The officers’ slate is rounded out with Vice President Steve Brinkman, Secretary Mark White and Treasurer Amber Moro. Tunson remains on the Board as Past President.

Other Board of Directors members are Dan Apricio, Andy Barton, Brian Coram, Barbara Harris, Kaitlyn Ragsdale, Crystal Rodriguez, Lauren Sanders, Yesenia Torres, Angela Valdez, Stephanie Vandenburg, Keri Ellen White and Brendan Zahl.

The post Partners in Housing Board of Directors selected for 2026 appeared first on Partners in Housing.

GPR Properties is pleased to announce that Bentley Commons is open for leasing to households! 

At this time one- bedroom and two-bedroom apartments are available for those at 50%-60% of the Area Median Income (AMI). PLUS, get your first full month’s rent FREE when you sign a lease! *

First full month’s rent free

New construction

Income-qualified affordable housing

Limited availability

Visit here to see if you qualify for 50-60% AMI through the El Paso Annual Income Limit Range: https://doh.colorado.gov/2025-colorado-home-income-limits

Learn more and apply today: https://www.greccio.org/bentleycommonsleasing

Greccio Housing is acting as the property manager. For more information on the income requirements and leasing process, please go to: https://www.greccio.org/bentleycommonsleasing

The post Bentley Commons: Now Leasing! appeared first on Partners in Housing.

The Family Solutions Collaborative, which includes representatives from 56 local organizations, brings forth in monthly meetings the most difficult cases of families who have fallen into homelessness or are drowning in a sea of instability.

Those around the table brainstorm what the community has to offer these families, one at a time, so they can handle their crises or avoid impending disaster.

These are the people in the know, since collaborative members embody every sector involved in solving family homelessness, including judicial and legal services, schools, domestic violence prevention programs, housing providers, respite care for kids, health organizations, Head Start, overnight shelters, the library district and a host of other entities.

Clients never know the intense cooperative effort that goes into responding to their call for help.

For some cases, referrals pan out, a commitment for a personal recommendation makes a difference or general suggestions lead down the right path.

Other times, it’s hard to find available resources, said Michelle McNease, program manager for the Family Solutions Collaborative.

At last week’s August case-conferencing session, transitional housing providers with hundreds of units online had no immediate openings to place homeless families, outside of overnight emergency sheltering.

Housing is one of two issues that rise to the top of the needs’ list, McNease said. The city lacks on-the-spot, safe and secure general housing for homeless families, she said, calling it a noticeable gap.

Existing transitional housing programs including Partners in Housing, Family Life Services, Mary’s Home and Family Promise, operate different programs that carry requirements for clients — which sometimes can become a barrier, McNease said.

Other transitional programs such as Homeward Pikes Peak and Greccio Housing accept federal housing vouchers, which means waiting lists are typical.

The organizations “stay in their lane doing what they do, and it’s not a fit for everyone,” McNease said.

The other missing link in the community is transportation.

“Whether it’s needing their car to be fixed or losing transportation, that can really put a family into a crisis,” McNease said. “It’s a huge gap and it’s definitely increased or maybe just stands out because we don’t have the resources here.”

Bus passes are available from a few agencies, such as Westside Cares and Mercy’s Gate, but “that’s complicated and not realistic for a family that needs to get their kids to school or childcare or themselves to work,” she said.

Dealing with trauma

Five service providers formed the Family Solutions Collaborative in May 2019, with a goal of uniting organizations working on the front lines to zero in on the tough-to-crack cases of families who are about to be evicted, have spiraled into homelessness or are having difficulty providing necessities like food and transportation.

“We wanted to make sure they weren’t being lost off the radar,” said Mary Stegner, executive director of Partners in Housing, one of the collaborative’s founders. Her nonprofit offers a one-year of transitional housing program with support services for unmoored families.

In the industry, families are often called the hidden homeless — they typically aren’t the street people the public sees panhandling or hanging out in doorways, she said. Homeless families often live out of their cars or on couches and floors with relatives or friends, or they stay in temporary shelters.

Their needs are different and more complex than a single homeless individual, said Andy Barton, president and CEO of Catholic Charities of Central Colorado, another founding partner.

“A lot has to do with the addition of kids,” he said. “You have one or two adults managing shelter, transportation, finances, childcare, school, the health of a child, the trauma they’re dealing with,” he said.

There are no firm numbers on how many homeless families live in El Paso County, McNease said, but she estimates thousands.

Times are tough, and many families are struggling with the increased cost of living, wages that haven’t matched inflation, and trauma and stress from their precarious circumstances, Stegner said.

It often just takes one bad thing — no child care, an out-of-commission car or a medical issue — to send a family into a tailspin that produces an eviction notice, said Tanya Lark, executive director of Family Life Services, another founding coalition member that provides a two-year residential program to self-sufficiency.

“And once you start down that path, it’s hard to go back,” she said.

More often, scenarios are complex with clients having multiple needs, said Matthew Ayers, CEO of Dream Centers, which runs programs for single-mother-led families exiting homelessness, including Mary’s Home, a long-term residential program.

