In Denver’s Ballpark district, a homemade device chirps at the homeless
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DENVER — A blue cube, about the size of a shoebox, is bolted to the side of an apartment building in downtown Denver.
Sheltered from the elements by a custom awning and protective cage, the cube, positioned about 12 feet from the ground, is a device called the Blue Chirper. It includes a motion sensor that is triggered when someone walks or stands within a few feet of the box.
Once activated, the device flashes a blue strobe light and plays a cricket noise that is designed to alarm — and irritate — people enough to move elsewhere.
The Blue Chirper’s intentionally annoying technology reflects a novel tactic to ward off unsheltered homelessness in Denver, one that has been criticized as irritating at best, and mean-spirited at worst.
Denver’s only Blue Chirper, so far, on the side of Curtis Street Lofts, is meant to prevent homeless encampments and public drug usage, according to the device’s inventor and the building’s owner.
The goal of the device is to “just make a little bit of noise [to say], ‘you know what, maybe you should go next door and do your fentanyl there rather than here,” said its creator, Steven McMahon.
“Or even better, maybe you could check out one of the lavishly funded new shelters that we’ve got,” said McMahon, who lives in Santa Monica, California.
The Ballpark district has a sizable unhoused population due in large part to the density of homeless services in the area. The Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, Denver Rescue Mission and St. Francis Center are all a short walk from Curtis Street Lofts.
Anti-homeless landscaping has sprung up in the neighborhood as well. Ornamental metal spikes stop people from sitting on ledges. Planter boxes filled with rocks line the sidewalks to prevent tent encampments. Four years ago, dozens of concrete parking blocks replaced a homeless encampment just a few steps away from Curtis Street Lofts.
This so-called “hostile architecture” is common in other parts of Denver, too. Kayvan Khalatbari, the co-founder of Sexy Pizza, has been a vocal critic of anti-homeless landscaping in Capitol Hill.
“It pushes these people that are just looking for a safe place to be into the recesses that are unsafe," he told Denverite in 2022.
Play the video below to hear the chirp.
Play the video below to hear the chirp.
The Blue Chirper's chirp. Video: Kyle Cooke, Rocky Mountain PBS
“Technically being on this sidewalk isn’t breaking the law,” said Michael, a 44-year-old unhoused man who frequents the area because of its proximity to the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless and its Stout Street Health Center. “This is public property. It belongs to us, not them.”
Loitering is technically a petty crime, but Michael, who only wanted to give his first name, feels like the Blue Chirper and other devices like it are a violation of his rights.
The owner of Curtis Street Lofts, Joni Masket, does not sympathize with that view.
“They don't need to have any rights as far as I'm concerned,” said Masket, who also owns property in Lakewood and Littleton, of the people who hang around her building. “They need to clear out. There's only one reason they're there and it's drugs.”
“It’s bad enough to be houseless, but then to have something chirping like a cricket and flashing lights… it’s mean,” said Ana Miller with Housekeys Action Network, an organization that advocates for people experiencing homelessness. “It’s dehumanizing.”
Miller, who was unhoused for several years, said anti-loitering devices aren’t always effective. Rocky Mountain PBS passed the Blue Chirper around 10 a.m. on August 26. Several people were standing outside Curtis Street Lofts and the device was constantly chirping. Nobody appeared to disperse because of the noise.
“There’s already enough enforcement downtown,” Miller said, referring to the police presence. “That person won’t get to stand there very long anyways.”
The Blue Chirper outside Curtis Streets Lofts is the first one in Colorado, according to McMahon. He invented the Blue Chirper two years ago and still assembles each one in his condo.
“It’s a jalopy,” he said about the Blue Chirper. “It’s a lot of parts from all kinds of different things.”
McMahon became motivated to create a diversion device in the summer of 2023 after two unhoused men harassed his neighbors — a young mother and her 20-month-old daughter — in the parking and storage area of his condo complex. He has since built around 150 units and now fulfills between 40 and 60 orders a month.
A prosecutor friend of McMahon’s told him the device should mimic a sound in nature so as to be in compliance with local noise ordinances. The flashing blue lights purposefully resemble police lights.
McMahon also hopes the blue light discourages intravenous drug use since it becomes harder for users to find a vein under the cobalt hue. Other cities and hospitals have turned to blue lights for the same reason, but research found the lights’ effects may be limited.
Three-quarters of his customers are women and most of them put the Blue Chirpers outside of their businesses or properties they own, McMahon said.
Businesses across the U.S. have used the Blue Chirper’s annoyance-as-deterrence strategy. A barbershop in L.A. blasted “Baby Shark” earlier this year to discourage homeless encampments. A Chicago Walgreens blared classical music, and a San Diego 7-11 played an opera.
“I get criticism for being mean to the homeless,” McMahon said. “We call this ‘non-aggressive diversion security.’ We are not trying to punish anyone. We feel for these people. We know that they’re in despair [and] we know why they’re in despair — this is an economic problem. And we understand that. But at the same time, we have to live.”
An August 26 report from the Urban Institute showed that Denver has “significantly reduced” the number of large homeless encampments in the city. But smaller encampments and loitering are still common in parts of downtown, including the intersection near Curtis Street Lofts.
A resident of Curtis Street Lofts named Alex, whose last name Rocky Mountain PBS is choosing to omit to avoid publishing her full name and address on the internet, said she often works from home on her apartment balcony.
Alex said unhoused people started congregating outside her building when the weather warmed up earlier this year.
“It might be because of the shade from some of the balconies,” she said. “But then it started getting really bad and residents were getting harassed.”
Before the interview with Rocky Mountain PBS, Alex didn’t know where the chirping sound was coming from.
“I’ve been wondering what the hell that is for the last few weeks,” she said. She hears it “all day, every day” and can hear the chirps from her bedroom. She thought it was a neighbor’s ringtone.
“I don’t know if it’s making that much of a difference,” she said.
Alex moved into the apartment in February. She said the management company did not alert residents about the Blue Chirper’s installation earlier this year.
The apartment’s property management company, Bergan & Company, did not return a request for comment and Masket, the building’s owner, said she contractually does not have communication with the residents.
However, Masket said she hasn’t been told of any complaints about the Blue Chirper.
“I pay an eff-ton [sic] of taxes and I should not have my property compromised by people that are loitering and doing drugs and making drug deals and not paying taxes,” she said of criticisms that the device is mean-spirited toward a vulnerable population. “It's my taxes that are going to clean their mess up.”
“I am being mean-spirited about it,” she added. “I don't care.”
Type of story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. To read more about why you can trust the journalism of Rocky Mountain PBS, please visit our editorial standards and practices page.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. To read more about why you can trust the journalism of Rocky Mountain PBS, please visit our editorial standards and practices page.