Homeless clients claim Pueblo Rescue Mission leaders 'bully' or 'ban' those who defy them

Members of leadership at the Pueblo Rescue Mission are facing allegations of being verbally abusive, quick to ban and kick people out of the shelter following inconsequential actions, and engaging "in unethical treatment of the homeless population,” a former shelter client recently alleged in a letter sent to several city officials.

The claims in the letter, which is dated Sept. 25 and was sent to elected officials Oct. 1, focus primarily on the behavior of Melanie Rapier, executive director of the Pueblo Rescue Mission, and Lori Arabie, the shelter’s director of operations, and the way they allegedly treat people who stay and live at the shelter.

Richard Peña, a 55-year-old who has been homeless since March, authored the letter and told the Chieftain he felt if he didn’t speak out, the “abusers will continue.”

Peña said he first visited the Pueblo Rescue Mission in March this year a few days after he became homeless. He slept there nearly every night in the months thereafter as an emergency client until Sept. 28. The shelter’s address is on his driver’s license, which was issued Aug. 2.

“I believe (Melanie and Lori’s actions are) the antithesis of their mission,” Peña said. “If you read the Rescue Mission’s website, and you see their behavior, it’s an extreme contradiction.”

When reached by phone, Arabie declined to comment on the claims but said emailed statements would be provided to the Chieftain. Rapier also declined comment and referred to a statement sent by Leroy Gonzales, chair of the Pueblo Rescue Mission’s board of directors.

Ken Wood, Matthew Goodwin, Brandi Adakai, Holly Lewis and Crystal Gerlock serve alongside Gonzales on the board, according to the Rescue Mission’s website.

“The PRM board of directors is committed to ensuring it can offer shelter services to those in need,” Gonzales said in the board’s statement. “The PRM takes all concerns seriously and makes every attempt to keep order and promote safety for all who utilize our resources. The PRM provides services for a population who may be fraught with mental illness and drug addiction. We must prioritize safety and order, or we face bigger risks to staff, the community, and our organization.”

Gonzales in a follow-up email called Peña's claims "hearsay." However, several current and former clients of the Rescue Mission who spoke to the Chieftain have corroborated some of the claims.

The Rescue Mission's website states that its mission is to “strive to empower and improve the lives of unsheltered adults in Pueblo through the provision of food, shelter and navigational support services.”

It's Pueblo's only homeless shelter.

Some residents there take part in the Step Back In program, designed to help them learn tools and get jobs, among other practices they could use to escape homelessness. Some unhoused people will stop by to seek shelter, particularly when it’s too cold.

Peña in his letter and to the Chieftain claimed that some among Pueblo’s unhoused population don’t trust the shelter’s leadership, either because of how they were treated or because they were banned or kicked out for actions they say don’t warrant that type of consequence.

Peña said some of those policies are “not consistent with a mission that wants to alleviate the homeless population.”

However, in the letter, he acknowledged that some staff members there didn’t repeat Rapier or Arabie’s behavior. He also wrote that the shelter is a “tremendous asset for Pueblo” to unhoused people and that it deserves credit for the food and clothing it offers, but that “grave issues” appear when people walk into the facility.

Peña, who in July began to document what he observed, said he didn't bring his concerns to Rapier, Arabie or the board because, based on their past actions, he suspected they wouldn’t address them.

In the letter, he called the board’s lack of oversight a “failure” that has “made it possible for members of a vulnerable population to be treated as less than human.” He sent it to Mayor Nick Gradisar and all seven city councilors a little more than a week before city council's scheduled vote to grant $400,000 in funding to the shelter.

“I might have a stone pillow tonight, but I’ll sleep with a clear conscience (knowing I spoke out),” Peña said.

Residents claim policies conflict with needs of unhoused population

Peña said that during his time at the shelter, he observed a number of policies instituted by Rapier and Arabie that seemed to fail to meet the needs of people who are homeless. One of those is that only residential clients can use the facility’s showers. Emergency clients can’t use them and are not offered one, he claimed.

