East Side residents complain of transient invasion, lack of police services
By Juan Espinosa
How many boarded up or vacant houses are there on your block?
If you live in some areas of Pueblo’s East Side, the answer could be four or five and may include badly burned buildings awaiting demolition.
According to City Councilman Joe Latino, who represents the East Side quadrant, many of the neighborhoods in that sector of the city are also crime-ridden. He says he is so concerned for the welfare and safety of the law-bidding residents that he personally patrols the streets late at night and into the early morning.”You see a lot of homeless people, there’s a lot of crime, he said in a recent interview.”
He personally has seen what he suspects are drug deals going down in Bradford Park. “Hey, they’re dealing drugs here, what are you doing? I told the police dispatcher.”
When he was told there was no officers available to dispatch, Latino called an officer at home. “I called Sgt. Smith and got him out of bed. It was 11 or 12 midnight.” The officer responded, but Latino doesn’t know what the officer saw or did after that.
What he does know is that he has been accused of abusing the 911 emergency line and has been told not to call 911.
“I can’t call 911 — that’s shitty,” Latino said. “We need a new police chief.”
At a recent town meeting with Pueblo Mayor Heather Graham, Vickie Gatlin echoed Latino’s words. “I was told if I called 911 again, I would be arrested,” said Gatlin, an elderly woman on a fixed income who literally can’t go home.
Gatlan owns a home at 702 E. Eighth St. where she lived until mid-July when somebody set her garage on fire. The fire triggered a chain of events that eventually left her home uninhabitable and boarded up and she has been living in a motel courtesy of a social service agency and a few friends.
“Ms, Vickie did not have homeowners insurance and has been left scrambling to keep people out of her home,” said Valerie Harrington an insurance broker who has been trying to help Gatlin.
After the fire, trespassers reportedly have been helping themselves to Gatlin’s personal property, in the burned garage and in her home. When Gatlin called police, one of the trespassers showed them a hand-written “lease.” Officers reportedly said that based on the hand-scribbled-penciled lease, it was a civil matter and there was nothing they could do.
According to Harrington, Gatlin obtained a restraining order for her property, officers told her she would have to have a restraining order for each individual that walked into her house. Eventually, city code enforcement stepped in and declared Gatlin’s home “condemned.”
After she asked the mayor’s office for help, Gatlin’s doors and windows were boarded up.
“This was a crime against a senior citizen that was planned and executed by repeat felons!” Harrington said in a statement she attempted to read to City Council during their public input session, but was not allowed to finish.
Because of the boarded houses, burned buildings and high rate of crime in some East Side neighborhoods, Harrington said insurance companies will not insure houses. Without homeowner’s insurance, it is impossible to get a mortgage or even sell a home.
At the Sept. 3 town meeting held at El Centro Quinto Sol, Mayor Heather Graham heard many complaints from East Side residents about the lack of police services in their neighborhoods. The complaints centered about police response times, obvious drug dealing and vacant houses being taken over by people without homes.
Graham blamed the slow or no police response to a shortage of officers. She said the department was down 40 officers and calls for service have to be triaged on the basis of eminent danger. There was no shortage of officers at the town meeting as there were five uniformed officers present.
Graham said calls involving active shootings, or someone breaking into a house are higher priority. “If there is no weapon involved, it could take some time.” She said that despite the shortage of officers, a task force of two or three officers has been created to patrol high crime areas.
The mayor also said the severity of the crime and the lack of consequences are other factors in determining police response. “If you’re loitering or trespassing, you’re not going to go to jail,” she said. “Our jail is for felonies only.” The county jail will not accept prisoners facing municipal misdemeanors.
One man complained that $3,000 worth of tools were taken from his garage. “I’ve called the cops and it took two hours and 45 minutes to respond and the dispatchers are rude. If you are living on this side of town, you are a direct hit,” he said.
Latino says that since the city bulldozed a houseless peoples’ camp along Fountain Creek, many of those displaced people have moved into some of the vacant houses on the East Side.
Harrington agrees with Latino. “These properties are being inhabited by the same people that were cleared out of the homeless camps and the closure of the Value Stay hotel,” she said in her comments to City Council.
In fairness, it should be noted that the vast majority of homes on the East Side are occupied and generally well kept. It is obvious that many residents are trying to improve their properties.
Former City Council candidate Pete Madrid spoke at the East Side town meeting last month and told his neighbors to “protect your property from the opportunistic people taking over property.”
Madrid also encouraged East Siders to improve the outside appearance. “We need more accountability from the residents. Pickup trash and help your neighbor.”
Both Latino and Mayor Graham touted a program funded by Catholic Charities to create an internship-like employment for the homeless. The program consisted of giving people gift cards for picking up trash and litter and attending classes. Latino said it was his idea.
“We started with 60 people and graduated 20,” he said. “Forty dropped out. We want them to feel a sense of self-worth. Two or three found jobs in City departments.”
Despite the consensus about the internship program, the mayor and Latino are worlds apart on other solutions. Mayor Graham wants to expedite the hiring of more police officers and offering new hires incentives, like pay for attending the police academy and buying one uniform to get them started.
Latino said he would like to call up the National Guard but has found little support for that idea.
“I’ve asked Gov. Polis for the Colorado National Guard — We need help!” he said. “I talked to two of his aides and he (Gov. Polis) never returned calls. We’re the number 10 most dangerous city in the country.”
If he can’t get help from the National Guard, Latino said he wants to form an East Side Guardians unit to patrol their own neighborhoods.