Homeless population continues to grow in Pueblo

While organizations in Denver and Colorado Springs are currently conducting a count of their homeless population, more than 1,200 homeless people are living in Pueblo County, according to last year’s point-in-time homeless count.

A count wasn’t done this year because it is done every other year.

Johnny Lee Miller is just one of them. He said he’s been homeless for almost 40 years and has a hard time finding help.

“I’d like to see them put me the hell to work. I’m tired of sitting around on my rear end,” Miller said.

Many of these people are out on the streets because organizations like Posada have limited resources.

“It takes a lot of money, a lot of time, and right now, we don’t have that,” said Anne Stattleman, the director of Posada.

Posada just completed its homeless count of people who stay in shelters last week and the results are not promising.

“Maybe 10 percent will be in [a] shelter. All it shows us really is that we have a huge gap between the number of shelter beds we have and the number of shelter beds and housing we need for this population,” Stattleman said.

That means people like Dale Rossell will have to keep fending for themselves.

“You go get a cup of soup [at the soup kitchen], or maybe a doughnut or a cup of coffee and maybe the shelter opened over here if you’re freezing to death. But that’s about all Pueblo offers for the homeless,” Rossell said.

Stattleman said she was hoping to start seeing numbers drop, but isn’t optimistic, especially since only one percent of housing in Pueblo is available.