COLORADO SPRINGS — A major addition to homeless housing in Colorado Springs is ready to offer support to families.
“This is the first time I've ever celebrated the completion of construction that actually started in 1902,” said Mark Tremmel from TDG Architecture.
The new apartment units also preserve the Helen Hunt Elementary School which has been a landmark east of downtown Colorado Springs for more than 100 years.
The function of the building changes to transitional housing for homeless families, and the name evolves to Hunt Family Housing.
The transitional housing is a Catholic Charities of Central Colorado project and new program.
“We are moving families who have not had a sense of permanency, not only into units that are spectacular, but into a neighborhood that that has shown throughout the history of Colorado Springs, that they embrace parents and kids,” said Catholic Charities President & CEO, Andy Barton.
Within a renovated building there will be a newly developed custom program.
More than a roof over their head; families will have a case manager, family education specialists, and behavioral health therapists.
“They'll come into the housing and we'll walk alongside them toward the goals that they set for themselves,” said Deana Hunt who developed the program.
The cost to make this happen is just over $5 million.
There are 24 units with sizes ranging from studios up to one with three bedrooms.
Residents are required to pay 30 percent of their income.
Transitional means it is temporary with the goal of getting residents into their own permanent housing in one to two years.___
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