“They do (have showers there), but that’s for the residents,” confirmed one client, who spoke to the Chieftain on condition of anonymity because they fear retaliation from the Rescue Mission. The client, who claimed they were not offered a shower, said they were kicked out by shelter staff because they hadn’t taken one.

Sabrina Arellano, a former shelter client, told the Chieftain that shower policy differs from that of Kathy Cline, Rapier’s predecessor as executive director.

“(Kathy) would let us shower and go to the bathroom during the day,” said Arellano, who witnessed the transition from Cline to Rapier while staying there.

Peña claimed that people can’t use the shelter’s restroom until after 9 p.m. and that they have a five-minute limit when they’re using it. If someone violates that limit, they might be asked to leave. He said the policy is in place to ensure people don't wash themselves in the bathroom and noted that because of it, some people have to urinate outside of the facility.

"(Melanie) wouldn't let me use the bathroom inside," recalled Kirsten Nicholas, a former resident who lived at the mission for six months. "She was just picking on me. Everybody else was using it."

Peña also claimed that clients who seek emergency shelter are not allowed to charge their phones inside the facility and that they are barred from even looking at their phones after 10 p.m. The penalty for doing so is a seven-day ban, he claimed.

The Chieftain requested a list of the Rescue Mission's policies and disciplinary protocols but did not receive a response.

Emergency clients were at one point allowed to charge their phones, Peña and Arellano said, but Peña suspects that privilege was removed once a staff member gave a client the wrong phone. He called the penalty a “very disproportionate consequence for checking your phone” and questioned its validity since it didn't seem to pose a safety risk for shelter residents.

Peña said some of the women were “terrified” of the policy because they feared being on the streets for seven days if they were caught by staff looking at their phone, even to check the time, after 10 p.m.

“It’s ridiculous,” said Arellano, who alongside others experienced the policy. “What happens if one of our family members had an emergency? How are we supposed to know (if we can’t check our phones)?”

Residential clients also benefit over their emergency client counterparts when it comes to meals, Peña claimed. Residents were allowed to use simple condiments for their food such as ketchup, mustard and salad dressing, whereas emergency clients could not, he said.

Gary Lovett, 47, stayed for a year and a half at the Rescue Mission and also observed the transition from Cline to Rapier.

At one point, Lovett said he served as a cook at the shelter and claimed that Rapier and Arabie directed him how to serve food.

“I’m ashamed to admit that they had me serving different food to the people outside than the people who stayed there,” Lovett said. “The residents got better food than the people outside did.”

Peña shared a number of other claims, such as how the shelter purposefully shifted its approach with coffee so emergency clients wouldn’t get any and that clean sheets weren’t provided to clients. He claimed that at one point, Arabie said it was too expensive to clean them.

He also claimed that on at least one occasion last month, shelter staff refused to admit people who sought shelter despite the Rescue Mission not being at capacity.

Peña said he understands how the qualms about some of the shelter’s policies can be perceived as “petty” but noted that in collection, they felt like “blackmail” to get people to join the residential program. He said those policies are indicative of how Rapier and Arabie decide to treat clients.

“Lori and Melanie don’t have boundaries,” Peña said. “What strikes me too is that as part of the residential program, they have a course and boundaries that are mandatory for clients. I’ve always wondered how they can teach boundaries when they have none.”

Residents say they've been cursed and yelled at by leadership

Melissa Seeley, 42, recalled one instance in which Arabie told her to “get the f--- off the property and don’t come back.” Seeley, who is a former client, couldn’t recall why Arabie responded in that way but felt “sad and confused” by her response.

Peña in his letter claimed there were several incidents where he observed or heard Arabie yelling at clients and using profanity toward them. He said it was common for her to do so.

“(Melanie and Lori) were just kind of bullying everybody all the time,” Nicholas, 60, said. “It’s always something with those two. You can’t do no right there.”

Gonzales in the statement also said that the Rescue Mission’s senior staff “does not practice mistreatment of clients” and that they “go above and beyond to help whoever comes to our door.”

In an incident on July 14 before 5 p.m., Peña claimed that Rapier, while residents were outside receiving food, told a female client that if she called any member of staff a “b----,” she would find “the biggest b---- around" and then banned them from receiving food at the shelter for seven days.

