HOMELESS OUTREACH PROGRAMS

Current Situation: Excerpts from Gazette Story August 3, 2011

Program Funding Ends Suddenly

Sherry Strength knows exactly where she and her four young grandchildren would be if not for a housing program at a small motel on East Platte Avenue.

“We’d be living in a van,” said the 57-year-old Strength, whose grandchildren range in age from 4 to 10. “I don’t know what I would have done without this place.”

It’s a common refrain among the hundreds of people who have found refuge at the Aztec since Homeward Pikes Peak started a massive outreach program in early 2010 to get homeless campers out of the tent cities that had sprung up near downtown and the west side. The program, funded primarily through grants from the El Pomar Foundation, several churches and the city, first operated at the Express Inn, then moved to the Aztec a few months later. Its focus also shifted from assisting campers to helping the many families who have abruptly found themselves without jobs and housing in the economic downturn.

Homeward Pikes Peak executive director Bob Holmes touts the successes of the program: 75 percent of the (more than 1,400) clients have moved onto self-sufficiency, and 206 have found jobs.

But the program is suddenly at risk of closing Nov. 1 if funding isn’t found soon. Springs Rescue Mission, which had agreed to take over the cost of the Aztec program this year, notified Holmes 11 days ago that it was exercising an option to withdraw its offer and will end its funding in 90 days. Larry Yonker, chief development officer for Springs Rescue Mission, said the agency couldn’t raise the funds to meet its $17,500-a-month obligation.

The decision has Holmes scrambling to line up funding for the Aztec, and he’s going to faith-based organizations and other regular funders for short-term help, with plans to apply for major long-term grants soon after. He’s also asking the city to contribute $100,000.

“The problem for me is, I didn’t do any funding requests since I figured I was handing it off,” Holmes said. “This is an emergency situation.”

Holmes said he’s seeing an “epidemic” of evictions as average rents in the area keep climbing to record levels and unemployment remains high. Even if the Springs Rescue Mission program begins as planned in November, Holmes and Yonker agree that shuttering the Aztec program will leave a lot of needy people in the lurch.

In a letter to funders, Holmes emphasizes that the program costs $8 per night to house one person, and can serve about 360 people a year for under $700 per person.

“I don’t think any program accomplishes more using fewer dollars,” he wrote.

He also makes it clear that the program is not a freebie, and participants can be kicked out if they don’t play by the rules. Adults are required to do eight hours of community service a week and five job searches a day. Their rooms have to pass inspection. In return, they get a small room, and program manager Teresa McLaughlin offers life skills classes and other support. Plenty of adults are around to babysit the kids while their parents hunt for jobs.

“Teresa doesn’t allow people to suck the system,” Strength said. “There are no freeloaders. She wants to see you progress and better yourself. Your accomplishments are their accomplishments.”

The Aztec also accepts people who many other agencies can’t or won’t, Holmes said, including those with non-violent felonies on their records and parents with more than two children.

Strength and another Aztec resident, Alfredo Castaneda, are each caring for four children while trying to find work, and said they couldn’t find a place that would accept them because they had too many kids. Castaneda ended up sleeping under a bridge while his children stayed in a one-bedroom apartment with relatives. Strength tried staying in motels, but it got too expensive.

“This was it. This was my only option,” Strength said. “It’s not the Waldorf, but it’s a place to sleep and it has running water. I’m so appreciative.”

About 75 people — 34 of them children — were living at the Aztec last week, and McLaughlin had a waiting list of seven families on Tuesday. But on any day, she’s likely to field requests for help from people who have been referred by other agencies, or who heard about the Aztec from a friend. Holmes said without the Aztec, more people will be forced to return to camping or living in their cars.

“I don’t think a lot of people in this community really know how desperate it is for some people in this city,” Strength said. “It’s scary to think that if this shuts down, I’ll have nowhere to go. A lot of us are in the same boat.”