By CORY GAINES | Commentary, Colorado Accountability Project
I was talking to a friend the other day and he remarked that his neighbor had told him that Gov. Polis was sending homeless people out to Sterling, Colo.
It got me curious. I do know that I’ve seen more homeless people out here than when I first moved out, but are there a ton more? Are they coming from Polis?
I’ll get to the answer in a sec, but I wanted to take this as an opportunity to discuss (yet again) the importance of skepticism when you hear a claim. I wanted to take this as an opportunity to provide an example of some simple steps you can take to evaluate claims you hear.
The first thing you should do is the first thing I did when I started investigating: go to your favorite search engine and do some looking. Whatever the claim, is anyone else talking about it? Who? What are they saying?
All I could find after a couple quick searches that was even remotely close to the claim that Governor Polis was shipping homeless people out here was a post on a chat board claiming that he’d done the same to Fort Collins, Colo.
After doing a quick google search, I next turned to the town authorities, and, perhaps most importantly, I asked more than one. I contacted the town manager, I contacted the Sterling Police Dept, my state senator, my county commissioner, the local charity, and lastly the the Logan County Sheriff.
So far, I’ve heard from the Sterling PD, the local charity, the town manager, and my state senator, and county commissioner.
The answers I’ve had are all basically the same. Maybe noticed a few things here or there, but not any large-scale (or confirmed) movement. Meaning, we’ve all seen more homeless people, but not a surge. Meaning no one has been contacted by Denver or the state.
I think I am inclined to hew closest to what my town manager and the executive director of the local charity told me.
I think there are some people from the Front Range who are moving out here. Some coming on their way to places farther down the line, some coming because they feel there’s less competition for services out here as compared to Denver. I do not think that there is a concerted effort afoot, however.
At least not yet. I want to counterbalance this with what I heard from my county commissioner: there has been some interest by nonprofits in purchasing hotels, presumably to house people, but again, no official moves and no actual purchases.
What to make of it all. Let me run back over the high spots.
I see nothing of value on the internet. In fact, what is there seems to point to a rumor where all one has to do is change the location name.
When I ask around to various people, all with various interests, I get basically the same answers. Scattered evidence of more homeless people, some interest perhaps in housing, but no large-scale, noticeable efforts. In weighing this it’s important to note that there is no reason for all these disparate individuals to play footsie here (particularly since my state senator and county commissioner are both in the opposing party to Polis).
Relatedly, while Polis has shifted migrants around on the board in the past (see the link below), this effort was pretty quickly picked up on and became a news story. I see no reason to think moving homeless people around would be somehow easier to keep secret. Not impossible, but not likely.
The lesson here is to be skeptical, even if it’s something you might agree with, want to see, or that confirms what you feel happens in the world. Skeptical meaning that you don’t go too far either way: you don’t immediately assume truth, but you don’t dismiss either.
Take your time with things you hear. Think it over. Does it make sense? Is there a precedent? Sit down at a computer and search for what is out there. Ask around (and ask several people with likely divergent views).
There is no guarantee you’ll arrive at the truth, but you will have the ability to make a more informed judgment than simply believing what you read offhand or just as simply tossing it out.
**Incidentally doing things like this is a good way to make sure your elected and local officials get to know you.
Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in commentary pieces are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management of the Rocky Mountain Voice, but even so we support the constitutional right of the author to express those opinions.
Colorado governor says his plan to bus migrants out of Denver is “night and day” compared with GOP governors