Without $50,000, agency for homeless may close doors

A Colorado Springs nonprofit that has won praise for its successful treatment of homeless people with substance abuse and mental health issues is less than a month away from closing unless it can raise about $50,000 by Oct. 1.

The Resource Advocacy Program started in 2005 with a $500,000 grant from a coalition of foundations in health care and mental health care — $100,000 a year for five years — and it has received some small grants from local organizations, but not enough to keep it going past Sept. 30.

RAP director Dee Drake said Springs Rescue Mission has agreed to take over the program Oct. 1, provided that “we can rally enough dollars to support it.”

Lyn Harwell, chief operations officer for Springs Rescue Mission, issued a news release calling on the business community to contribute $50,000 to keep RAP going for six months while a more sustainable financing plan is developed.

“If it closes, it would be a loss to community,” said Bob Holmes, executive director of Homeward Pikes Peak, an umbrella agency for homeless services.

RAP’s clientele is among the hardest to help: drug addicts or alcoholics with co-occurring mental health problems and a lack of trust that makes it difficult to reach them. About 80 percent are homeless, and most have gone through other programs without success, Drake said.

“This is the population that other agencies have been unable to work with,” she said. “There is not a duplicated service anywhere in this community that works with this population.”

Since opening, RAP has helped about 200 “light” cases — people who have mental health and/or substance abuse issues, but don’t need intensive treatment. Another 291 people needed intensive help with such basics as filling out paperwork to get benefits, tracking down birth certificates and accessing medical care. The key is to gradually spend time with the hardest-to-treat cases, build trust and steer them toward mental health and substance abuse treatment.

Drake said the program is successful because some of the staff members have been homeless and had mental health problems themselves, and because it offers clients a safe haven where they can hang out and get comfortable with the staff.

The doors open at 8 a.m., there’s coffee for the clients and a no-pressure attitude toward treatment.

“It’s just a really well-managed program where people can come in and do everything from play cards and board games to getting help with benefits to finding out about case management,” Holmes said. “It really means a lot to the people who participate.”

For more information or to donate, contact Lyn Harwell at 632-1822.