The evidentiary hearing for the homeless sweeps lawsuit is about to kick off in the U.S. Dist. Court of CO. The plaintiffs (ten homeless individuals and Denver Homeless Out Loud) will be facing off against the City of Denver and State of Colorado over sweeps during the pandemic.

If you would like to listen in to the evidentiary hearing, which will take place today and tomorrow, the call-in number is 877-336-1828 with an access code of 9449909#.

This is an evidentiary hearing for a preliminary injunction. Up 1st are the witnesses for the plaintiffs. Tomorrow, the city and state will present witnesses. Judge William J. Martinez is presiding over the case. He does not like leading questions from attorneys, the judge said.

Andy McNulty from Killmer, Lane and Newman is the attorney for the plaintiffs today in court. The City Attorney's Office has three attorneys here. The Attorney General's Office has two attorneys here. And a city contractor involved in sweeps has one attorney calling in.

Judge Martinez asking the Attorney General's Office if it knows of homeless encampments on any other state land. Attorney from AG's office is not sure, but will try to figure that out over next two days. It would help the State's defense if there were none, judge notes.

Plaintiffs calling first witness: Alexandra Binder, a journalist with Unicorn Riot. Binder wrote a declaration about videos that Binder took at homeless encampment sweeps. Binder also submitted these videos. Been to about 20 sweeps during COVID-19 pandemic.

Alexandra Binder is done testifying. Plaintiffs are now calling Jacob Wessley to the stand. Wessley is the street outreach coordinator for the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless.

An attorney for Denver asks Wessley about the terms "sweep" and "swept," which Wessley used in his initial testimony. Wessley responds that he doesn't typically use these words when speaking with encampment residents.

"When I hear sweep, I literally picture cleaning up. I picture dirt cleaning up," Wessley says. "These terms just get used a lot. You don’t often question the meaning, like you do under oath."

Adds, "Our outreach workers are really good about being trauma-informed."

City leadership generally does not like the phrase "sweep" when people are referring to encampment dispersals or clean-ups. Many news outlets, including Westword, use the word "sweep" to refer to these dispersals and clean-ups.

Alright, Jacob Wessley is done testifying. Morning recess for 15 minutes.

Marisa Westbrook is up. She's a PhD candidate at CU Denver who has done research in homeless encampments.

An attorney for Denver is trying to present Westbrook as overly-sympathetic to Denver Homeless Out Loud, which is a plaintiff in this case, essentially trying to cast doubt on the neutrality of her expert testimony.

Judge Martinez says he finds some merit to arguments about Westbrook's possible bias toward plaintiffs. That will go toward the weight of her testimony, judge notes.

The court is now in recess for a lunch break. Marisa Westbrook, an expert witness for the plaintiffs, was on the witness stand (virtually) for over an hour. The majority of that time was spent on cross-examination by an attorney for Denver.

That cross-examination was a mixture of the Denver attorney attempting to cast doubt on Westbrook's objectivity, her qualifications to opine on the subjects in question, and her assertions about encampment sweeps.

Westbrook kept pointing out that the CDC tells municipalities not to sweep encampments during the COVID-19 pandemic so as not to further spread the virus. Instead, there are ways for the city to ensure that public health conditions don't deteriorate in encampments, Westbrook says

The city highlights trash accumulation, scattered used syringes, and the presence of human waste as deteriorating public health conditions in encampments that might justify a sweep. Westbrook points out that providing track pickup, bathrooms, and needle pickup could prevent this.

Court is now back in session. Plaintiffs calling Kathleen Van Voorhis of the Interfaith Alliance of Colorado as a witness.

Van Voorhis is the director of housing justice at the Interfaith Alliance of Colorado.

One thing that's especially intriguing about this lawsuit is that some of the witnesses for the plaintiffs are people that work closely with the city of Denver on solving homelessness issues. Wessley's outreach work is funded by the city, for example.