In Thursday's debate, mayoral candidate Kwame Spearman claimed 52% of unhoused people prefer tents to other housing options. He read those numbers wrong.
DENVER —
Denver mayoral candidate Kwame Spearman claimed a survey by advocates for the homeless found most don’t want a home. The survey found the exact opposite.
The CEO of Tattered Cover Book Store has made a crackdown on homelessness a focus of his campaign for Denver mayor.
Spearman has previously said that people experiencing homelessness are “exploiting the system.”
“We’re creating conditions where, in many cases, it can be more enticing to go to an encampment than to get a good job,” Spearman told conservative talk radio station KNUS on Feb. 14.
Spearman made a false claim about a homelessness survey during the 9NEWS debate Feb. 16 featuring 13 candidates for Denver mayor.
Spearman said a survey by the advocacy group Denver Homeless Out Loud found that “52% of our unhoused would prefer to live in a tent than other housing options.” That is not true.
The 2021 survey asked 109 unhoused individuals in Denver to rank their choice of three housing options: a house, a tent, or a shelter. Of the 109 people surveyed, 91 individuals, or 83%, said a house was their first choice. Only 18 people, or 16.5%, chose a tent as their first choice for housing. No respondents chose a city shelter as their first choice.
On Friday, the Spearman told 9NEWS he misinterpreted the survey results, but he doubled down with a misleading claim...
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