The quiet work of a behind-the-scenes group of key government and nonprofit agencies in Colorado Springs can seem like “Mission Impossible.”

The Family Solutions Collaborative, which includes representatives from 56 local organizations, brings forth in monthly meetings the most difficult cases of families who have fallen into homelessness or are drowning in a sea of instability.

Those around the table brainstorm what the community has to offer these families, one at a time, so they can handle their crises or avoid impending disaster.

These are the people in the know, since collaborative members embody every sector involved in solving family homelessness, including judicial and legal services, schools, domestic violence prevention programs, housing providers, respite care for kids, health organizations, Head Start, overnight shelters, the library district and a host of other entities.

Clients never know the intense cooperative effort that goes into responding to their call for help.

For some cases, referrals pan out, a commitment for a personal recommendation makes a difference or general suggestions lead down the right path.

Other times, it’s hard to find available resources, said Michelle McNease, program manager for the Family Solutions Collaborative.

At last week’s August case-conferencing session, transitional housing providers with hundreds of units online had no immediate openings to place homeless families, outside of overnight emergency sheltering.

Housing is one of two issues that rise to the top of the needs’ list, McNease said. The city lacks on-the-spot, safe and secure general housing for homeless families, she said, calling it a noticeable gap.

Existing transitional housing programs including Partners in Housing, Family Life Services, Mary’s Home and Family Promise, operate different programs that carry requirements for clients — which sometimes can become a barrier, McNease said.

Other transitional programs such as Homeward Pikes Peak and Greccio Housing accept federal housing vouchers, which means waiting lists are typical.

The organizations “stay in their lane doing what they do, and it’s not a fit for everyone,” McNease said.

The other missing link in the community is transportation.

“Whether it’s needing their car to be fixed or losing transportation, that can really put a family into a crisis,” McNease said. “It’s a huge gap and it’s definitely increased or maybe just stands out because we don’t have the resources here.”

Bus passes are available from a few agencies, such as Westside Cares and Mercy’s Gate, but “that’s complicated and not realistic for a family that needs to get their kids to school or childcare or themselves to work,” she said.

Dealing with trauma

Five service providers formed the Family Solutions Collaborative in May 2019, with a goal of uniting organizations working on the front lines to zero in on the tough-to-crack cases of families who are about to be evicted, have spiraled into homelessness or are having difficulty providing necessities like food and transportation.

“We wanted to make sure they weren’t being lost off the radar,” said Mary Stegner, executive director of Partners in Housing, one of the collaborative’s founders. Her nonprofit offers a one-year of transitional housing program with support services for unmoored families.

In the industry, families are often called the hidden homeless — they typically aren’t the street people the public sees panhandling or hanging out in doorways, she said. Homeless families often live out of their cars or on couches and floors with relatives or friends, or they stay in temporary shelters.

Their needs are different and more complex than a single homeless individual, said Andy Barton, president and CEO of Catholic Charities of Central Colorado, another founding partner.

“A lot has to do with the addition of kids,” he said. “You have one or two adults managing shelter, transportation, finances, child care, school, the health of a child, the trauma they’re dealing with,” he said.

There are no firm numbers on how many homeless families live in El Paso County, McNease said, but she estimates thousands.

Times are tough, and many families are struggling with the increased cost of living, wages that haven’t matched inflation, and trauma and stress from their precarious circumstances, Stegner said.

It often just takes one bad thing — no child care, an out-of-commission car or a medical issue — to send a family into a tailspin that produces an eviction notice, said Tanya Lark, executive director of Family Life Services, another founding coalition member that provides a two-year residential program to self-sufficiency.

“And once you start down that path, it’s hard to go back,” she said.

More often, scenarios are complex with clients having multiple needs, said Matthew Ayers, CEO of Dream Centers, which runs programs for single-mother-led families exiting homelessness, including Mary’s Home, a long-term residential program.

“One of the most powerful things about this collaborative is when organizations come together, there’s immediate understanding if a family needs five or six supports,” he said.

Many questions, search for answers

What may seem like dull casework has become a vital and vibrant cog in the community’s safety net.

Collaborative members present real-time challenges at meetings, and anyone around the table can chime in with ideas of available resources and programs. Names and other identifying information are not revealed to protect families.

