Pueblo working towards new temporary housing solution fit with showers and bathrooms
PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) -- Pueblo wouldn't be the first in the state of Colorado to employ this type of shelter to combat homelessness.
In Friday's State of the City address, Pueblo Mayor Heather Graham announced the city is working towards building a Pallet Shelter Community on 4th Street between the Pueblo Rescue Mission and Emergency Shelter.
"To further support those in need, the city has allocated funding for Pallet Shelter Communities equipped with restrooms and shower facilities. This is a project we will complete in phases in the next coming years," Mayor Graham said.
An empty lot between the rescue mission and emergency shelter could be future location.
Denver has three of these temporary housing communities; Elati Village, La Paz, and Stay Inn. Officials with the Denver Department of Housing Stability tell KRDO13 they've, "Moved 2,230+ people from unsheltered homelessness to indoors since the initiative began in July 2023."
Between the three shelters, 75 people have found permanent housing and the longest average length of stay at the three shelters is 125 days.
"What the model really does is allows people to stabilize, de-traumatize, and connect with services. There are a lot of folks who cannot go straight from the streets to permanent housing. They need to connect with services and figure out what's next and how to move forward. That's really what this is," Amy King is the CEO of Pallet. King says they've built 134 shelter communities across North America.
King says more than 60% of the people who stay at their shelters go on to find permanent housing, but not all of that is finding a brand new place to live. King says a lot of those people use the temporary shelter before returning home to a family member or partner.
"We do not have a history of crime in the communities, and the reason is because we actually require the cities that we partner with to assign and contract a service provider for the site," King told KRDO13 crime rates go down in the areas around the housing communities, despite no disqualifiers for people looking to get into a shelter. She says a lot of the time people experiencing homelessness are victims of crime, but the stability offered at the shelter communities helps, and Denver can back that up.
The Denver Department of Housing Stability says one of their communities, La Paz, had only 15 calls for service to law enforcement in 2024. While the areas around all three communities have not seen elevated levels of crime or calls for service.
Having a service provider on site 24/7 is only one of the five prerequisites Pallet requires of a city before they enter a partnership. King calls them the five dignity standards:
- 1. 24/7 service provision
- 2. Access to hygiene (bathrooms, showers, laundry, etc.)
- 3. Must address food insecurity
- 4. Transportation nearby
- 5. Safety and security
King said Pallet has relationships that can help cities meet these five points if they an unable to on their own.
KRDO13 reached out to Pueblo City Officials for more details, but they said they couldn't share more details with us today, but will in the future.
