Colorado Springs shelters take in nearly 900 homeless as temperatures dive
Colorado Springs’ shelters and ad hoc warming centers accommodated nearly 900 homeless people who sought to escape Sunday night’s subzero temperatures.
The 352 people that hundreds of Hope COS volunteers removed from outdoor camps and under bridges and transported to emergency overnight centers inside three local churches set a record, the organization’s founder Melissa Oskin said Monday.
“It’s just about double what we had as a high before that,” she said.
Three churches and a small advocacy center have opened their doors day and night since the polar vortex descended on southern Colorado on Friday.
The Sanctuary Church, 1930 W. Colorado Ave., Vista Grande United Church of Christ at North Union Boulevard and West Montebello Drive, and First United Methodist Church, 420 N. Nevada Ave., are providing a place to sleep for homeless individuals and families, along with free meals, snacks and companionship as they weather the storm.
The Chinook Center, 2551 Airport Road, also has opened to shelter 20 people, Oskin said.
But Hope COS is reaching its limit and will shut down temporarily after Tuesday morning, she said.
Hope COS expanded its programs to offer cold-weather emergency shelter option a little over a year ago. Whenever the temperature drops below 20 degrees Fahrenheit, the program is activated, under a model that says anyone who needs an overnight stay and transportation is provided the services, no questions asked.
People are allowed to step outside and do whatever they need to while taking shelter, Oskin said.
This go-round, the program has been in effect since Jan. 6 and is running out of steam and money, according to Oskin.
Thus, it will stop services after Tuesday morning and reboot during future storms as it can.
“I know the temperatures will drop right below 20 degrees a few more days this week, but we’re tapped on resources — we rely on small private donations like $10 or $25 here or there,” Oskin said.
“We’re just capped; we’re trying to cover the dangerous times right now.”
Many people who have been trying to ride out the frigid temperatures are coming to the temporary warming centers with frostbite, Oskin added.
“There’s a lot of people we’ve never seen before that are coming in that usually stay outside no matter what,” she said.
It’s too soon to tell whether anyone has died during this temperatures, said El Paso County Coroner Dr. Leon Kelly.
“There’s been nothing out of the normal so far,” he said. “It may take a few days to discover individuals who have died in the cold once it warms up and folks are back out around town to find them.”
The Pikes Peak Office of Emergency Management and community and public health division of the Colorado Springs Fire Department have been holding daily meetings to support shelters’ efforts around town.
More than 350 people have been staying each day and night of the arctic snap at Springs Rescue Mission, the city’s largest homeless shelter that’s open 365 days a year, said Travis Williams, chief development officer.
During its emergency protocols when temperatures drop below 20 degrees, the rescue mission switches gears to accommodate the influx of people seeking refuge from the elements.
“Most of the time during the year we work on programs to attempt to get people out of homelessness, but when we go into emergency services protocol, we’re not in a programmatic mode, we’re in life-safety procedures with all hands on deck,” Williams said.
That means “everybody who needs shelter can find it,” he said.
Employees do not enforce any suspensions during the internal emergency designation, Williams said.
Normally, people can be suspended for usually three to seven days for behavior that endangers or otherwise negatively affects others staying at the shelter or working there, he said.
But such periods are put on hold when the weather is numbingly cold.
That does not apply to the small percentage of clients who are restricted, usually because of sexual assault or predatory behavior on site, Williams said.
And, although no substances are allowed on the rescue mission’s campus, people can enter and stay while being high or having used drugs or alcohol before coming, he said.
“We can do everything we can to make sure people who need shelter can find shelter,” Williams said.
The campus’s day center is packed on days like southern Colorado has seen recently. The rescue mission is expanding to accommodate about 350 people during the day, but other spaces on the large rescue mission campus are open when the weather is life-threatening, Williams said.
“We have a campus with multiple buildings, and when we need to we can bend and flex to save lives — that’s the heartbeat of our organization, to do whatever we can to ensure as many people as possible have access to lifesaving services.”
And nearly 200 people can stay at the Salvation Army’s Montgomery Family Hope Center, which last year was remodeled to provide individual suites to homeless families.
Since opening in May under the new model, the shelter typically is full, Capt. Doug Hanson, who leads the El Paso County Corps, has told The Gazette.
Contact the writer: 719-476-1656.
Downtown Colorado Springs was quiet on a bitterly cold Monday, Jan. 15, 2024.
