Agency asking city, county for $100,000 for motel rooms

Two months after passing a law to get scores of homeless people out of highly visible ramshackle camps, the Colorado Springs City Council will consider spending $50,000 to continue to put the campers up in a motel.

Homeward Pikes Peak is requesting $50,000 from the city and hopes to get $50,000 more from El Paso County to continue to pay for motel rooms for the homeless, said Bob Holmes, executive director of the local coordinating agency for homeless services.

(See our poll question to the right of this story about the funding request.)

“It would be used to fund keeping these individuals at the Express Inn,” he said.

“This is not the Antlers,” Holmes added, referring to the downtown Hilton. “They are three to a room, same sex, and they’re required to go out and look for work.”

(See our poll question to the right of this story about the funding request.)

Even if the city and the county contribute $50,000 each, Holmes said he expects to need at least an additional $50,000 to rent motel rooms for the homeless until “sometime after Labor Day.”

But after that, he said, the program has to end.

“This was for emergency, short-term help,” he said.

“We are really making a strong effort to let people know that this is not forever,” he added. “This is a few months more, and you’ve really got to get moving, get a job, get your benefits. Do whatever you need to do, but make a plan.”

Holmes said a $100,000 grant from the El Pomar Foundation, which the agency has been using since mid-February to rent rooms at the Express Inn on West Cimarron Street, will dry up by the end of May, prompting him to ask Mayor Lionel Rivera for financial assistance. About 165 people continue to live at the motel.

Holmes said he asked Rivera for $100,000 to match El Pomar’s grant, but Rivera suggested the city provide $50,000 and the county pitch in $50,000 more. Holmes said discussions with the county are preliminary.

“I think it would be, for lack of a better phrase, a preventative maintenance investment for the county to help us as well,” Holmes said. “The homeless individuals who cannot attain self-sufficiency are a problem for all citizens, whether you live in the city, whether you live in the county.”

Rivera did not return a call for comment Wednesday.

City spokesman John Leavitt said the mayor asked that a funding request be added to the agenda of Monday’s City Council meeting.

The 1 p.m. meeting is at City Hall, 107 N. Nevada Ave.,

The item on the agenda is listed as “no-camping ordinance impact on homeless service providers and request for funding.”

Councilman Darryl Glenn said he won’t support the funding request. Despite some “very weak positive signs” in the economy, he said the city needs to be fiscally conservative given projections of a $27 million shortfall next year.

“Continuing to go into reserves to fund projects or programs that essentially aren’t in our budget with a projected $27 million deficit, in my opinion, is fiscally irresponsible,” he said.

Holmes said the homeless deserve the “same consideration” as the city’s community centers, which were on the chopping block but will likely stay open all year with funding from the city’s reserves.

The transitional housing at the Express Inn has been effective, Holmes said, adding that more than 70 homeless people have found jobs and more than 80 have left the area.

“I’m hoping to spend less (money) in the second three months because we’ve moved so many people either back home or to self-sufficiency through employment,” he said.

—
Call the writer at 476-1623