2006: Alamosa Event:
Date: Thursday, October 5, 2006
Time: 5:00 – 7:00 pm
Location: Hospice Delvalle Community Room
514 Main Street
Alamosa, Colorado 81101
Contact: Kathy White, Colorado Center on Law & Policy
Fact Sheet: What it Costs to Live in Alamosa:
General Overview of Alamosa Event:
Approximately 20 people, including the panel of local experts, attended
the event. A “Community Resource Fair” was held prior to the event and information was provided by La Puente Home and its many agencies, Colorado Anti-Hunger Network, Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute,
Colorado Center on Law and Policy, Colorado Consumer Health
Initiative, Energy Outreach Colorado, Colorado Progressive Coalition,
USDA.
Mary Hoffman of Community Partners of Adams State College moderated
the event and introduced each of the panelists.
The panel of local experts on homelessness, hunger and healthcare in Alamosa was asked to answer three specific questions:
- How does poverty manifest itself in your community and are there unique barriers to addressing issues of poverty in the valley?
- What do you think are solutions to address poverty?
- What can state, local and federal policymakers and advocates do to support your efforts?
The panelists included:
- Lance Cheslock, La Puente Home
- Guy Singer, Food Banks (14 coordinated food banks of the valley)
- Terri Lucero, Alamosa Housing Authority
- Marguerite Salazar, Valley Wide Health Systems
Each of the panelists took time to answer the questions, but the evening
was more an interactive discussion between panelists and participants. Highlights of the conversation are below.
Guy Singer, Food Banks. The poverty in the valley is surprising.
Given a population of 46,000, what incentive do politicians have to
come to the Valley or to listen to the concerns of people in the Valley?
It’s not a lot of votes. Per capita the number of people who receive
public services and still need to come by La Puente for help is
astounding. We run 14 Food Banks. Care and Share helps provide the
money, roughly $125,000 or so for food banks and nutrition services.
We need to get money from larger more prosperous areas and share it with smaller, poorer areas, the way large sports teams raise revenue for smaller teams.
Terri Lucero, Alamosa Housing Authority. There is a common misperception regarding the housing authority’s services. We do not have emergency housing at our agency. We do public and section 8 housing.
We have 199 public housing units and 68 Sec 8 vouchers. We run at 100% capacity almost always and the waitlist is long. Winter months are hard, because nobody wants to move at that time. The busiest time for families moving is when school lets out. We run a family self-sufficiency program
that allows us to take a portion of a family’s rent and use it to purchase a home. In my nine years here, we’ve had three graduates. There is a ton
of paperwork and only two of us to do administration.
Lance Cheslock, La Puente Home. La Puente started in 1981 as an
ER shelter. We serve 800-1200 people per year. Last year, of 365 nights,
we had 189 nights with people sleeping on the floor. So, we are expanding. Some people think that homeless shelters manufacture poor people. But, with the expansion, we won’t necessarily serve more people; we just
won’t have as many sleeping on the floor. The poverty in these six
counties is
grim, particularly in the two southern. Poverty breeds homelessness.
When you reach the end of a paycheck and the end of favors that you
can call in and the end of relationships that you can tap, you end up homeless. And it starts a vicious cycle. Many people, who leave the
shelter, go to substandard housing. Substandard housing means you
don’t want to fix it up and it stays substandard. Kids see this as the bar.
Transportation is hard. It is a problem that we have no public transportation in the valley. Only two cabs serve Alamosa and a couple
of neighboring towns. I might be able to get someone a minimum wage
job at Wendy’s, but how do you get them to the interview and more importantly to and from work everyday?
Getting access to basic needs should be so much easier. We’ve got to reduce the gap from point of need/crisis and point of receiving services.
We need to recognize that we may not get results. When most folks see a wounded bird or dog, they want to care for it, they show concern. Why
have that empathy toward an animal and not a person?
Mary Hoffman, Community Partners Adams State College. We
must connect college kids into the community better. While there is a business support center at the college, we’re finding that we aren’t helping most people start businesses but rather get their personal finances in
order. There aren’t many large businesses in the valley, so to create good paying jobs often means helping clients start their own small business. Department of Voc Rehab, lots of folks on disability that want to
contribute, want to work, but lose their parachute if they go above the
8-900 a month limit. Keeps them in the cycle of poverty, keeps them dependent.
Marguerite Salazar, Valley Wide Health Systems. The clinics
serve
a lot of folks, 9 of the 11 poorest counties in the state are in the
valley. 48,000 users, 193,000 visits. 4,400 migrants. 63% below
200 FPL. 27% uninsured about 11,000 Medicaid. Problems with
access
to healthcare are layers. Clients might lack insurance or live in
a
community without doctors. We help with all. 600-700 pregnant
women delivered every year. Poverty manifests itself in illness, and
health disparities. Poor folks wait too long before they gather up the
courage to
walk into the ER. They might wait 5-6 week before they end
up at the ER.
We don’t have a health care system; we have a fragmented way of
providing services to those who can afford it. Premiums for families at $1,000 per month. That’s $12,000 per year. Specialty care is a big need
in the valley.
We often need to barter with docs
to get families specialty
care. We work hard to pay docs a median wage, but they leave to make
more money. They do their service work, which is great, but then they
leave. It
is so true that we need a better voice. We make sure we aren’t wasting any dollars because in the valley, there are no dollars to waste.