Demonstrators supporting Boise’s homeless verbally clash with counterprotest downtown
After fears of a violent counterprotest to a homeless demonstration developed in recent days, up to 200 people gathered Saturday in front of the former Ada County Courthouse to hold a potluck and support Idahoans struggling to find housing.
About 70 people convened across the street as part of a second protest organized by a right-wing Facebook group called the Idaho Liberty Dogs.
Though no violence ensued, some protesters from both sides shouted epithets back and forth for multiple hours in the below-freezing weather.
Tents have been set up outside the former courthouse for more than two weeks. The building is across North 6th Street from the Idaho Statehouse and is currently the Law Library for the University of Idaho College of Law campus in Boise.
The round-the-clock demonstration consists of people experiencing homelessness in Boise as well as volunteers from a group called Boise Mutual Aid Collective, which aims to support local needs. The visual display of tents is meant to raise awareness for housing issues.
Homeless demonstrators at the former courthouse on Jefferson Street argued that skyrocketing housing prices in the Treasure Valley, and a lack of government assistance and available space at city shelters, need to be addressed by state and municipal leaders.
“We’re trying to get it where we are seen and heard and where we are not dismissed by the important people,” Ryan Kempter told the Idaho Statesman.
Kempter said he has been homeless since late November 2020, when a previous relationship ended poorly and left him without a place to stay. Kempter also said he has become disabled from multiple back and neck injuries.
Kempter said the activists are working toward making sure all people in Boise have someplace warm and indoors where they can lie down at night.
Faith leaders also attended the Saturday demonstration, including Dan Fink, the rabbi at Ahavath Beth Israel; Andrew Kukla, the pastor at First Presbyterian Church; and Duane Anders, the pastor at Cathedral of the Rockies.
In an interview with the Statesman, the faith leaders said they had attended the protest to support homeless people and to attempt to keep the demonstrations peaceful. At times, demonstrators from both camps walked across the street to converse with the other side, and Anders said he had seen some “good conversations.”
A lack of shelter space
Interfaith Sanctuary describes itself as the only low-barrier shelter in Boise, meaning the shelter provides emergency overnight space with few restrictions for entry.
Other shelters in Boise have overnight space, too, such as the Boise Rescue Mission. But the Rescue Mission has more stringent restrictions, requiring guests to be sober and not use foul language.
In mid-January, Interfaith Sanctuary ran out of beds. On the evening of Jan. 14, the shelter had to turn away 20 guests whom they didn’t have room for, according to the shelter’s executive director, Jodi Peterson-Stigers.
Since then, the shelter has provided more space by setting up a large tent behind the building warmed by propane heaters and supplied with sleeping bags and cots. The shelter has also begun hosting people overnight in another area usually used as daytime classroom space on the property. The additional, makeshift space has meant the shelter can now house about 20 more people than it can fit inside, where the capacity is about 170.
Peterson-Stigers said the shelter itself has been full every night, but that there is usually some extra space in the overflow areas. The number of people arriving at the shelter has increased this month, likely due to persistently cold temperatures, she added.
Across town, in front of the former courthouse, the tent demonstration appeared around the same time that Interfaith ran out of space.
The protesters have come into conflict with the Idaho State Police, since overnight camping and possessing items that indicate camping are prohibited on the Capitol Mall. But a 2011 court ruling allows activists to use tents as part of a demonstration, while a more recent ruling prohibits people experiencing homelessness from being criminally charged for sleeping outside if shelter space is not available.
Since the protest began, officers have confiscated tarps and large heaters, according to a police spokesperson, Lynn Hightower. On Monday, police arrested a protester for allegedly obstructing officers.
‘Just get a job’
About 70 people assembled at Cecil D. Andrus Park in Boise at 1 p.m. before marching one block east to confront the housing advocates, who were hosting a potluck that had begun an hour before.
The Liberty Dogs protest was advertised on Facebook as an attempt to “occupy” the lawn in front of the former courthouse, and posts on the group’s social media page suggested that people who are homeless in Boise are trying to exploit government assistance to fund a drug habit.
“These people don’t want help,” read one post. “They want a free place to do their drugs.”
While the Liberty Dogs group asked their followers online to remain peaceful, several comments left on the group’s page suggested intimidation, violence or forcible removal of the tents.
On Friday, Mayor Lauren McLean released a statement about the planned event.
“It has come to my attention that tomorrow there is a planned counter-protest to the ongoing protest on state property,” the statement said. “I value people’s rights to have their voices heard, but only if it is done in a peaceful way. ... There is no place for violence here.”
A limited police presence was visible on Saturday. Two Boise Police officers asked protesters to stay on the edge of the street when the protest began.
“Our goal is to keep the peace and support everyone’s First Amendment rights,” Detective Mike Miraglia said.
Followers of the Liberty Dogs group brought signs opposing “tent cities.” Several attendees were armed.
“Why don’t you just get a job?” shouted one woman through a megaphone at the group of homeless Boiseans and their supporters.
Randi Nix, a supporter of the group, said there are adequate services for people who are homeless and that those gathered across the street were choosing not to help themselves while relying on taxpayer money.
“I’ve struggled my whole life, and to this day I still struggle, but I’ve never been on (government) assistance,” Nix said.
But she acknowledged that there are “real issues with some homeless people.”
“There are legitimate homeless people who have been down on circumstances,” she said. “It could be us tomorrow. We don’t know.”
‘There’s a million different reasons’
Debbie Collier has been homeless since January 2021, when she left an abusive relationship. She had been living in subsidized housing with her partner, she told the Statesman, and her application to remain in subsidized housing was denied after they separated.
She has obtained a high school equivalency certificate and is a trained cosmetologist. Collier said she’d “love to go back to cosmetology,” but her doctor has directed her not to work because of back injuries. She receives Social Security and disability benefits.
“Everybody thinks we’re all drug addicts and alcoholics, but we’re not. A lot of us have been in sobriety for a number of years,” Collier said.
Collier said she has been living in her car because she has a dog, named China, whom she does not want to leave outside overnight. Since China is not a service dog, she said, she isn’t allowed inside the shelters.
SherryJo Crandall lived in a rented trailer home in Eagle until November, when the property owner pushed her out to make room for a planned housing development, she told the Statesman. Since then, Crandall has been living out of her car, which was parked on Jefferson Street on Saturday, right by where the dueling protests occurred.
Early Saturday, she said, a drunken driver ran into the rear of her vehicle. The back windshield shattered, and the rear bumper became detached.
Peterson-Stigers said that the reasons for homelessness are often complex, and not easily reduced to personal failings. She said there aren’t enough affordable apartments in the area, nor many jobs that pay enough to live on.
Other people are not able to qualify for certain types of subsidized housing, have trouble getting hired because of past felonies or because they do not have proper identification. Many more are disabled, and homeless people are often “judged for a situation (they) didn’t create,” she said.
“There’s a million different reasons” people become homeless, Peterson-Stigers said, adding that it isn’t fair to assume a diverse group of people all have the same problems.
“I don’t understand why people would come all the way downtown to yell at people who don’t have housing,” she said.
This story was originally published January 29, 2022 at 8:57 PM.
