It is the changing of the season in Boulder, Colorado. The long, summer days are starting to cool down and the green of the trees is turning to a vibrant yellow. As the breeze becomes chilly and being outdoors requires a coat, the students of Boulder decide to take refuge in the warmth of their shelter to do homework, hang out with friends or eat their meals. Personally, there is no feeling that quite compares to finally returning to a warm, cozy house after a long day of walking in the cold. Although it is easy to assume that everyone has this privilege and sense of security, the harsh reality is that a plethora of individuals do not. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, there are 553,742 people in this country and 689 in the city of Boulder that are living without a home. One of these individuals goes by the name Stephen Sheeba, a 54 year old man who has been living under the University Hill bridge since Valentines Day of 2014. Sheeba is a legend in the eye of the University of Colorado student body. Many know him as King Wook, the Mayor, or the guy that yells, “GET OUTTA THE BIKE LANE!” After repeatedly passing Sheeba everyday on my walk to class, I began to take interest in his lifestyle and his experiences of living in Boulder.
That was the impetus for this interview with Sheeba. I was surprised to learn about the surfeit of unfair interactions and experiences that he has encountered with the City of Boulder and the Police. Since the outset, the city of Boulder has shunned him because he is homeless. It is no secret that the town is becoming increasingly gentrified. The Boulder Daily Camera wrote in April that, “Boulder City Council on Tuesday largely supported a plan to spend $2.7 million over 18 months on initiatives the city says will serve as tools to enforce its urban camping ban.”
Consequently, the police and city are progressively being more strict about the treatment of the homeless in Boulder. Not only is this unethical, but the city’s eradication policies are poor. Obviously, this is a national systemic issue that not only impacts the homeless in Boulder, but all those who are displaced across the country. Sheeba is just one man who is telling the story of thousands of homeless people throughout the US. There is no question that the way homeless people are treated in Boulder and around the country is unconscionable and needs immediate attention. The enthralling conversations that I have had with Sheeba and subsequently learning about his life compelled me to foster an interest in this issue. So with that being said, this is what he told me.
Sheeba was raised in Athol, Massachusetts with his mother and father (who was also named Stephen Sheeba.) Being from Massachusetts myself, I was an immediate kindred spirit. The Massholes get each other. Growing up in a harsh household, Sheeba had his fair share of struggles. His parents threatened to institutionalize him and forced him into taking certain drugs.
“Not taking my drugs was worth the beatings. But then my behavior taking drugs was also worth the beatings, I couldn’t quite figure it out...” he says.
Things became progressively worse, and his father sold him off into gay prostitution where he suffered tremendously for a few years. After escaping, Sheeba realized that his social security card and birth certificate had been given to his pimp and redistributed to the street community of Worcester, Massachusetts. This is when Sheeba started to live on the streets.
“I decided to live off of straight Domino’s Pizza, which was very reliable, but was nonetheless a really shitty diet,” said Sheeba.
Once the continuous pizza diet became too tiring, he stuck up his thumb and headed over to the bustling town of Cambridge, Massachusetts. While in Harvard Square, Sheeba met a man who handed him a sterling silver flute, and luckily, he knew how to play since he was a boy. Gratefully, he was able to make some cash while playing the flute alongside Tracy Chapman and seeing Kurt Cobain. The 90’s in Boston… what a time.
In 2011, Sheeba made his way down south to Little Rock, Arkansas, where he spent his time at a job where he picked up compost from a Whole Foods, all the while getting beaten and assaulted by police and EMTs. While riding his bike, he was the victim of a hit and run vehicular accident by a Little Rock Police informant. He now suffers from unrelenting leg pain which also causes him to limp severely.
“He drove on top of me in a left only lane, and dragged me 50 yards past the left turn. He hit me on the left side while I was turning and bounced me onto the hood. I was trying to reach for the top of the hood to hold on and wave my head no because I knew the next thing that he would likely do is slam the brakes and dump me off of the car. The pedal of my bicycle got caught on the bumper and that flipped me 720 degrees in the air and I finished landing on my left hip, crushing my legs on the bike frame, and then he took his foot off the brakes, steps on the gas and drives on top of me. That’s when he thinks it’s good to stop,” said Sheeba.
On the way to a doctor's appointment months later, the local police met him a block away and beat him to the ground. They put his leg up on the curb, and hyperextended his knee by stepping on it. Not once, but twice. And then the police said to each other, “Don’t you wish you could just fucking knock him out sometimes?!” Unquestionably, police brutality exists in this country. After his distressing time of living in Arkansas, Sheeba hopped on a bus to Colorado.
On February 14th, Sheeba arrived in Denver. After 3 days in the city, he realized that he was not a Denver type of street person. In short, he was not a meth junkie. The University Hill of CU Boulder was more to his liking. Sheeba has seven years of living on the Hill under his belt. He knows the low down, from how to deal with the cold, snowy winters for which, sometimes, people decide to give him food. He is also well versed in how cruelly the police and the city treat him and the other homeless people in town. Emphatically, Sheeba denies the use of drugs. But he says that 95% of his homeless acquaintances have substance dependency issues on top of psychological and emotional difficulties. Despite this, he says,
“We all share the common threat of being viciously assaulted and beaten by both the local indigents, the citizens, and then targeted and labeled the suspects by the police.”
