rtann@summitdaily. com
Paul Minjares estimates he paid about $500 for a bachelor room when he moved to Summit County in 2012. In 2021, he paid about $1,200.
He moved house four times in those nine years, forced to leave because of high rents or because his house became rented out on a short-term basis. Each move has become more and more expensive, he says.
“It takes between $3,000 and $4,000 just to move in (you have to pay the first month’s rent and deposit) and it’s hard for other people to keep converting that way,” Minjares said.
So, in 2021, Minjares will be living full-time in his car with the help of Unsheltered in Summit, a program that partners with county and city governments to offer safe parking spots for county workers sleeping in their vehicles.
“The explanation for why I participated in the program was because I had been pushed into 4 other spaces,” Minjares said, “and landlords kept raising rents to ridiculous amounts. “
Launched in 2019, Unsheltered in Summit originally featured secure parking at Agape Outpost Church along Colorado Highway Nine near Breckenridge. Since then, he has worked with local government to protect new spaces, adding masses of parking at Frisco Bay Marina and county-owned. facilities.
Now, after several years of broadening participation, the program wants more parking after losing out at one of its sites.
Last year, the City of Frisco provided the program with 8 summer slots at city-owned assets at 602 Galena St. , which houses the Colorado Workforce Center. But this summer, the construction will be demolished to make way for a new, affordable subdivision, leaving Unsheltered in Summit without access to land.
This means the program will increase from 26 locations last summer to 18 this year. It still has 8 secure parking spaces in the outdoor County Commons building in Frisco and 10 in the Justice Center parking lot in Breckenridge. During the winter, the program utilizes 25 spaces on the marina grounds, in addition to spaces in the county’s municipalities.
The loss comes at a time of heightened demand for the program. This summer marks the first time in the history of the five-year program that the program has a waiting list, which was 11 more people as of May 9, according to program director Diane Luellen.
Luellen said the waiting list is due to a growing number of staff who need to stay in the county year-round and not seasonally.
“What we found is that more of our members, members who came here since the winter, need to stay through the summer than they did in the past,” Luellen said. “As the county has stated, we are facing a housing emergency. There’s just a rush for other people to find a place to live. That’s why a viable option is to live in your car.
Now, Luellen is asking local governments to locate enough additional area to not only make up for the loss of Galena Street, but also to reduce the waiting list. So far, the program has been in talks with Frisco and the county government with plans. to deliver it to the Silverthorne City Council at a later date, Luellen said.
Frisco Communications Director Vanessa Agee, in an email to the Summit Daily News, said the city is in other program functions but faces limited parking availability.
“It’s disheartening, because we’ve found that it’s especially tricky to locate enough area that’s adequate and provides some point of privacy in the summer in a city that’s 1. 89 square miles and more crowded in the summer than in the winter,” Agee said.
The proposed housing progression allocation on Galena Street is one of two allocations the city is executing in partnership with the NHP Foundation, a national nonprofit that promotes housing efforts.
The existing plan calls for the structure of up to 54 below-market rental sets at the Galena Street location and another 49 sets at 101 W. Main St. , where a 1970s-era structure currently stands.
“While the City Council believes there is a genuine desire to provide this reliable option for citizens living in their vehicles, they also recognize that making rental housing features more affordable is likely to provide a much higher quality of life. than living in a vehicle long-term,” Agee said.
The county says it is reviewing the application for more information from Unsheltered in Summit on how the existing parking lot is being used before making a decision.
County Communications Director Sarah Wilkinson said county staff were informed that all 8 planned sites in the county’s construction are not in use, adding, “We need to make sure that is, because in our experience, there are seats available.
Wilkinson said the county is also seeking more data on program members who need to locate long-term ho so the county can get a better sense of participants’ wishes.
“We don’t want to assign a wish to a other people’s organization that doesn’t exist,” Wilkinson said. “But also, if there’s a desire for long-term housing . . . This is something we want to consider. “
Since parking is still a “prize anywhere in the county,” Wilkinson said it’s hard to find more spaces that can be reserved for the program outside of those that have already been provided. But county officials are open to exploring options. she added.
Luellen, director of Unsheltertered at Summit, said most vacancies at the sites are regularly temporary, adding, “I liken it to the fact that if you live in a house, you’re not there either. And it’s the same with other people who live in their cars in a parking lot, they’re not there every night.
Still, Luellen said there have been times when members have left “more than we’d like” and the program screens participants to make sure seats aren’t underutilized.
“We’re taking steps to make sure the county’s generosity goes to waste,” Luellen said.
While living in a vehicle is a lifestyle choice for some, it’s also a practical solution for recording housing costs, Luellen said.
According to an assessment of housing desires for 2023 by Root Policy Research, the availability of low-income housing has declined particularly over the past two decades.
In 2000, most rental equipment occupied by permanent tenants charged between $500 and $800 per month, and few were rented for $2,000 or more. More than 1,600 rental equipment, nearly a portion of all rental equipment at the time, were rented for less than $800 a month, the study says. In 2023, the countywide median rents $2,300 for a studio or bedroom and $3,100 for a two-bedroom, based on data analyzed between March and June of that year.
“Of course, there have been other people living in their cars, but that’s even more true now because of the higher cost of housing,” Luellen said.
Those who rely on the program like Minjares need governments to know how much of an impact it has had on their lives.
When he was a tenant, Minjares said he worked only 60 to 70 hours a week. Practicing various professions, including conductor, he had little time to concentrate on his passion: music.
But since attending Unsheltered in Summit, Minjares said he’s been able to make music a full-time job. By saving money that would otherwise be spent on rent, Minjares was able to set up a limited liability company and purchase instruments. He now works as a musician, performs, and performs under contract in the county.
“Everything I earn I invest in myself,” he said, adding that he has also noticed an improvement in his intellectual health.
And having a parking area has given him peace of mind.
“You don’t have to worry about the police banging on your window. You can wake up and have a morning regimen without having to automatically go out,” Minjares said.
The program uses several safeguards to avoid conflicts with authorities and to ensure that its members act respectfully in public spaces.
The application procedure includes offering evidence of employment in the county, a questionnaire, an interview, a signed waiver of liability, and a network respect agreement. The program designates hosts to follow the rules of the network, a role Minjares has been playing lately in the County Commons. place.
Although local governments don’t rate the spaces, Unsheltered in Summit requires monthly bills from its members to help cover the costs of the trash cans and portable toilets it supplies in the space.
Starting June 1, Luellen said the program will increase its rates from $50 to $75 per month, either to address emerging commodity prices and to discourage more casual use.
Neither the county government nor Frisco have reported any issues with the program, and Agee, Frisco’s communications director, told the Summit Daily that the city’s partnership over the past two years “has been excellent. “
“They are well-organized, passionate, and considerate in how they make deals with citizens so that the program provides a residential, nonviolent encampment,” Agee said in an email. “The city has found that the citizens in this program are very similar to all of us and we share many of the same hopes and dreams for a fun and fun life in our community. “
For those reasons, Luellen is confident the program will increase parking this summer. Luellen added that governments can help, but so can businesses and other organizations.
“I’m hoping that somewhere someone knows of some available space,” he said.
Luellen can be reached at dianeluellen@comcast. net. Se more information about Unsheltered in Summit can be found on UnshelterSummit. org.
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