Denver Mayor Michael Hancock today said he would support a new law to prohibit overnight camping in public places — aimed specifically at reducing the number of homeless people on the streets.

“We only have one downtown,” Hancock said. “We cannot afford to lose our city core. If people don’t feel safe going downtown, that is a threat to the very vitality of our downtown and our city.”

Hancock said he has been holding meetings ever since he came into office to figure out what to do about the growing presence of homeless people on Denver’s streets, and particularly in the downtown core areas, including the 16th Street Mall.

The mayor made his comments today in a meeting with The Denver Post’s editorial board, adding his voice to a growing concern among some city council members who are looking into a new ordinance that would make it illegal to camp overnight on city property.

Currently, people may sleep overnight on city property, except in parks.

In 2005, the city passed three ordinances aimed at curtailing panhandling and made it illegal to sit-and-lie in the downtown business core between business hours of 7 a.m. and 9 p.m.

“I was surprised as anyone to learn that you can sleep on the mall,” Hancock said. “Why is that the case?”

Now, business and city leaders are fearful of the growing numbers of homeless on the 16th Street Mall and its impact on businesses and tourists.

Hancock said the city must demonstrate compassion by taking a “comprehensive approach” to the issue of homelessness.

“We have to address it but we can’t just arrest our way (out of it),” Hancock said. “There are mental health issues, drug addiction, we have women and children who are homeless because of changes in their life.”

Hancock said he has walked the mall late at night to see the problem first-hand. He found scores of homeless people staging to take over a spot overnight.

“We have assigned more officers to the mall and downtown, but it is more than just assigning officers,” he said. “You got to give the officers the tools to make the lawful requests. But also we have to send our outreach workers out there. A lot of these people need support services and that is why they are out there on the mall.”

The issue came up Wednesdays in a council committee meeting, where councilman Charlie Brown read an e-mail from a Lower Downtown resident who said he recently on a recent evening said he encountered hundreds of homeless people on the mall, some of whom were aggressive and belligerent.

“For the first time I have had to tell visitors that I am ashamed of my city,” said Doug Chapiewsky, who wrote the e-mail. “Until this time, I have always stated that I would feel comfortable walking in any part of Denver at any time of day. Now, I have to tell them to stay off the 16th Street Mall after 9 p.m.!”

Denver council members say they will ask the city attorney’s office whether a similar ordinance could be drafted for the downtown business area.

The number of homeless people crowding onto the 16th Street Mall is growing, say city officials, business owners and advocates for the homeless. Convention planners surveyed after visits to Denver say homelessness and safety in the downtown area are among their top complaints, according to Visit Denver, the city’s convention and visitors bureau.

“There’s no question that we have serious concerns over the increased numbers of individuals on the streets,” said Tami Door, president and chief executive of the Downtown Denver Partnership.

“There are behaviors that aren’t acceptable and we need to explore ways in which we address these,” she said.

The issue is coming to a head at the same time protesters with the Occupy Denver movement are upset about being evicted from staying overnight in city parks.

Many homeless people stay overnight on the 16th Street Mall because they can’t find beds in shelters and the mall feels safe because it is lighted and populated, said Councilman Albus Brooks, whose district includes the mall.

“This is a nightmare,” Brooks said. “Denver is very sympathetic to the homeless issue, especially during this fiscal time. But that’s not the issue. We have predators, sex offenders, folks selling drugs and taking advantage of people and vagrants all pretending to be these homeless folks.”

Brooks recently went to the mall at midnight to see the issue up close. He found about 180 people setting up to sleep overnight. Many were camping in business doorways.

“I am compassionate, but I also understand that sometimes people need to be dealt with,” he said. “If we don’t do something now, we are going to have a worse spring and summer than we have seen for a long time.”

Brooks has asked to talk with the city attorney’s office to discuss changes to the law.

“I would hope we could do something strong enough to prevent individuals from laying out in front of people’s businesses and prevent this tent city that has the opportunity to become a violent city,” he said.

“We need to put a law in place to prevent that, and provide services for people who need it.”

John Parvensky, president of the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, called the effort to beef up laws “a real step backward” for the city, which has been working to end homelessness through its Road Home program.

About 11,000 homeless people in metro Denver were counted during an annual census in January, with about 600 who were “unsheltered,” Parvensky said.

“This is a direct result of the recession, of shelters being closed and lack of mental-health and treatment services that are needed for part of the population,” he said. “It’s not solving homelessness; it’s just criminalizing it.”

Parvensky said laws that would force homeless people from downtown will simply send them elsewhere.

“If the business community is worried about making downtown a better environment for visitors, they ought to use a fraction of their money to build real solutions for the homeless,” he said.

[Jeremy P. Meyer: 303-954-1367 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com