In order to keep homeless residents out of sight during the Democratic National Convention, the city of Denver is giving away passes to local activities and televisions have been donated to homeless shelters.
A plan has been developed to provide interested homeless people with free access to cultural activities. They include the Denver Zoo and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, and they won’t have to worry about paying for transportation.
“We’ll have bus tokens if they need them,” Parvensky said.
Also five, big screen TVs are being donated to a teen day shelter. One hope is to engage some of the homeless children in the political process by allowing them to see convention unfold on television. But another purpose is to draw them away from the streets while the Convention is underway.
What’s the likeliness this will work? How many homeless residents are going to give up panhandling to a massive migration of delegates and visitors, instead going to the zoo? Pardon my skepticism, but I don’t see that happening.
by Stephan Tawney on Thu, Jul 10, 2008