Encampment Grows As Crews Work On Colorado Springs Shelter

A collection of tents has popped up in Colorado Springs just feet from where construction crews are working to complete a new homeless shelter before winter. But community relations director for the new Colorado Springs Rescue Mission shelter Stu Davis says calling it a tent city is an exaggeration.

While the organization doesn’t encourage homeless camping, it has allowed several dozen individuals to camp on its property,

The new shelter will provide some 260 beds or mats, and for the first time the community will have a winter shelter for women.

"We’re actually going to be kind of retrofitting an additional building on our campus to make sure that specifically some of our female homeless folks that are in particularly dire situations have a space set aside specifically for them and meeting their needs," he said.

The new Colorado Springs Rescue Mission shelter has been in the planning for two years and Davis says they’re aggressively pushing to try to get the shelter open in the next 30 days.