Potential Pueblo warming shelter for homeless draws scrutiny, again

The city of Pueblo approved a plan Tuesday to reuse a warehouse on the 900 block of 9th street as a temporary warming shelter for the homeless.

This is the third plan for a temporary homeless shelter this council has approved in just two months. The first plan was to renovate the Bargain Box on 4th Street, and the second was to set up warming tents on the parking lot of the old Pueblo Rescue Mission, also on 4th Street.

The building used to be the former home of Pueblo Foods, but now city council members hope it will warm hundreds of homeless during the upcoming winter.

Monday night, Pueblo Council members gave unanimous approval to an emergency ordinance allowing the temporary use of the former Pueblo foods warehouse as a warming shelter.

The plan to build warming tents at the old Rescue Mission on 4th street was scrapped after insurance and logistic issues.

The $250,000 put towards the warming tents will be used for repurposing the warehouse on 9th street.

“As soon as we made that decision a gentleman came forth with the opportunity to lease his building short-term and it just made a lot more sense,” said Pueblo City Council member, Mark Aliff, who has been leading the way on the homeless problem in Pueblo for nearly a year.

Aliff says the building is large enough to warm large numbers of people and has running water and electricity.

The city is currently negotiating leasing agreements with the owner of the property. The neighbors living in the area aren’t too happy with the arrangement.

Gary Jordan owns the property right across the street from the potential warming shelter. Jordan says the city is rushing this plan and doesn’t feel that the warehouse is habitable.

“High ceilings, it is all built out of cement so it is going to be expensive to heat,” said Jordan. “There is noting in it. There are better options.”

Jordan says he and many of his fellow neighbors, both business residential owners, say their number one concern is security.

“The people are going to get kicked out of the shelter in the morning and where are they going to go?” asks Jordan. “They are going to go onto our property.”

Neighbors say they are afraid the shelter could bring more theft, man-made fires, and decreasing property values. They feel like they’ve been left in the dark throughout this decision.

“Well have security at the building even when it isn’t open,” said Aliff when asked about the security concerns. “We’re going to ask security to patrol the area outside the shelter to make sure there aren’t any shenanigans going on. We are going to be very proactive.”

The city and owner of the property are currently negotiating the lease agreement.

Aliff hopes to have the temporary warming shelter operational by December 10th.