Communities on the Eastern Plains don’t have nearly the number of homeless people as in Colorado’s cities, but local officials said they still need help as temperatures drop dangerously low this weekend.
In Prowers County, local leaders were making plans to put people up in hotel rooms in Lamar if they are homeless or if their homes are too run-down to keep out the cold. That includes people living in campers or houses with broken windows, holes in the roof or no heat, said Mark Westhoff, Prowers County administrator.
Like many places, the rural county that has an Amtrak station has seen an increase in homelessness in recent years. “There are folks that take the train as far as they can and get out and here they are,” he said.
And then there are the travelers along U.S. 50 and U.S. 385 who could get stuck in Prowers County because of the blowing snow and wind chill dropping the temperatures to minus 30 degrees.
This is why Rep. Ty Winter, a Republican who represents Prowers and six other Eastern Plains counties, is miffed the state isn’t doing more to help rural areas during the upcoming four-day cold snap. Winter and three other rural lawmakers criticized Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, for releasing a disaster declaration that initially listed only warming shelters along the Interstate 25 corridor, hours from Prowers County in southeastern Colorado.
“This is yet another stark example of the rural-urban divide and the apparent disregard the governor has for rural Coloradans,” Winter wrote, along with Republicans Rep. Richard Holtorf of Akron, Sen. Rod Pelton of Cheyenne Wells and Sen. Byron Pelton of Sterling, in a letter released Friday. “We call on Governor Polis to provide the same aid to rural Coloradans as he gave to those in urban areas.”
In response, the governor’s staff told The Sun that the disaster declaration on Thursday by no means leaves out the Eastern Plains. The declaration “covers all impacted areas across the whole state” and state officials reached out to Rep. Winter to clarify that, said Micki Trost, spokesperson for the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
The governor’s declaration activated the state’s Emergency Operations Plan and authorized the Colorado National Guard to assist with resources. The initial list of warming centers released with the declaration included shelters in Greeley, Fort Collins, Jefferson County, Denver and Boulder. On Friday, the state updated its list to include three on the Eastern Plains, including Rocky Ford Methodist Church in Otero County, First Presbyterian Church in Las Animas, in Bent County, and the EMS Station in Walsh, in eastern Baca County.
The warming centers are locally operated and were already planning to open before the governor’s office listed them for the public, Trost said. Polis’ order allows the state to support local governments that request help for their existing shelters, she said.
A light coating of snow blankets a section of First Street in Julesburg, Colo. Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024. Julesburg, the largest town and county seat of northeast Colorado’s Sedgwick County, is home to Sedgwick County Health Center. (Alex McIntyre, Special to The Colorado Sun)
In Prowers County, Westhoff said local officials likely would declare their own emergency and ask for state help if the cold weather ends up causing power or water shortages and they need to house more people than can fit into Lamar’s few hotel rooms. The county might want state funds to pay for hotel rooms and, if needed, setting up a community shelter, possibly in an old National Guard armory now owned by Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
They had hoped for more immediate help from the disaster declaration.
“We know how to declare an emergency and get the state involved,” Westhoff said. “It seems we still have to go through the protocol of asking the state for the money.”
The plains have been hit with blizzard conditions and freezing temperatures for the past 10 days. Besides concern about those who don’t have adequate housing, the cattle ranching community is worried about livestock.
“Farmers and ranchers, they know what they need to do in this kind of weather but it doesn’t make it any less difficult,” Westhoff said. “Livestock are going to be a major concern for them. With this kind of cold, there aren’t too many solutions. They bring them in as much as they can and try to protect them as much as they can.”
In neighboring Kiowa County, people also were concerned about livestock, as well as travelers who might get stranded and would quickly fill up the two small hotels in Eads. If that happens, the county would open a community building as a shelter, as it has done in prior blizzards, said Tina Adamson, Kiowa County administrator.
The county has some residents living in inadequate housing, but almost no one who is homeless, she said. The small population makes it easy for local law enforcement, social services or churches to check on people who need warm shelter, she said.
“This year is the first we had anybody that we could honestly say was homeless,” Adamson said. “I have not heard about that person for a while so I’m not even sure they are still here.”
Type of Story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
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