The Why

For their life success, it is fundamental that each individual or family has stable housing. A permanent address leads to better physical health, mental health, employment, addiction recovery and other outcomes and costs the community less in services than managing people in homelessness rather than ending it.

• Weld County was recently ranked as the U.S. region most likely to be on the verge of a housing crisis and the tenth most unaffordable housing market in the nation.
• Over half of Weld County renter households pay more than 30% of their income on housing costs, putting them in a precarious financial position, unable to meet expenses and to save for the future.
• The solution to homelessness is housing, not more services or being sure that someone is “housing ready” before they move into a new home.
• United Way manages the Northern Colorado Continuum of Care, the community collaboration that can end homelessness in Weld and Larimer counties.

Challenges

As with many larger metropolitan areas, and especially in places increasing in population like Northern Colorado, Weld County is being challenged with homelessness and housing instability. The ever-increasing cost of housing combined with a job base that too often does not pay a living wage is making more and more households unstable and at-risk of homelessness. For example, a single parent making Colorado’s minimum wage of $12.56 per hour would need to work 67 hours per week to afford a one bedroom apartment in Weld County.

This situation is difficult for each household and is costly for our community. Individuals experiencing homelessness over-utilize first responder and health care resources. Households experiencing homelessness depend on government assistance, rather than productively participating in the community. Children without stable housing drastically under-perform their stably housed peers, leading to poorer lifelong outcomes.