UPDATE: Plan would provide bus tickets for homeless in Pueblo

MONDAY

Pueblo’s homeless community is responding to a proposal to buy bus tickets for transportation to homes outside of Colorado.

KRDO NewsChannel 13 spoke with a representative of the Salvation Army and area homeless to learn what they think of the idea.

Local leaders estimate that Pueblo has 5,000 homeless people and Pueblo County has 11,000, and many of them are asking for bus tickets to take them farther than 100 miles.

“(Most of them) talk about going back to the South and the Southeast,” said the Rev. Doug Cox, one of several local leaders involved in the effort with local chaplains, the Department of Human Services, Pueblo’s budget office and county commissioners.

“Maybe if we help a homeless person get back home, they’ll find someone familiar, like a coach, teacher or employer, who can help them get back into the workforce,” he said.

Cox said the proposal also would help a growing number of homeless families with children.

But Rose Mertz of the Salvation Army is skeptical of the idea, saying that the agency rarely hands out bus tickets because few people can confirm they’ll have a support system back home.

“It’s one thing to say they can go home,” she said. “But can they really? There needs to be follow-up case management to ensure that they will have a place to live and the support they need. If there isn’t, they’ll just be in the same situation.”

Still, Grant Franco, a homeless Pueblo native, said he likes the bus ticket idea.

“Family support is very important,” he said. “If I had a chance to get a bus ticket back home, I would do it because you have to have that love and family.”

Cox says he understands the proposal may be criticized — as it was in Colorado Springs — by people who believe it just makes homelessness the problem of another community.

“We just have to accept that in trying to help those in need, we may be taken advantage of,” he said.

Cox said homelessness in Pueblo has increased because of legalized marijuana, because of people who came looking for jobs or places to live, and because of homeless people forced out from other communities.

County commissioners will discuss the proposal again next month.

APRIL 12

A chaplains’ group in Pueblo suggests providing transportation for homeless people who are stranded in town with no means of support, according to our partners at the Pueblo Chieftain.

The Pueblo Area Law Enforcement Chaplains Corps made the suggestion Monday during a work session of Pueblo County commissioners.

A PALECC member, the Rev. Doug Cox of Parkhill Baptist Church, said he’s working with the group and Commissioner Sal Pace on the plan.

The PALECC is asking the county for $25,000 to be used to provide hotel rooms and public transportation to homeless people who need help reaching family and friends in other cities who can support them.

The PALECC previously provided a free bus voucher for that purpose, but the ticket was limited to a distance of 100 miles.

Homeless people who request a voucher would have to prove that they have family or friends in a certain area and that they have no outstanding criminal charges.

The money would come from marijuana fines against business that violate procedures.

Colorado Springs implemented a similar plan in 2010 with a $5,000 grant from the Salvation Army.