COLORADO SPRINGS – It’s less than a month now before recreational vehicles parked in public spaces in Colorado Springs will be towed away.
And the new ordinance has unnerved some folks who rely on RVs for a place to live.
The problem area is at the intersection of Moreno Avenue and Sierra Madre Street where folks living inside RVs are still parked.
Even though that new ordinance kicks in June 1st, the RVs have to be gone from that area by Monday.
That’s why these folks are hoping for a short term, and long term, solution.
The folks parked near Moreno Avenue say they have nowhere else to go.
“My friends are living in their cars or vehicles or RVs and campers,” Angelica Hansley said.
“I’m back on the streets again but now I have an RV over here,” Antonette L. Masterson said of her situation.
“You’ll see them everywhere,” Hansley explained.
“They do no harm. That’s their home.”
They have to leave by Monday.
City utilities needs to work on this property and the site of the new Switchbacks stadium.
Come June 1st, the city will start enforcing an ordinance allowing them to tow RVs parked on public property.
“It’s not fair,” Masterson said.
They ask one thing.
“Get people off the streets,” she added.
That’s exactly what Ecumenical Social Ministries says they’re trying to do.
“ESM is very committed to serving the needs of our folks in the RVs and we care very passionately about what’s happening to them,” explained Rev. Ann Steiner Lantz, Executive Director at Ecumenical Social Ministries.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have the resources right now to fix this problem but we’re working towards that.”
They’re raising $47,000 to pay for spots within RV parks to help these folks get back on their feet, so they can slowly pay the money back.
But they know it won’t fit everyone’s needs.
“Their preference of where they want to live and also the idea that some of them don’t want to live within the rules of an established mobile home park,” Lantz noted.
Ecumenical Social Ministries says they’ve raised $17,000 so far out of those $47,000.
They hope to have a better idea of which RV parks they’ll be using by June, but say it’s too early to confirm which locations they’re in talks with.
