Pueblo approves $400,000 to fund Pueblo Rescue Mission warming shelter

Pueblo City Council recently approved a subrecipient agreement that awards $400,000 in funding to the Pueblo Rescue Mission for the purchase of a property that will serve as a warming shelter during weather emergencies.

Councilors, in a 4-3 vote, authorized the agreement that effectively names Pueblo Rescue Mission as the operator of a warming shelter for Pueblo’s homeless at 710 W. Fourth St.

The Pueblo Rescue Mission had been in pursuit of the property for months, with Melanie Rapier, its executive director, telling the Chieftain in July that it could serve as a “catch-all campus” where Pueblo’s homeless would shelter from the cold and receive medical, behavioral or legal services if they sought them.

Rapier in an email told the Chieftain that there is no set date on when the facility will open because a “property appraisal is holding up” the closing of the property. It will continue to operate its current facility that's a few hundred feet away at 728 W. Fourth. St.

The new warming shelter, which Rapier said could shelter approximately 100 people, also allows the city “to prepare for future emergencies” and increase its ability to respond to them if a need to offer shelter comes up, according to language in the agreement. Mayor Nick Gradisar and some councilors view the building as a permanent solution to the city's annual need to shelter some of Pueblo’s homeless when it gets too cold.

Per the agreement, the city will loan the Pueblo Rescue Mission the $400,000, part of which will be paid in reimbursements once improvements to the property are made, said George Hypolite, Pueblo city attorney. The money is from the city's Community Development Block Grant funds.

The funds are in the form of a loan to give the city remedies “if the terms of the agreement are breached,” Hypolite said. The property must be used as a warming shelter during a mayor-declared weather emergency. Gradisar last year made that declaration, which allows religious institutions to temporarily serve as warming shelters, for multiple nights at a time, particularly when temperatures were forecast to drop below 20 degrees.

If terms are breached, the city can take back the property or the $400,000 to purchase another building for the purpose of a warming shelter, Hypolite added.

Council’s decision comes after months of deliberation among some counselors as to what the city would do to accommodate Pueblo’s homeless who seek shelter during the winter. Some of them felt an urgency to get Monday’s proposed ordinance passed because of the weather forecast for Pueblo, which shows expected lows in the 20s throughout next week.

“We cannot wait another week to come up with another plan,” said councilor Dennis Flores, adding that the “homeless could effectively be hurt” if council didn’t approve it.

Other councilors, such as Sarah Martinez and Heather Graham, expressed concerns about the Pueblo Rescue Mission’s staffing and its finances. Both, alongside Regina Maestri, voted against the agreement.

Claims from former residents, including Richard Peña, who alleged mistreatment by shelter leadership toward residents, were largely unaddressed by council. Council earlier this month postponed its vote on the agreement due to concerns over the Pueblo Rescue Mission's finances and those claims.

Leroy Gonzales, board chair for the Pueblo Rescue Mission, in an email to Paul Tienda, co-founder of the Tienda Foundation, wrote that the board accepted the foundation’s $30,000 grant offer, $25,000 of which would be for fundraising expenses. The rest is for consultation from Brad Hopkins, who has helped other rescue missions obtain “long-term self-sufficiency,” Tienda said.

Tienda had previously offered a matching grant of $400,000 to the Pueblo Rescue Mission, but that offer was not accepted and expired, he said.

Pueblo Rescue Mission staffers share support while councilors, public express concerns

Multiple Pueblo Rescue Missions staffers and residents came forward to share their support for the shelter at Tuesday’s meeting. One staffer and former resident commended Rapier because there “was nobody who helped her more.” Others praised how much the shelter had helped them escape homelessness.

There was no testimony against the ordinance but some members of the public shared concerns about people who are homeless who are either not permitted to stay at the Pueblo Rescue Mission or refuse to go there. A few councilors echoed those concerns.

Rapier, at the Oct. 16 city council work session, said staffing plays a role in the shelter’s decision on whether it can admit more people. In the email, she wrote that the shelter has added two staffers this week “in hopes of being able to stabilize staff numbers.”

“With that being said, people get sick, their children get sick and we are all human and have personal demands of our time that affect work,” she wrote. “We will do our best to maintain the highest capacity we can.”

Rapier added that the shelter is looking for volunteers to work as “shelter monitors” to help mitigate its staffing shortage and that staff “invites the community to step in and work alongside us.”

The contract states that Pueblo Rescue Mission agreed to use the available beds at its current facility until the new property is ready.

Pueblo Rescue Mission sought ‘healthy growth’ with shelter expansion

The city in January purchased a building for $65,000 that’s adjacent to the Pueblo Rescue Mission and was expected to help the shelter expand its capacity. The building is scheduled to be demolished before December, but it’s unclear if and when a structure to shelter the homeless will be placed in that space.

Laura Solano, the mayor’s chief of staff, said there has been “exploration” on the city and Tienda’s behalf on what to put in that area. Options such as a mobile trailer or tent have been proposed.

Over the summer, the city and Pueblo Rescue Mission pursued a grant from the Department of Local Affairs that would have provided hundreds of thousands of dollars for operating costs, additional security, pet care and other expenses associated with shelter operations to PRM.

The Pueblo Rescue Mission withdrew its application for that grant on July 19. In an email obtained by the Chieftain through an open records request, Rapier that day wrote to city officials that the shelter “intends to turn its attention toward healthy growth instead of fast growth” by pursuing the 710 W. Fourth St. property.

More: Pueblo City Council dismisses ethics complaints against Gradisar, Graham

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 approves funding to Pueblo Rescue Mission for warming shelter