While the causes of homelessness and housing instability are many, there is a primary solution: let’s build more housing and make it affordable to rent or own. We as a community must decide to do this together. Below are some ways to get involved. Contact Alaina Kelley to discuss other possibilities. We hope that you will join United Way of Weld County and its partners in ending and preventing homelessness in Weld County.
INVESTIGATE
Read Weld’s Way Home 2.0 to find out how Weld County is working together to end and prevent homelessness.
Find out how Rockford, Illinois, population 150,000, ended chronic homelessness in this short article with 4-minute video.
Houston has helped 25,000 move from living out-of-doors or in a car back into housing; read about it in this NY Times Magazine article (which also has a listen-to option).
The Way Home is an 8-part short-form documentary on how homelessness is experienced by 100,000 people in California, showing that a large segment of this population is adults aged 50+ who simply can no longer afford housing.
When comparing regional areas on the likely causes of homelessness, the one factor that consistently varies is the cost of housing; where housing is more expensive, such as in Boston or Los Angeles or Seattle, more people experience homelessness. Read Homelessness is a Housing Problem to find out more.
INVEST
Donate to United Way’s Housing Navigation Center and its efforts to end and prevent homelessness and get a 25% State of Colorado tax credit.
Invest in the work of one of United Way’s Weld’s Way Home partner organizations:
- A Woman’s Place – Domestic Violence Emergency Shelter
- Almost Home – Southern Weld Outreach for Housing Stability
- Carbon Valley Help Center – Resource Specialist for Financial Grants
- Greeley Family House – Emergency Shelter
- Greeley-Weld Habitat for Humanity – Affordable Homeownership Program
- High Plains Housing Development Corporation – Supportive Housing Development Project
- Hope at Miracle House – Emergency Shelter
- Immigrant and Refugee Center of Northern Colorado – Adult Education
- Jobs of Hope – Transitional Housing
- Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains – Refugee and Asylee Programs
- Volunteers of America Colorado Branch – COR3 Plus Rapid Rehousing
- Weld Food Bank – Mobile Food Pantry
- Women to Women – Housing Assistance
VOLUNTEER
With a couple of hours on a Friday morning you can help United Way’s Housing Navigation Center be a good neighbor to fellow businesses in Greeley, Garden City and Evans. Sign-up on the Weld County Volunteer Connection website.
Get involved in the Thriving Weld Housing and Land Use Project and learn how to advocate for more affordable housing opportunities in Weld County.
Become active in the regional effort to make homelessness rare, brief and non-recurring in Larimer and Weld counties.
If you are a landlord, you can make a unit or two available to someone who has been experiencing homelessness. Contact United Way’s Housing Navigation Center to find out more.
