Homeless Advocacy Policy Project
The Homeless Advocacy Policy Project (HAPP) at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law is a student-driven project focused on researching the laws criminalizing homelessness and advocating for the rights of homeless individuals.
HAPP has worked with Denver Homeless Out Loud and the Western Regional Advocacy Project to explore legal issues facing Colorado’s homeless residents. We also have worked with Colorado Safe Parking Initiative, and are currently working with Housekeys Action Network Denver, ACLU of Colorado, and the Denver Municipal Public Defender's Office.
To learn more about HAPP, please contact Elie Zwiebel, Esq., Juvenile Civil Rights Attorney.
HAPP’s work has included:
- Authoring Boundaries and Barriers: Denver's Policy Choices to Force Visible Poverty from Public View
- Authoring Too High A Price: What Criminalizing Homelessness Costs Colorado
- Participating in KGNU radio’s discussion on Boulder’s Camping ban
- Sharing the results of HAPP research with various Colorado policymakers.
- Click here for media coverage in the Denver Post.
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2021 Report | Vehicle Residency
Student Authors: Charles Allison-Godfrey, Phoebe Blessing, Amy Buck, Summer Fulcher, Michelle Gaeng, Simone Haines, Katie Koehler, Susannah Rogers, Elisabeth Teater
Download paper from SSRN:
Shifting Gears: Moving Colorado Away from Criminalizing Vehicle Residency and Towards Safe ParkingUniversity of Denver Press Release of 2021 Vehicle Residency Report
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2018 Reports | Too High a Price 2 | Yes, In My Backyard
Too High a Price 2: Move on to Where? (Download paper via SSRN)
Authors: Michael Bishop, Bridget Du Pey, Nicole Jones, Ashley Kline, Joshua Mitson, Darren O'Connor
Editors: Professor Nantiya Ruan, J.D., M.S.W. & Elie Zwiebel, J.D.Yes, In My Backyard: Building ADUs to Address Homelessness (Download paper via SSRN)
Authors: Tran Dinh, David Brewester, Anna Fullerton, Gregory Huckaby, and Marnie Parks
Editors: Sara K. Rankin, Nantiya Ruan, and Elie ZwiebelImages below from the Finding Space to Solve Homelessness: Addressing Homelessness Through Public, Private, and Religious Land Use forum held on Saturday, April 14, 2018, at the Seattle University School of Law.
Anna Fullerton, Cary Moon, and Mamie Parks
David Brewster, Gregory Huckaby, Anna Fullerton, Sara Rankin, Mamie Parks, and Justin Olson
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2016 Report | Too High a Price: What Criminalizing Homelessness Costs Colorado
Many Colorado cities voice their dedication to eliminating homelessness through providing services to residents who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. These same cities simultaneously enact and enforce ordinances that criminalize living outside. Laws that criminalize panhandling, begging, camping, sitting or lying in public, and vagrancy target and disproportionately impact homeless residents for activities they must perform in the course of daily living.
Denver Law’s Homeless Advocacy Policy Project examined how the widespread enactment and enforcement of laws criminalizing homelessness have become widespread in Colorado. Through a comprehensive analysis of the enforcement of anti-homeless laws, the project also examined the cost—economic and social—anti-homeless laws impose upon all Colorado citizens.
The findings of this research are available in the report, downloadable via SSRN Too High a Price: What Criminalizing Homelessness Costs Colorado.
Illustration by HAPP student Arielle Schreiber
DU Executive Certificate in Affordable Housing
The DU Executive Certificate in Affordable Housing is a joint program offered by the Burns School of Real Estate & Construction Management at the Daniels College of Business and the Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute at the Sturm College of Law. Featuring in-depth training from interdisciplinary experts, the program provides participants with a focused and fast-tracked pathway to learn the complexities of affordable housing development and the practical skills necessary to work in this specialized sector.
