Dozens of migrant families finding help in Colorado Springs
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - Nearly a dozen migrant families are currently being sheltered in Colorado Springs.
The Salvation Army says they have served twenty-three families who self-identify as migrants over the last four to five weeks. While there was talk of migrants being bussed to El Paso County, leaders explained there is no coordinated effort like that going on.
Doug Hanson with the Salvation Army says he called Mayor Mobolade this past weekend saying the shelter was seeing several migrants come through their doors.
Hanson says the shelter has helped twenty-three families over the last four to five weeks, and they're currently housing eleven families. Hanson says each family is averaging around three to four people.
The Salvation Army has talked to the migrant families and they say that they arrived by bus or by Uber.
"It's more of an organic transition. We've only seen one family this day, zero that day, maybe two was the most, or three was the most we ever saw on a single given day. And and so in that whole population, most of them have cycled out."
Hanson says the migrant families they've talked to say they were given bus vouchers by Denver Human Services, but they didn't necessarily have a given destination on them, like a one-way ticket to Colorado Springs.
We've reached out to Denver Human Services who say that they do supply bus tickets to migrants that ask for them but don't push migrants to travel within the state.
The city provides migrant guests who wish to stay in Denver with shelter and support, which includes two weeks in shelter for individual adults and six weeks for families with children. However, many individuals arriving in Denver from the southern border have other destinations in mind. This is often because they were bused to Denver in spite of their actual wishes. Our priority is to ensure migrant guests are treated fairly and are placed in a situation that fits their needs, like built-in support systems, family connections or job opportunities. Individual tickets are purchased based on destination requests directly from migrants to various cities, after assurances are gathered that the individual or family truly desires the intended location. While we have in very rare circumstances purchased tickets for cities within Colorado, it is not Denver’s policy to push travel within the state.
City of Denver
Today, Mayor Mobolade thanked the Salvation Army for stepping up to take care of these families, though he was also firm in saying Colorado Springs is not going to "adopt a crisis," meaning become a sanctuary city.
Earlier this week, this week El Paso County commissioners urged nonprofits to not provide aid.
