Denver Mayor Mike Johnston on Friday vetoed an ordinance approved by the City Council that would have banned homeless encampment sweeps during frigid temperatures, arguing it contravenes the city’s camping ban.  

Already, the councilmembers who sponsored the ordinance intend to bring it back before the council on Feb. 12, a move that signaled their attention to override the mayor’s veto. 

In Johnston’s first veto since taking office in July, the mayor’s office said the proposal “would make it more difficult for the city to help people experiencing homelessness get inside during cold, unsafe conditions.”

“Though well-intentioned, this legislation would restrict the city’s ability to do this life-saving work for approximately four months of the year,” Johnston told the council in his veto letter. 

A narrowly-divided council on Monday approved the ordinance to ban homeless encampment sweeps when temperatures fall below 32 degrees.

The council would need nine votes to override the mayor’s veto, which seems unlikely, given that six of the 13 councilmembers voted against the proposal. 

At-large Councilwoman Sarah Parady earlier described sweeping encampments in freezing weather as “inhumane.”

But Johnston said it wouldn’t help homeless people.

“When the weather turns cold, our primary goal is to move people experiencing homelessness inside,” he wrote in his letter to councilmembers. “Over the past six months, we have worked together to advance an ambitious effort to get people experiencing homelessness into shelter and housing, a priority shared by the bill sponsors.”

The mayor’s veto didn’t come as a surprise. A spokesperson earlier said Johnston’s “first priority” is keeping Denverites “safe and healthy,” and cold temperatures “pose a serious danger to people living outdoors, and this proposal will limit the actions the city can take to keep people safe.”

Some city leaders shared the mayor’s worries. 

“I urge the mayor to veto this bill,” District 2 Councilmember Kevin Flynn earlier told The Denver Gazette. “The guiding principle for every one of our policies around homelessness should be getting a roof over people’s heads, especially in winter conditions.”

Flynn said the ordinance “obviously” goes against the city’s camping ban, describing it as “the farthest thing from treating people with compassion and dignity.”

The city’s camping ban had faced multiple legal and political challenges in subsequent years. It survived two ballot attempts to overturn and modify it. In 2019, Denver residents soundly rejected a proposal to overturn it. In November 2021, another ordinance asked residents to approve an amendment that required the city to enforce the ban but also to establish four authorized camping locations. Voters rejected that measure, too.

Johnston told the council that the proposal “overturns the city-adopted camping ban for up to one third of the year.”

“As written, the legislation would allow small encampments to return to areas already closed to encampments. This is contrary to the will of more than 80% of voters who affirmed the camping ban in 2019,” he said. 

Supporters insisted the city can still sweep encampments — just not on those days when it’s freezing.

“We have people who recognize how cruel and inhumane it is to sweep people in freezing temperatures,” Amy Beck told The Denver Gazette during the council’s vote on Monday.

In his veto letter, Johnston said his administration has not — nor intends to — conduct large sweeps when the temperature is 32 degrees or below “without housing or shelter options, with the exception of major public health and safety risks.”

He said that his administration has conducted 60 community meetings on homelessness since July, and in those conversations, it’s clear that the public believes “we have a moral obligation to provide housing and services to people experiencing homelessness, and that the city has a responsibility to keep neighborhoods clear of encampments.”

“We, together with City Council, community partners and advocates, have spent the last six months developing an extremely successful system to deliver on both responsibilities, and I believe this legislation would significantly disrupt that successful effort during the winter months,” he added.