Following a months-long search, Crazy Faith Street Ministry secured its own building to shelter Puebloans who are homeless during weather emergencies.

The nonprofit had been searching for a new building since last year, adamant that Pueblo needed at least a second option for unhoused Puebloans who seek shelter overnight during the winter. The Pueblo Rescue Mission, Pueblo’s only homeless shelter, intakes emergency clients and the city, depending on capacity, will open the transit center at times for overnight shelter. It has yet to do so this winter, presumably because the mission has not reached capacity on nights when the emergency weather declaration was active.

Some of Pueblo’s unhoused have expressed reticence about sheltering at the mission, citing concerns or an unwillingness to abide by the facility’s rules, which are in place to maintain staff and residents’ safety.

Crazy Faith’s efforts to secure funding from the city for a new building were struck down by the mayor’s office last year. The nonprofit had sought one because the building in which they previously operated a warming shelter was sold. Tammy and Lonny Kainz, operators of Crazy Faith, have been using buses to shelter some of Pueblo’s homeless over the past few months.

Their new space, which is located on the North Side, is twice as big as their old one. On Thursday evening, clients were offered food, blankets, a restroom and water, and had enough room to space out their sleeping bags. Lonny Kainz picked some of them up from the Pueblo Transit Center and brought them over.

A few volunteers and local churches have helped the Kainzes.

“It’s like a load lifted off,” Lonny Kainz said of securing the new building. “Granted, running this building and doing all this is a lot of work, but man, there’s a lot of work trying to find out where we were going to go and what we were going to do.”

The Kainzes, along with Paul Montoya and the Pueblo Rescue Mission, are among Pueblo’s most active homeless advocates. They are frequently contacted by others who seek their assistance and lived experience helping unhoused individuals.

“We needed (a building) desperately for operational (purposes) and all of our supplies,” Tammy Kainz said. “It’s really hard to operate out of buses.”

How the Kainzes plan to operate the shelter

The Kainzes have stated that a shelter can serve as a gateway for some of Pueblo’s unhoused to escape homelessness and help meet their needs. Through their shelter and outreach, they have helped hundreds of people get off the streets.

That total includes some who slept in the buses overnight last month. The buses are heated but offer little space or room to sleep comfortably, which pushed some to seek resources. The vehicles served as an alternative and helped an estimated 100 people stay warm until the Kainzes obtained their new facility, which has operated as a warming shelter for around a week this month.

The facility is purely intended to be open during periods in which Mayor Nick Gradisar activates the city’s emergency weather ordinance. The Kainzes don’t plan to turn it into a full-time shelter in the immediate future.

They are, however, seeking funding. A majority of their recent expenses have been paid out of pocket, Tammy Kainz said. Up to this point, they’ve only been able to admit male clients, as they can currently only afford one security officer for the men.

Outside funding would help them pay for supplies and food, among other expenses, Tammy Kainz said. It would also help cover additional security staff, including a female security officer, which would enable the emergency shelter to accept women.

The Kainzes won’t seek financial support from the city at this time but could receive some from other sources.

Crazy Faith is one of several organizations that requested funding from Pueblo County. County commissioners were slated to discuss the requests in executive session at the Jan. 18 work session. The Pueblo Food Project, Mariposa Center for Safety and the Boys and Girls Club of Pueblo County are some of the other organizations that have requested funds.

Also, because Crazy Faith has a new building, its operators can allocate more time toward working on securing grants, Tammy Kainz said.

What the warming shelter does for Pueblo’s homeless

The Kainzes acquisition of the new building came before Pueblo was hit with a serious cold spell. Temperatures earlier this month dropped below zero and, at one point, didn’t get above 5 degrees, setting a new record. Tammy Kainz called the conditions “brutal” and said she was aware of frostbite cases among some of Pueblo’s unhoused.

The couple distributed winter face masks, blankets, gloves and socks during the frigid period and opened their warming shelter on Sunday night when temperatures plummeted.

“I couldn’t even sleep,” Mario Cortez said of the weather conditions. “I could feel myself freezing and had to walk to the bus station to get warm so I could thaw out my feet. I could barely walk. It’s hard.”

Cortez, 65, was born in Walsenburg but has lived in Pueblo most of his life. He’s been homeless for seven years and has tried to secure housing, but his disability payments aren’t nearly enough to help him cover it.

He sought shelter at Crazy Faith Thursday night to avoid getting frostbite.

“It’s nice. They help you out here and feed you,” Cortez said. “That’s better than eating out of the trash. Some people have to.”

Robert Edward also sought shelter at Crazy Faith to avoid the below-freezing conditions. The 55-year-old veteran, who’s been homeless for 15 years, said he sometimes has enough supplies to keep himself warm outside during winter, but he’s unwilling to risk injury when it gets too cold.

He, too, is trying to find housing. He has also sheltered at the Pueblo Rescue Mission, he said.

“It’s kind of like the calm before the storm,” Edward said. “You can almost tell when you need to seek shelter immediately. You get so used to the cold weather in Colorado.”

Chieftain reporter Josue Perez can be reached at JHPerez@gannett.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @josuepwrites. Support local news, subscribe to The Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo nonprofit secures building to house city’s homeless in winter