City spent $250,000 to lease and renovate an old food-storage warehouse
A handful of homeless Pueblo residents wait for a new overnight shelter to open on the outskirts of downtown on Dec. 18.
Dennis Mulvaney came to Pueblo for therapy for his alcoholism, then dropped out. He worked for a while, but his marijuana use complicated that too. He’s trying to safe a few dollars so he can afford gas money to get back to work so he can “be the old Dennis” again. Before the new shelter in Pueblo opened last week, he was staying at friends’ homes and sleeping outside. “People are very nice here. They help us,” he said. “It means I’m safe, I’m not on the street, I’m not worried about a bunch of people jumping me and taking whatever I’ve got.”
For years, Matthew Hernandez had a system. In the summer, he’d work construction in mountain towns around Glenwood Springs. In the fall, he’d go home to Pueblo and spend the winter with his mother.
That changed last year.
“She didn’t want to go out for Thanksgiving dinner,” he said. “She goes, ‘I’m leaving.’ I’m like, ‘What? What do you mean you’re leaving?’”
Read the rest of the story at Colorado Public Radio.
