As winter descends on the Valley, people experiencing homelessness will be able to seek shelter starting Friday.
Recovery Resource Resiliency Center, a Colorado nonprofit that empowers people to overcome adversity, will host up to 12 people from 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. at the Schultz Health and Human Services Building from Friday through April 30, 2025. Provide sleeping arrangements up to. It is located at 405 Castle Creek Road suite 103. During the day, basic services such as laundry, showers and meals are also provided.
At last week’s council meeting, Snowmass approved funding to support emergency winter accommodation. They will partner with Pitkin County and Aspen Valley Hospital to fund this effort, providing more than $27,000, or 20% of the shelter’s total funding.
Snowmass Mayor Clint Kinney told the Aspen Times on Monday that the shelter will allow Snowmass to keep people experiencing homelessness safe.
“These are the people affected in our community,” Kinney said.
Under the current funding agreement, Snowmass will increase its contribution to the shelter by 35% over the past two years, as the city of Aspen has not yet agreed to allocate the funds. Pitkin County and Aspen Valley Hospital also plan to increase their contributions to help make up for the funding gap.
During the meeting, Snowmass Town Councilor Alyssa Schenk asked why Aspen decided not to participate in the program this year.
“You’re going to have to ask your elected officials,” Kinney said. “But the rest of us decided to chip away at that difference and keep the process moving forward.”
At Monday’s Aspen City Council work session, city officials said they would consider allocating funds for shelters if they received proposals from the county or the Resilience Center, and they did not discuss specifically how the requested funds would be used. We have detailed how this will be done.
Aspen City Councilman Ward Hauenstein said, “If the county makes a specific request for $25,000 with a valid reason, I’m sure we’ll do it.” “I think we’re missing that.”
Torre said the city of Aspen requested a detailed budget proposal from the county several months ago, but did not receive a response. At its meeting, the City Council decided to request more detailed funding proposals for the shelter from both the county and the Resilience Center.
As for Aspen, Kinney said Monday that he remains willing to partner with other organizations on fundraising efforts.
Once opened, it will be possible to stay for up to 45 days. They will prioritize those most in need based on vulnerability, taking into account age and health status, among other things.
Kinney said at last week’s meeting that the county and the resiliency center will use “wraparound” services, a holistic approach that addresses homelessness, assists with substance abuse treatment and helps individuals find housing, to address homelessness and the public. He said that it would address human needs.
“Introducing wraparound service was a major innovation for the county,” Kinney said.
Resilience Center Executive Director Janelle Duhon said this type of approach is the only way to achieve zero homelessness in the Valley.
“We can’t continue to put a Band-Aid on our approach,” Duhon said.
Pitkin County Human Services Director Lindsey Maisch said the county is hiring case managers to help people experiencing homelessness find next steps from shelters to housing or jobs. The shelter provides laptops so people can create resumes and apply for housing.
Maisch said the company also hired a consulting firm this year to facilitate this holistic approach. Consultant SHG Advisors will survey Pitkin County communities this year to identify the greatest needs, including homelessness, addiction and mental health.
Once the data is collected, she said she hopes to work with Pitkin County, Aspen, Snowmass, Basalt, Aspen Ski Company and the Aspen Community Foundation to address the needs of the valley.
“We’re in the process of bringing in consultants right now,” Maisch said. “And through that, I think we have a really good opportunity to bring other partners into that conversation and see if they’re interested in how we all support these efforts. .”
According to the Pitkin County Human Services Department, 191 people visited the shelter last year, including daytime visits and overnight stays. During the winter, 33 people slept in the shelter. It can accommodate up to 12 people at a time.
“We have homeless people in our community,” Duhon said. “We don’t always get to see them.”
Skyler Stark-Ragsdale can be reached at 970-429-9152 or emailed at sstark-ragsdale@aspentimes.com.
