Pueblo City Council votes to claim Rescue Mission building & approve funding to upkeep its services

PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) - On Tuesday, Pueblo City Council voted on two ordinances to address the procurement of another building belonging to the Pueblo Rescue Mission, as well as funding for the city to maintain operations of the organization. The city council president even suggested the city should permanently take over the services.

The votes come as the Rescue Mission has fallen into disarray in recent months, highlighted by news KRDO13 first broke in mid-September about a Senior employee stealing money directly from shelter residents.

Pueblo City Council voted yes to the two ordinances, allowing the city to take over the Pueblo Rescue Mission entirely, after signing over the deeds to one of their addresses earlier this month.

With that vote, the council also approved funding to the tune of about 200,000 dollars within the city's budget, to keep the Rescue Mission's operations going until the city can find a proper bid from another community organization to take the reins from the city.

Council President Mark Aliff took time to speak at the outset of the meeting, explaining his desire to have the city create a new department to outright own the shelter service and not hand it off to another organization out of fears that history will repeat itself as it has in late 2024, and in years prior.

"I think that the city has the resources when it comes to grant writing that is second to none, grant writing department, who knows what they're doing, and they know how to get this done and they know how to fund it," said Aliff on Tuesday night. "I would be willing to bet that it would cost the city less money to have it as a department, and how we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars every year and have no say so in anything, and don't know what's going on." he later added.

Mayor of Pueblo, Heather Graham told KRDO13 ahead of the meeting on Tuesday that the city is trying to keep operations going smoothly ahead of the cold winter months that are closing in. She said as of this past weekend, 35 people are currently at the Rescue Mission.

"They have jobs. They're trying to find housing. And so what we don't want to do is disrupt how far they've come. So the city is going to take a reaction that it can to make sure that those people don't have to worry about what they're going to do when it gets cold and that they have a residence," Graham said.

The mayor also explained that they'll have their bidding process begin shortly and will hopefully have the rescue mission change hands in time for the winter months.

"It will be on the next week or ten days, and then we'll post it for 21 days and then there will be kind of a process, going through to see who we select, making sure they're a good fit for us and we're a good fit for them," explained Graham, who says they've even gotten interest from groups in Colorado Springs and even Denver on taking over the Rescue Mission.

"We don't have the wraparound services or the clinicians or the peer support that some of the other nonprofits do. So we're hoping to partner with somebody that can help," the mayor added about their hopes a new organization can take over sooner than later.

However, in the meantime, and in the event the bid process for a new suitor should take longer than anticipated, the City of Pueblo will be paying for 'overhead' and operational costs for the Rescue Mission.

Per the Rescue Missions Board of Directors, Graham said it costs roughly $60,000 per month to do so, but she claims that not having a homelessness service such as the Rescue Mission available to residents in the city, can be more costly than that monthly figure.

"You potentially could have an additional 75 to 100 homeless people on the streets. So you're looking to shelter over the winter, I think that it could end up costing the city even more than just making sure that they have a place to stay and that there's wraparound services being provided," explained Graham.

President Aliff explains that within the Pueblo City Charter, they are allowed to create a new department for certain needs within the city, however he says that would still be a work in progress.

For now the bidding process will continue to find an outside replacement, as detailed by Mayor Graham.