It’s one of the most common questions we hear that’s related to our coverage of homeless sweeps and Denver’s urban camping ban: Why are so many people sleeping on the streets and refusing to use the city’s homeless shelters?

The city, after all, insists that there are hundreds of “beds” (truthfully, many are just mats or pads) that are unused and available each night in Denver’s shelter network. The city also has the capacity to open additional emergency shelters at city-owned recreation centers if overflow space is needed.

Although those claims of limitless shelter capacity have never truly been tested, the bottom line is that Denver maintains it can house all people experiencing homelessness each and every night. Indeed, Mayor Michael Hancock and his administration have routinely defended the urban camping ban using this rhetoric.

The inside of a city overflow shelter that used to be on Peoria Street. Chris Walker

And yet the question (and problem) remains: Why are there hundreds of people sleeping in tents and bundled up outside every night?

It's a question that will come up more frequently in the coming months since the “Right to Survive” ballot initiative was approved for the May 2019 municipal elections. Denver voters will be asked whether they think the city should essentially overturn its camping ban and allow people to eat, rest and sleep in public.

Around the same time that the ballot initiative was approved, Denver Public Works and Denver police officers dismantled a tent city on October 29 consisting of hundreds of campers that had formed in the Ballpark neighborhood right outside the Denver Rescue Mission and Samaritan House. About a hundred of those campers relocated to the South Platte River, and again the city dismantled their encampment, on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. Homeless-rights advocates took a video of the latest sweep.

An encampment near the Platte River in late 2016. Brandon Marshall

Denver Homeless Out Loud, the homeless-advocacy group that documented this week’s sweep at the Platte and is the main backer of the Right to Survive ballot initiative, provided us with circumstances in which people might refuse to use the city’s overnight shelters based on feedback they've heard in the field.

Before we list them below, we should note that shelter providers —- both the city and a coalition of nonprofits —- have made efforts to increase storage options in shelters and have routinely denied charges that they aren't clean or are infested with bedbugs.

Here are some situations that would prevent someone from using a shelter, according to Denver Homeless Out Loud: