This petition has been developed by a group of Durango, CO, residents. Please sign it if you do NOT want a permanent homeless tent camp to be located on 2.65 acres of City-owned open space by the entrance to Greenmount Cemetery. (Please see attached aerial photograph for proposed camp location.) This new camp would be in addition to the camp now in use at Purple Cliffs. 
Instead of this cemetery site, we respectfully urge the City to work with the County to consider the DeNier Center, formerly a youth detention center that now is vacant. It is near the western border of Bodo Industrial Park. Camp Hope in Las Cruses, NM, on which this homeless camp is modeled, is located on the edge of an industrial area, not sandwiched between neighborhoods and at a cemetery entrance. The DeNier property would provide the safety, bathrooms, showers, indoor and outdoor spaces, and other amenities desired by Durango's unhoused population. Access to Manna would be available via the nearby transit stop. The City should work with the County on a potential lease for this vacant property.
Signing this petition will let the Durango City Council, as well as the La Plata County Commissioners, know that while you support providing adequate facilities for the unhoused in our community, you also wish to protect the view, as well as safety, security, and peace of mind of cemetery visitors, and ensure the protection and comfort of nearby neighborhoods, parks, businesses, and tourists.