Landscapers take homeless out of camps, into shelters

Teresa and Karl McLaughlin didn’t want this story to be about them.

Sorry, guys.

When you're getting credit for moving 55 homeless people out of local camps and into shelters in just a few days, you deserve to take a bow.

“It’s really amazing what they’ve done,” Keep Colorado Springs Beautiful's executive director Dee Cunningham said Thursday while overseeing a cleanup of “Camp 34” along Fountain Creek in the 3400 block of West Colorado Avenue. “They’ve been out here daily.”

The McLaughlins didn’t intend to become uber volunteers. They own a sprinkler-landscaping business and just wanted to do something to help the Camp 34 residents. So they started bringing chili and cornbread to them in early November.

Over time, they got to know the campers and learned more about their stories and their needs. The more the McLaughlins heard, the more they wanted to help get the people out of the camps and integrated back into society.

“We tried to find out what their problems are so we can find them solutions,” Teresa said. “For some, it’s grief. For some, it’s job loss. For some, it’s mental illness — we’re finding that a lot.”

The couple’s efforts got an indirect boost from a no-camping ordinance passed by City Council on Feb. 9. The El Pomar Foundation offered Homeward Pikes Peak, the city’s umbrella agency on homelessness, up to $100,000 in grants to get homeless into shelters, contingent on the ordinance passing.

The ordinance won’t take effect for a least a couple weeks, but McLaughlins got working with Homeward Pikes Peak executive director Bob Holmes to put that money to use.

By Wednesday night, Holmes said the McLaughlins had helped about 44 people move out of several camps. By Thursday morning, Teresa put the number at 55. By midday Thursday, Camp 34, which once had about 26 people in 15 tents, was down to two people in one tent.

“They’re the best outreach workers we have,” said Officer Dan McCormack of the Colorado Springs Police Department’s Homeless Outreach Team.

Most of the people who have left the camps with the McLaughlins’ help have moved into the Express Inn, a hotel at Cimarron and Eighth streets that sublets rooms to the nonprofit C-C Boarding Home Annex to house the homeless. C-C Boarding Home provides case management and an array of services to help the homeless get their lives on track.

But the McLaughlins aren’t just trying to get the campers out of the cold. Every day, they follow up to help them find jobs and get them into programs if they have substance abuse problems or mental health issues.

“They’re working harder than any of us,” Cunningham said.

Several campers praised the McLaughlins, saying the couple have made inroads where others haven’t because they took time to get to know them and followed through with promises.

“They came down and listened — key word: ‘listened,’” said Nancy Wilson, a Camp 34 resident who moved into a west side bungalow with  fiance Steve Soete, thanks to the McLaughlins.

James Bidgood, a Camp 34 resident who has been battling alcoholism, believes the McLaughlins might be his saving grace.

“They got me off the street. My life is going in the right direction, thanks to them,” said Bidgood, who is living at The Express Inn and is working to stay sober.

Teresa is thinking about becoming a professional social worker, but for now, her time is occupied with helping the campers.

“I’m not taking a day off until we get every out that we can,” she says.

The C-C Boarding Home Annex is asking for donations of microwaveable foods, microwaveable dishes, washers, dryers, and twin beds, frames and sheets. To donate, call 473-5530, ext. 311, or e-mail the nonprofit at www.ccbhannex.org