“One of the most powerful things about this collaborative is when organizations come together, there’s immediate understanding if a family needs five or six supports,” he said.

To read the full article from the Colorado Springs Gazette, please visit here. 

This article was written by Debbie Kelly of the Gazette 

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“The thing that I like best is that I’ve spent my whole life working with the sole goal of making money, and I just enjoy having an impact on people’s lives. I’ve admired people like my wife, Cindy who is a Special Ed teacher making a direct impact on one person’s life and I’ve just always thought that that was a good thing to move into rather than just making money.”

Steve Brinkman is a wonderfully talented Partners in Housing volunteer that generously gives his time and skills in a variety of ways! With an MBA in Finance from UCCS, a Bachelors in Industrial Engineering from The Ohio State University, and armed with a passion to make a direct impact on a person’s life, he was a natural fit our Money Mentor volunteer position. For the past three years, Steve has been working with families on their personal finances, building upon their knowledge base and collaboratively setting goals on their path to self-sufficiency. Earlier this year, Steve ambitiously completed additional training to become a Certified Credit Counselor (now one of two at Partners in Housing!) becoming even more of an asset to families working on their financial stability!

And yet, the families in our program aren’t the only ones to benefit from Steve’s knack for numbers! Steve joined our agency’s Finance Committee providing financial advice, analysis, and oversight of our organization’s budget.

When Steve isn’t volunteering, you can find him at his business, Signarama, a full-service sign center off the Garden of the Gods exit. For over 20 years, Steve has been leading the charge on delivering high-quality signage, including specialty items like vehicle decals and banners! Our box truck and van have their decal work proudly on display! You also may have had your picture taken in front of a Signarama-produced Step-and-Repeat banner at one of our events!

Thank you, Steve, for all your many ways of support! The Colorado Springs community is a better place because of your efforts!

To learn more about volunteering at Partners in Housing, please check out our Volunteer Page to learn about positions and contact Jillian at (719) 325-5830 or jbirchmeier@partnersinhousing.org to get started!

Read the full Summer 2022 Newsletter Here

The post Volunteer Spotlight: Steve Brinkman appeared first on Partners in Housing.

Alice Henderson, my Partners in Housing case manager, sat across from me at my kitchen table. She said, “This is only a season of your life.” How meaningful those words were to me then, and how I needed to hear them. She told me she believed in me and my family and that we would get through this time.

Chelley Gardner-Smith was recognized as one of only 20 Colorado recipients for the Women’s Foundation “Be Bold” awards. This one-time award honors women whose passion for the well-being of Colorado’s women and girls has inspired them to do great things.

The post Past Partner to Board President appeared first on Partners in Housing.

Spring is finally here and as we near our 16th year, I’ve been marveling at just how far we have come and how many new beginnings have been created. Reinforcing that idea, I want to take this time to announce my retirement from the position of Executive Director, effective June 30, 2007. After serving almost 32 years in the U.S. Air Force, my second great career opportunity appeared here at Partners in Housing. Since May 1993, I have been a very lucky guy, serving an organization whose mission brings great hope and self-sufficiency to homeless families with children on the Front Range. Having helped raise three daughters and knowing their challenges and vulnerabilities is probably one of the most important reasons that I have been able to so completely identify with our mission.

Although Partners in Housing has come a long way since the days of our residency in the little bungalow next to the Marian House Soup Kitchen, I will forever be grateful to Catholic Charities and the Diocese of Colorado Springs for creating the vision of Partners in Housing, giving us our start, and for the continuous and generous support of our program. We have grown the organization almost ten-fold, with the capacity to serve over 70 homeless families with children, and provide an equal number of families and individuals earning less than half of the area median income with decent, affordable housing. Progress continues, as we prepare to move to the beautiful grounds of Myron Stratton, adding housing and programs at the same site. There is much more to do to help even more homeless families achieve self-sufficiency, and I am convinced we are well-positioned to do it.

Partners in Housing is fiscally sound, has a solid property equity position, is professionally staffed with low turnover, has a dedicated Board for guidance and oversight, has developed loyal donors, volunteers, and other agency partners, and a deep, holistic self-sufficiency program with high-quality housing in place to meet the needs of our “Partner” families.

I want to thank my current board and to say how very proud I am of our President, Chelley Gardner-Smith. What a great Partners in Housing success story she is! And a special thanks to my past leaders: Doug Carter, Chris Acker, Gary Kehr, Diane Dulworth, Mike Waters, Steve Price, Sherrie Vogt, and Gary Winegar. That’s a lot of bosses, but they each provided outstanding guidance, and most importantly, had confidence in me to provide the leadership required to make Partners in Housing a benchmark in the community against which other nonprofits could be measured. Each gave me the necessary freedom to manage and lead this great organization, something I will forever treasure.

The past 14 years serving as Executive Director have been wonderful, and my hope is to remain associated with Partners in Housing in a variety of ways.

Thanks a billion for your support, dedication, and friendship!

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