spaces and drug use is on the rise among the chronically homeless, so they’re using, getting busted and sentenced. More than 25.4 percent of Denver’s homeless are newly homeless due to foreclosure, and if they cannot live with family they are on the streets, where it’s illegal to “urban camp.” It’s a funnel, and Brown and Black people are filling it. So where are our Black officials on this? So far, they’ve been silent and complicit with the money interests of their donors, primarily developers and banks. They say one thing
to the people, but do another with their signatures. Dear Michael Hancock: You are the mayor of a city where soon no one who voted for you will be able to afford to live. Property values are rising faster than our income, and the people are falling behind. Developers are racing, bidding and building more expensive and opulent properties all over this great city at a pace that makes one wonder; what is the endgame here? To turn Denver into a playground for the elite while the common man sits on the sidelines? The homeless are slowly erased; meanwhile there aren’t enough rich folks to occupy the new properties. Notice, almost nothing in this city is older than 75 years. Unlike New York, St. Louis or New Orleans, Denver likes to develop over its history and you have to wonder if Five Points is next. This is within your power to change. This trend will turn Denver into a “Dubai on the Platte.” A magnificent façade of wealth and prosperity with not enough rich people to keep it afloat, and then…the crash; the reckoning. And why? Because politicians allowed banks, developers and corporations to use them as human shields. They call the shots in the end – not you. They use your name, your face, your race, your legacy, reputation,
Denver Urban Spectrum — www.denverurbanspectrum.com – January 2014
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your lives, and your handwriting to make legal a doomed monopoly game. But it was our vote that got you in this office, not the power elite. Oh, that’s right. Money is speech in this country, and us po’ folks can’t seem to grab your ear. You’d probably say this picture is not so “black-and-white.” But a foreclosure notice is very black-and-white. A restraining order is black-and-white. Frostbite is black-and-white. Jail time is black-and-white. Why should you live in shades of grey when we can’t? This city ain’t big enough to hurt people and get away with it. Your family, friends and associates are falling behind. What happens to the Black churches and business when their main patrons are pushed out? Who will speak for us when the churches, schools, and businesses are gone? Elected officials: Beware of those nice folks in your cabinets talking sweet about the future of Denver. There are more important things than that nice pension if you get re-elected. If you side with the money, don’t come knockin’ on Shorter, New Hope, and Now Faith’s doors looking for votes. Why should they elect people who forget about preserving our proud history? Smiling in our face and locking folks up isn’t cool. We see you, and so does the law. Either reverse the trend, or sit out next election.