Partners in Housing adds apartments for homeless families in Colorado Springs
Partners in Housing is pleased to share that we have added three additional apartments to our transitional housing program! The Family Self-Sufficiency Program, which is our transitional housing program, serves families with children experiencing housing crisis in Colorado Springs.
“People may think it’s only three, one-bedroom apartments being added to what’s become a dearth of transitional and affordable housing in Colorado Springs,” said Mary Stegner, executive director of Partners in Housing. And that’s not much. But the new project’s impact on the community will be exponential, she said.
“It is a big deal to these three families, and the next three and the next three, to have a safe, stable place to live,” Stegner said.
The Myron Stratton Foundation spent $430,000 remodeling the Logan Building on its 105-acre campus off South Highway 115, said Executive Director Daniel O’Rear.
Constructed in 1913 as one of four orphanages on the property, the building’s addition to Partners in Housing’s stock brings the organization’s total to 15 transitional apartments on the campus.
They are part of 65 units Partners in Housing provides across the city for indigent families in crisis.
Clients live in the housing for one year, while they work toward becoming self sufficient with the help of support programs from the organization.
The organization receives more than 1,000 applications each year for its 65 offerings, Stegner said, which include efficiencies, multi-bedroom apartments, town homes and single-family homes.
The wait time can be a short two to three months or longer, as families are matched by size to available units.
Families must have children and pay up to 30% of their monthly income in rent. If they have no income in a given month, they don’t pay any rent, Stegner said. Partners in Housing covers utilities and security deposit costs.
“Our goal is to get them into living-wage employment and build a tenant history with us that they can use to get into housing on their own,” she said. “A lot have fled domestic violence, and this is a really low-point in their life, when they’ve had to ask for help.”