According to Sheeba, there is a camera under the University bridge that is meant to record evidence when something happens. Except when Sheeba reports that he is receiving harassment or someone is trying to rob his encampment, the authorities say that the camera is broken.
During the frigid Colorado winters, Sheeba is forced to live without anything to keep him warm because his coats and blankets are constantly stolen. He spends his time in his outdoor home to the right of the bridge. He says,
“Boulder has been especially, specifically, wonderfully, uniquely abusive in depriving me of my years worth of life needs just as the season is changing, usually making sure to deprive me of all of the gear. They either take it from me or support an illegal eviction to help a landlord load my belongings into his garage alleging that they are his belongings. They refuse to listen to me when I tell them that they are actually my belongings.”
Sheeba is forced to rely on receiving his clothing from students who get rid of their winter gear before returning home for holiday break. However, when he complains that his things have been stolen, the Police and city say that they don’t have any camera footage. I sympathized with Sheeba after he divulged this, as I can not imagine being forced to live in the cold with just a T-shirt and shorts.
Sheeba said, “I have experienced a substantial amount of interactions where a witness was able to view crimes committed against me, contact police, and by the time police arrive, the witnesses turned away, no statement is taken and somehow I’m facing charges being labeled the suspect.”
Additionally, he has been charged for trespassing by simply sweeping the sidewalk outside of the store. Walgreens, in particular, has focused a preposterous amount of energy on doing everything in their power to push Sheeba off their territory. One day, he was sweeping the sidewalk and was accused of trespassing. Walgreens coerced the City’s prosecutors to convict him in a jury trial for “trespassing” on the public sidewalk. Just for sweeping. I confessed to Sheeba that I thought he had been treated unfairly, and he said, “ that would be the most polite way of saying it.” But the stores are not the only ones who try to prevent him from cleaning the area. When Sheeba tried to shovel the tunnel after snow storms, Boulder city workers took his shovels and salt. However, they then did absolutely nothing about the piled snow and left it as a hazardous area where multiple people have slipped and fallen on a regular basis. Yet when he tried to do something about the issue and brought it up to the Police, they said he can’t file complaints because he isn’t a tax paying resident. Can he win?
Sheeba’s story is just a glimpse into what it’s like living without a home in the present day United States. The International Journal of Law and Psychiatry examined the Homeless population and concluded that homeless individuals stated they had decreased levels of trust in police because of previous negative experiences, and were thus less likely to call police when in need of help. Additionally, the study presented evidence that showed when a policeman used force on a homeless individual, it led to long-term negative views about the police across several domains that appear to be long lasting, and were linked to feelings of not being respected by the authorities. Homeless people do not just face difficult living conditions when it comes to food, water and shelter. They also face the threat of a callous humanity. According to Gov1, more than one in three have been deliberately hit, kicked or experienced some other form of violence while homeless. Shockingly, roughly 13,000 deaths of homeless individuals occur annually and the average homeless person has had more than 20 contacts with police in a six-month period.
The homeless population in the United States is one of the most vulnerable groups of people in our society. The Guardian View states that 28% of homeless adults are severely mentally ill, 22% are physically disabled, 15% have suffered domestic violence and 3% are HIV positive. Yet, they are still treated like criminals. These humans deserve our support and compassion instead of our abuse and anger. Indignantly, their treatment is morally wrong and unjust. Interviewing and consequently befriending Sheeba, has truly opened my eyes to the world of the homeless and their plight. Everytime I walk back to my apartment and savor my bed after a long day, I think about Sheeba and the thousands of other homeless people in this country who do not have the same luxury. Previous to this interview, that is something, mind you, that I would have viewed as universally given. Every human being on this planet, no matter their living conditions, has value. They have the ability to feel love, cultivate friendships and appreciate beauty. When it’s all said and done, those are the only common attributes that we need to relate to someone. So, next time you are walking the streets of Boulder and see a homeless person, ask them how their day is going, you never know what has led them to this arduous point in their life’s path.
Sources:
Swearingen, Deborah. “Boulder Set to Spend $2.7m on Clearing Encampments, Cleaning Parks.” Boulder Daily Camera, Boulder Daily Camera, 29 Apr. 2021, https://www.dailycamera.com/2021/04/29/boulder-set-to-spend-2-7m-on-clearing-encampments-cleaning-parks/.
“Rates of Violence against the Homeless Are Worse than You Think.” Gov1, 20 Apr. 2020, https://www.gov1.com/public-safety/articles/rates-of-violence-against-the-homeless-are-worse-than-you-think-PZ7QgDNA4F2MXDwf/.
“We Shouldn't Treat the Homeless like Criminals | Stephanie Thomson.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 25 Aug. 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/25/we-shouldnt-treat-the-homeless-like-criminals.
Langford, Katie, et al. “Homelessness.” Boulder Daily Camera, https://www.dailycamera.com/tag/homelessness/.
“International Journal of Law and Psychiatry.” International Journal of Law and Psychiatry | Vol 44, Pages 1-122 (January–February 2016) | ScienceDirect.com by Elsevier, https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/international-journal-of-law-and-psychiatry/vol/44/suppl/C.