{"id":97281,"date":"2018-10-26T19:11:52","date_gmt":"2018-10-27T01:11:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-finalizes-permit-for-temporary-winter-homeless-shelter\/"},"modified":"2018-10-26T19:11:52","modified_gmt":"2018-10-27T01:11:52","slug":"cortez-finalizes-permit-for-temporary-winter-homeless-shelter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-finalizes-permit-for-temporary-winter-homeless-shelter\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez finalizes permit for temporary winter homeless shelter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Ray
Ray Nephew adjusts the TV in a room at The Bridge Emergency Shelter in this 2012 file photo. Grace Fellowship church will host a temporary shelter this winter while The Bridge builds a permanent shelter.<\/span>The Journal file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Cortez homeless population will still be able to find refuge this winter while the Bridge Emergency Shelter builds a new permanent home, but there will be changes this season.<\/p>\n

The Cortez City Council on Tuesday approved a temporary conditional use permit for Grace Fellowship church to shelter up to 33 overnight residents per night between Nov. 1 and April 30. The Bridge previously operated a facility at 601 N. Mildred Road from 2006 to 2018. Montezuma County then sold the shelter building. The new shelter, at 735 N. Park St, is expected to open next summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t have anywhere to go, they\u2019ve been asking around at different places and different facilities and this is the only place that opened up for them,\u201d Cortez associate planner Neva Connolly said.<\/p>\n

Laurie Knutson, executive director at The Bridge, said she is \u201cincredibly grateful\u201d for Grace Fellowship. She said they will be able to use three rooms and one bathroom \u2014 one for women, one for men and one for gathering. Returning clients will likely notice a reduction in amenities this winter at the temporary shelter.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year, we know that we\u2019re just not going to have the same setup for our guests as before,\u201d Knutson said. \u201cThey\u2019ve always had access to free laundry, they\u2019ve had cable TV to watch and they\u2019re just going to have to go without some of those things this season.\u201d<\/p>\n

In years past, Knutson said, the shelter never had to turn anyone away. The shelter has often taken in about 40 or 45 people on cold nights, so the limit of 33 overnight resident limit means there might not be a bed for everyone. She said no one is looking forward to turning people away, but it\u2019s only temporary.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll all survive and that\u2019s the purpose,\u201d Knutson said. \u201cWe keep our clients surviving.\u201d<\/p>\n

As temporary shelter at Grace Fellowship will not include a commercial kitchen and laundry, Knutson said the shelter could use some additional donations this season, like paper plates, paper bowls, coffee, sugar and cleaning products.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be really nice if people could deliver those if they feel so inclined,\u201d Knutson said.<\/p>\n

sdolan@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fellowship to host homeless while Bridge builds new facility<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":97282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[21,13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-97281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-cortez","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97281"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=97281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}