The primary benefit is that families get the help they need faster and with fewer dead ends, Lark said.

“It’s a pretty broad landscape of resources in our city,” she said. “Most folks are just Googling what’s here, which doesn’t always work.”

But a referral that’s reinforced by relationships yields better results, McNease said.

At last week’s session, one family is trying to find transportation for a special-needs student to attend a different school this year. Reach out to the school district’s superintendent’s office on behalf of the family, some attendees suggested, since that has worked before.

An undocumented pregnant immigrant with no money, no income, no housing and no English skills seeks a place to live. An employee of Centro de la Familia, which caters to the Latino population, said she can possibly help.

Some attendees wondered if the client is addicted to a substance? If so, Bloom House might work.

A newcomer in town, Mater Filius, is geared toward pregnant women. Mary’s Home, a long-term residential program for single-mother-led families exiting homelessness, could be a match after the birth, another attendee said.

A man who has custody of two children is struggling with alcohol and marijuana use, depression and no employment. Does he need detox before counseling, was a question asked. Outpatient detox treatment is available locally, perhaps through Recovery Unlimited.

Is it a case of domestic violence? Try TESSA, Kingdom Builders and Family Life Services.

Is there respite care for families whose foster kids have been kicked out of school? someone asked. Maybe Safe Families for Children or Pikes Peak Respite Services.

What about a convicted felon and mother of three, who’s staying at the Salvation Army’s Family Hope Center and has no income? Or a pregnant woman on bedrest whose husband is incarcerated on domestic violence charges against her? Where can she go?

“Are they willing to go to Denver,” has become a common question posed, as Denver has more choices.

‘Tricky to track’

The collaborative hears the end result in about 1 in 5 cases that workers present during meetings, McNease said. The family might receive helpful resources, or the loop is closed because the family got what they needed, or they are still actively working toward the goal and haven’t given up. All are considered successes.

“It’s a tricky thing to track,” McNease said. “The nature of homelessness and being in a vulnerable situation means people are not always responsive to a follow-up.”

But many say the collaborative is valuable if nothing else than for knowing what other organizations do and what the options are for troubleshooting.

“A lot of times, the direct-service providers are so buried in their work they don’t know what’s happening in the larger community,” McNease said.

What the collaborative is able to do, said Barton, is increase the odds of families connecting to the right services, “so that they can at least get everything that’s available to them.

“We had a family that came up at the collaborative, and it turned out there was an opening that day,” he said. “We’d never know that would have happened if we didn’t have all those adults in the room that day.”

Classroom to housing

A new project that was born out of the collaborative will provide another alternative.

Catholic Charities is remodeling a former elementary school in the Hillside neighborhood, now called the Helen Hunt Campus, to transform old classrooms into new apartments for families who are homeless. The revamped building on the large campus that also leases space to organizations and a coffee shop, should open next summer.

The community has a “dramatic lack of resources,” Barton of Catholic Charities said.

“We certainly hope the Hunt project will be able to address that by virtue of it being a low-barrier, housing first model,” he said.

That means homeless families can receive immediate housing without as many hoops to jump through. The organization’s decision to go with that type of program was driven by the collaborative.

“The frustration we were seeing from folks around the table around housing helped us to justify investing the time and money in developing more opportunities for families,” Barton said.

Another positive note, Stegner of Partners in Housing said, is that as more affordable housing comes on the market in the region — which will come to fruition with several new complexes under construction — some residents will leave transitional housing for permanent units, freeing up more transitional living.

Three local organizations including Stegner’s are building 192 affordable units for very-low and low-income residents that’s scheduled to open next year in southeast Colorado Springs.

The Family Solutions Collaborative envisions further coalescence of knowledge beyond resources available to anyone in need by calling Pikes Peak United Way’s 211 hotline.

“We see the front gate is the places where families at-risk are observed — employers, schools, churches, the department of human services, libraries,” McNease said. “We want to provide education on where do people go. A person doesn’t know where to send people who are losing their housing or needing identification. Could there be an expert, a place where this front gate knows where the supports are? Because supporting families comes from all directions, and the needs are complex.”