PUBELO — Pueblo's mayor has extended the city's emergency shelter declaration through the weekend until November 17 because of the continued cold temperatures. When this happens, the warming shelter at the Pueblo Rescue Mission opens its doors to people who don't have a place to stay for the night.
Pueblo's emergency warming shelter is open from roughly 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. for people looking for a safe and warm place to stay. They check in, go through security, and are provided a bed or cot.
“I would say that they're on average, 30 to 40 people a night,” Mayor Heather Graham said.
The space used to be an office building but has been transformed into a warming shelter that fits 49 people.
“The zoning is different, the regulations are different in order to have people overnight in a building like this. And so the city provided money to the rescue mission a year ago in order to purchase this building and turn it into an emergency shelter,” Graham said.
Mayor Graham said there was a major plumbing issue so the building was not in condition to house people. Since the city has taken over the shelter, workers have put in a new floor and carpet, and rescue mission staff members are ready to help people stay out of the cold.
“It's been very cold in Pueblo, really cold nights over the last month, and so we're happy to have the ability to be able to shelter people,” Graham said.
She said over the last month she has issued a shelter emergency declaration almost every night.
“When I make an emergency declaration, it kind of waves the code for the night or for the week and is able to allow people to shelter in buildings like this, or in churches or synagogues,” Graham said.
At the shelter, heat is blasted through the overhead vents to keep residents warm. Bunk beds and cots fill the space. Some of the beds came from the other building at the rescue mission, and the cots were donated by the Rawlings Foundation. There is also a bathroom, water fountain, chairs, and blankets.
“The city purchased 100 blankets for them, and so they kind of, they kind of do like 50 a day, wash them and then put 50 new ones out, so that there's this continuous rotation of having clean linens for the individuals to have every night,” Graham said.
Beyond providing a warm place to stay, SafeSide Recovery is located right across the parking lot from the shelter.
“We have safe side recovery. They're an addiction and peer specialists helping us out during the day and so they're actually, over the last couple weeks that they've been assisting us, they've been able to place six individuals in housing. So I see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Graham said.
News5 spoke to a few people in Pueblo who are experiencing homelessness. They did not want to go on camera, but they shared their experience. They said they want to get help and turn their life around so they came here looking to get involved with SafeSide Recovery. One man and his wife said they got stuck outside during last week's snowstorm so came to the warming shelter this week to have a safe and heated place to stay.
“I think emergency sheltering is step one, and hopefully they continue the rest of the steps, and they get the help that they need and they deserve,” Graham said.
When it is wet or snowing, or if the temperature drops to around 30 degrees or under, the warming shelter will be open for people to sleep in at night.
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