Shelter Still Awaits Lease

Cold nights have facility full

City councilors voted on Nov. 12 to hold public meetings on improvements to services for the homeless, but so far those sessions are unscheduled. In the meantime, the governing body ordered the city manager to stop issuing month-to-month leases for the nonprofit Interfaith Community Shelter group and to instead enter an agreement that it can use the city building formerly known as Pete's Pets for another two years. Shelter organizers said the short-term agreements were making fundraising difficult.

While Guy Gronquist, board of directors chairman, tells SFR late Tuesday that he's still waiting to see that long-term lease, he says organizers and clients at the shelter seem relieved that there's at least some certainty for the winter ahead. An average of about 100 people have slept there each night since a cold snap kicked in about a week ago. Those numbers are "strong," he notes, or about the same as the shelter typically sees in mid-January.

"We try not to turn anybody away because we think that the risk of freezing to death is pretty great," he says. "When it gets down to 15 degrees somebody could easily freeze to death."

People who live and work near the Cerrillos Road shelter—used for overnight guests seven days a week in the winter and for mid-day meals on Tuesday, Wednesdays, Fridays and the weekend—have said the crowds that gather outside the facility create problems. In addition to those services, Gronquist says people can get help from a variety of other community agencies that set up shop on the "resource days" to offer things like legal assistance and connection to counseling.

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