{"id":801869,"date":"2019-11-30T16:30:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-30T23:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=375159"},"modified":"2019-11-30T16:30:00","modified_gmt":"2019-11-30T23:30:00","slug":"community-members-church-leaders-call-on-summit-county-officials-to-help-address-working-homeless-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/community-members-church-leaders-call-on-summit-county-officials-to-help-address-working-homeless-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"Community members, church leaders call on Summit County officials to help address working homeless issues"},"content":{"rendered":"
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BRECKENRIDGE \u2014 Community members gathered inside the county commissioner\u2019s chambers Tuesday morning to show support for the Local Overnight Safe Parking Permit program<\/a> in Summit County.<\/p>\n

Organizers with Good Bridge Community and the Summit Colorado Interfaith Council, who help to run the program, presented a proof of performance for the initiative to the Summit Board of County Commissioners, hoping to gather support from county officials to help expand the program.<\/p>\n

While officials were largely sympathetic to the struggles of some of the county\u2019s homeless population and said they would be willing to look into ways to collaborate, they also noted that they were hesitant to commit any support for the program, citing legal concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so incredibly impressed with the thoughtfulness and execution of this, and in a very safe way,\u201d Commissioner Karn Stiegelmeier said. \u201cWe know there\u2019s a great need out there, and we\u2019ve been frankly kind of afraid of this. \u2026 Because there are a lot of issues around our existing codes, liability issues, restricted opportunities in terms of properties \u2014 we\u2019re always looking for more space for everything. So there are a lot of concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n

The program began as a pilot in the parking lot of a local church, providing a safe space for individuals from the county\u2019s working homeless community to sleep. To be eligible, individuals must be employed in the county and go through an application process, which includes a questionnaire, signing a community respect agreement and paying a small monthly fee.<\/p>\n

And while both organizers and pilot participants lauded the program as a success since its launch in July<\/a>, stakeholders are anxious to begin expanding to better meet the needs of the working homeless community in the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are folks who support our community but who struggle to pay rent,\u201d Interfaith Council President Diane Luellen said, noting that the homelessness problem is affecting individuals from all sectors of the community, from lift operators to nurses. \u201cThese are the respectable, hard-working locals that find themselves living in their cars trying to get a good night sleep so they can do their jobs without making mistakes that could endanger life and limb.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis pilot program has worked. But the slopes are open, and our one parking lot is getting full. It won\u2019t be enough to accommodate all those who need a safe, secure place to park their cars so they can get a good night of sleep. Our workforce needs more places to safely park while they work and wait for their time to climb the housing ladder. Churches cannot do this alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the presentation Tuesday, organizers provided county officials with a \u201cproof of performance\u201d packet, which included a number of testimonials from pilot participants, organizers at the church and community leaders attesting to its success and calling for an expansion, including Family & Intercultural Resource Center Executive Director Brianne Snow, Summit County Sheriff Jaime FitzSimons and the Homeless Outreach Providing Encouragement Executive Director Joseph Zanovitch.<\/p>\n

Some participants of the program also arrived to speak in person, including Randy George, who moved to Summit County in September and took the opportunity to talk about how important it is for working homeless individuals to save money in preparation of gaining permanent housing in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI set a goal that by summertime, I\u2019ll have enough money, if I can tough out the winter, and that I\u2019ll be able to have a place by that time,\u201d said George, noting that even saving can be difficult without a set address to open a P.O. Box or bank account. \u201cBut I have to set a certain amount of money aside each month, and I have to keep my bills to an absolute minimum. \u2026 This is the struggle I\u2019m going through. But this has helped me, and I\u2019m grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other community members also spoke at the hearing, calling on county officials to take action on the problem and take the pressure off the local faith community to provide services for homeless individuals in the county.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a program for homeless people at our church,\u201d Lord of the Mountains Lutheran Church Pastor Liliana Stahlberg said. \u201cSome that would never qualify for this program. That\u2019s why we take care of them. But I want you to understand that this is a community problem, and it\u2019s not a church problem. This is something that Summit County has to deal with. We can help, but we can\u2019t be the primary parking lot providers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, while the county commissioners didn\u2019t make any commitments, they did voice that they were optimistic there would be ways to potentially collaborate and seek solutions with stakeholder in the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cI agree that we need to figure out the right people in our organization to start working with you,\u201d Commissioner Thomas Davidson said. \u201cKarn is right, there are some things that we need to be careful about. But I believe we can figure out a way that we can collaborate without opening ourselves to liability and other big issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BRECKENRIDGE \u2014 Community members gathered inside the county commissioner\u2019s chambers Tuesday morning to show support for the Local Overnight Safe Parking Permit program in Summit County. Organizers with Good Bridge Community and the Summit Colorado Interfaith Council, who help to run the program, presented a proof of performance for the initiative to the Summit Board […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-801869","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-02 02:38:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801869\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}