Bill Lawson threw open the doors to a large storage space on Tuesday that he hopes will open opportunities to the city’s homeless campers as they leave their tents for sturdier structures.

That migration gains urgency this week, as the Colorado Springs Police Department says it will begin issuing verbal warnings on Thursday to violators of the city’s no-camping ordinance, and could choose to begin jailing the homeless as soon as Sunday.

“The arrest is a last-ditch thing,” said Officer M.J. Thomson of the Homeless Outreach Team. “That’s the absolute last thing we’re going to do.”

Homeless outreach volunteers have said repeatedly that storage is a major stumbling block to getting many homeless people to leave their encampments, as they want a place to stash their stuff when they go to a shelter or a motel room.

“They’ve already lost practically everything,” volunteer Karl McLaughlin said, “and losing the rest will just crush them again.”

So, Lawson made it happen. He met the McLaughlins at a community meeting on homelessness last week, heard their request, and rented a storage unit for $140 a month that he said he’ll maintain for at least six months.

The 8-foot by 48-foot space is lined with shelves that Lawson bought, and he thinks it can accommodate essentials for about 60 people.

“If we put enough of these little blocks together, maybe we’ll build something that works,” Lawson said. “We need to get some of these people off the streets and quit this revolving door thing we do.

“This problem is not going away.”

Lawson, 62, founded the homeless outreach Cultural Displacement of Colorado two years ago – not an official non-profit, just one guy’s mission that he funds himself. He started out looking to help fellow Vietnam veterans, but his mission has grown in scope.

Thomson said the police are planning to use the storage space as another tool as they transition the homeless from camps to other shelter. And several agencies that help the homeless say they also can use it.

The storage space will be open 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday and Saturday for dropoffs. Contact Lawson for more details at 471-9445 or 352-5426.

“We’re wanting to fill this place up,” he said. “That’s the idea.”

Bill Lawson at the storage unit he’s rented to provide Colorado Springs’ homeless with a free place to put their stuff as they move off the street and into shelter. Photo by Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette