Organizers draped in blankets delivered more than 9,000 signatures to the Denver Elections Division this week, opening up a campaign to reverse the city’s “camping ban.”

If about half the signatures are valid, Denver’s voters will decide next year whether to once again allow people to take shelter in public spaces.

“We’re getting ready for May 2019,” said Terese Howard, an organizer with the “Right to Survive” initiative. “We’ve got the next seven months to really bring the reality of the streets to the broader public, so folks are ready to vote.”

Meanwhile, business organizations are jumping into the debate and city officials are warning of unexpected consequences.

The Denver City Council and Mayor Michael Hancock approved the anti-camping ordinance in 2012, early in Hancock’s time as mayor. It forbids people from using shelter in public spaces, sometimes including tents, blankets and cardboard, according to a CU Denver report.

Reactions on the river

One 56-year-old man said Tuesday that police have cited him twice in recent months as he camped along the South Platte River.

“I’ve been homeless for five years,” said Greg, who declined to give his last name because of employment concerns. “They can’t do anything to me that they haven’t already did. It’s just ridiculous.”

He spends many nights at a shelter, but sometimes he needs to escape bedbugs, he said.

Police say they give only a handful of tickets on the camping law each year — only a few dozen since its inception, according to Councilman Albus Brooks. But police do report thousands of “street checks” or verbal warnings on the law each year.

Just downstream, another man said he could see the merits of the ban. A warning from an officer can get people away from the dangers of the river, said Robert McMullin, 57, of St. Francois County, Mo., who has slept outside for weeks this summer.

McMullin suggested that the city enforce the camping ban only in certain areas. “In a decent park, you don’t want urine, you don’t want feces,” he said. Encampments along the river and near downtown have drawn complaints about rubbish and discarded needles.

Councilman’s concerns

The ballot initiative would guarantee the right to rest and take shelter “in a nonobstructive matter in outdoor public spaces,” and also to eat and share food anywhere that food isn’t prohibited. It also guarantees the right to occupy a legally parked vehicle.

The campaign is still in the early days: Denver Elections may take several weeks to announce whether the initiative made the ballot.

But the idea already is making waves for the upcoming election. Mayoral candidate Kayvan Khalatbari was among the signature deliverers, and Candi CdeBaca has made the ban an issue in her council run against Brooks, who sponsored the original ban legislation.

Brooks said he would not campaign on either side of the initiative. But getting rid of the camping law “doesn’t do anything for our homeless,” he said.

A city legal analysis found that the initiative would eliminate Denver’s parks curfew, which shuts down parks at night, according to the councilman. “Every park in the city of Denver will have people living in it,” he said.

Brooks argued, too, that the ban has “pushed us to put more money into housing, has pushed us to open up more shelters, to actually get more done in the city than we ever have before. … I think the city should be investing millions in housing. A compassionate city just doesn’t allow people to sleep outside,” he said.

The City Attorney’s Office didn’t respond to a request to comment about its analysis.

Business groups circling

The debate already is attracting the interest of business groups. For example, the Downtown Denver Partnership is scheduled to present before the executive board of the River North Art District this week.

“My takeaway when they reached out was that they had significant concerns about it,” said Jamie Giellis, president of the RiNo board. A DDP representative didn’t respond to a request to comment Tuesday. The RiNo board also will hear from the Right to Survive campaigners, Giellis said.

“I think we understand to a certain extent the frustrations that exist within the homeless community — and I think we also understand some of the concerns about what this particular piece of legislation or ordinance would do,” she said.

The camping ban already faces a challenge in the form of a class-action lawsuit.