Peña, who acknowledged that the female client acted inappropriately, said this incident pushed him to start documenting Rapier and Arabie’s behavior so “people would know what’s really going on” and because he suspected Rapier would deny she behaved that way.

Peña said he felt as though Rapier was within her rights to address the client’s behavior but that she could have handled it differently.

Lovett described Rapier and Arabie as “bullies” who pick and choose who has to follow the rules and created an environment that felt like people had to “walk on glass.”

“It's not the face that (Melanie) shows to donors,” Peña said of Rapier’s behavior. “It's not the face that she shows to the city council. But that's the face that she shows to clients.”

In a separate incident around the start of summer, Peña claimed that Arabie told a client, who had just been sprayed in the face with disinfectant and expressed his displeasure about it with staff, that they could leave if they didn’t go back to sleep.

Arellano described the yelling and shouting at the shelter by its leadership as “an ongoing thing.”

“Last week, I went to pick up my mail (at the Rescue Mission) around 12:30 p.m. While I was sitting on the bench waiting for it, I heard Lori going off on a couple of guys,” Arellano said.

Bans, expulsions are frequent at shelter, residents claim

During a city council work session last week, Rapier was asked about clients who were deemed no longer welcome at the Rescue Mission and shared that concern with some city officials.

Rapier spoke about a “ban book” that has added names since it first started in 2020, before she began her tenure. She told city councilors she’d like to work with the mayor to “wipe as much of the book” clean to give everybody on it a chance to return.

Some of the 30 to 40 people who are in the book are clients who brought weapons, trespassed on the property, or assaulted staff, she said.

In an interview with the Chieftain last week, Rapier said that “safety comes first” for staff and residents.

“If individuals have an expectation that they can come into the shelter under the influence, not manageable, carrying and holding weapons, dirty needles and illicit street drugs, then the answer is they're not going to be able to come in,” Rapier said. “If they're willing to surrender those things, and come inside so that they can be safe and everybody around them can be safe, then they’re welcome. But everybody needs to be safe first and foremost.”

Peña called Rapier and Arabie’s decision to ban or kick people out of the mission their “go-to” and claimed they’d do so for reasons that had nothing to do with safety.

On Sept. 24, Peña said a client was accused of a medical episode and was thus banned from the shelter for three nights. This client, the same one who spoke to the Chieftain on condition of anonymity, confirmed they were banned for that period of time because of the accusation and said that they did not do what they were accused of.

To protect the client's anonymity, the Chieftain isn't disclosing the type of medical episode because it may help shelter staff identify them.

“It was ridiculous,” the client said. “I really couldn’t do anything (about it).”

Bonita Keena, 38, said she was banned from the Rescue Mission in July. Keena had been staying there for some time before her ban, which she said came after she had an episode caused by a medical condition she has.

Arellano also was forbidden from the property in July, though for seven days. She couldn’t recall why she received the ban but said Arabie informed her of it.

Arabie in a separate incident expelled a client from the shelter’s residential program because they used their phone to communicate with someone she didn’t approve of, Peña claimed.

“If we want a place to sleep, we have to shut up and keep our mouths shut,” Peña said. “I can’t interpret their exact motivation or thinking, but when Melanie and Lori do that, it appears almost as if it is a (way) to show clients that we do what they say, because they control whether or not we have a place to sleep or have access for food.”

Peña also claimed that he observed some instances in which clients who argued with staff were asked to leave. If a client brought up a concern about a specific accommodation or arrangement, they would be told, “if you don’t like it, you can leave.”

Peña in the letter claimed the Rescue Mission has "displayed a pattern" of expelling clients who are in the residential program if they break a rule or relapse during addiction recovery.

“The people out there who have looked for help, they didn’t fail at the Rescue Mission, the mission failed them,” Peña said. “I know that’s a bold statement, but I’ve seen it with my own eyes. What they did to some people was so bad, unethical, the only option for me was to speak out.”

Chieftain reporter Josue Perez can be reached at JHPerez@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @josuepwrites. Support local news, subscribe to The Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo Rescue Mission clients claim shelter's residents are mistreated