How 3 in Colorado Springs escaped the cycle of homelessness

The nearly 400 homeless camp clean-ups in the City of Colorado Springs might be leading people to more resources.

In the last two months, the Springs Rescue mission has seen an influx of people who say they’re tired of jumping from camp to camp and want to turn their lives around.

One of those people is Margarita Palma.

She came to Colorado a few months ago with a promise of a job, but when it fell through, she ended up on the streets.

“Well we thought we can do this for a little bit, you know, try to find, places where we can get help and try to find work,” she said.

That didn’t last long before she realized she needed help.

She started staying at the Springs Rescue Mission and soon, she started to work there.

Now she sorts through donations inside the Mission’s warehouse and hopes in the next few months she can get another job and find a place of her home.

Palma says, “Hopefully, it’s not that long.”

Ezra Huerta has a similar story. He also came to Colorado for work but lived in homeless camps for over a month.

“There’s no camping allowed around here so you constantly pick up your tent wherever you’re sleeping and move it to another location,” he explained.

He said one morning, he knew his life had to change.

Huerta says, “I woke up one morning and just thought, I’m dirty. My face was dirty. I had dirt all over me.”

Now he’s in the process of finding a job through the mission too.

Shelly McPherson is just getting started. She’s been off the streets for one night.

“I think I’m done camping,” she says.

All she has is her pack with basic hygiene necessities and the jacket her son, who is a Fort Carson soldier currently deployed overseas, gave her.

“I treat this like gold,” she said as she held up a camouflage green jacket.

She moved to Colorado and started living with her son and his roommates before they were deployed. That’s when she fell on hard times.

Like those before her, she knows a road to recovery won’t come easy.

As Palma explained, “It’s worth it at the end.”