$2.3 million in grant funding to address Colorado Springs homelessness
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Homelessness has become a growing problem in our state, and resources for people experiencing it can be limited.
That could soon change with a grant worth $2.3 million coming to the Pikes Peak region.
Sen. Cory Garder (R-CO) announced this week Colorado is receiving $31.8 million in funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Pikes Peak Continuum of Care (CoC), which covers all of Colorado Springs and El Paso County, is aimed at providing more housing and services for people experiencing homelessness.
Jennifer Mariano, Director of Homeless Programs in the city, explains where the funding will go.
Mariano: These funds go to help these housing units like transitional housing, permanent support housing. But that's not enough, there is 2.3 million dollars that help the community, support the operations and ensure that as units become available people are being housed.
Q: Are there currently enough resources for people experiencing homelessness?
Mariano: We still have 709 people on our housing list that don't have appropriate resources. They've been prioritized based on needs, behavioral health, disabilities, substance abuse so we can pair them up for the appropriate housing. So $2.3 million is a lot of money, but we can always use more.
Q: How would you describe people in our community experiencing homelessness?
Mariano: When we think about homelessness we think about those individuals we see panhandling, which aren't necessarily homeless. We have people who are living in emergency shelters that don't have a safe place to live, we have people who are doubled up with other families, and we have people who aren't necessarily living on the street yet but are one paycheck away from that.
Q: How does the Continuum Care Program work?
Mariano: We have a wide variety of services and ways we can support them [the homeless community], also getting them connected with family and friends while they get back on their feet.
