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A lone tricycle sits in the courtyard at the New Promise Family Shelter on South Nevada Avenue. Two and a half years after its opening, Colorado Springs’ only stand-alone shelter for homeless families is closing.

A lone tricycle sits in the courtyard at the New Promise Family Shelter on South Nevada Avenue. Two and a half years after its opening, Colorado Springs’ only stand-alone shelter for homeless families is closing.

In response to the editorial: “High barrier shelters offer life instead of death”, which appeared on July 22, I am submitting my letter and voicing my dismay at the Gazette Editorial Board’s lack of analysis and understanding of the complexities of homelessness, and especially the barriers that low-income families with complex needs face while attempting to move from shelter to affordable housing.

It is certainly unfortunate that the New Promise Family Shelter is closing this month. However, the characterization that it is due to a “lack of handouts” from citizens is denigrating to the individual contributions that nonprofit organizations receive as an integral part of our operating budget.

Also, The New Promise Shelter did not claim it was a drug treatment program, which the editorial board alludes to as a failure of programming. Your editorial also states that this program failed because only 36% of clients have moved to permanent stable housing without a reference to the gap in housing solutions for families experiencing homelessness.

Affordable housing is at an all-time crisis level in our community, which goes unmentioned in your editorial.

I agree that our community needs to provide a continuum of services that are nonjudgmental, welcoming, meet the client’s needs, provide access to resources, link to behavioral health and medical services. Let’s restore dignity and empower individuals to engage in services when they are ready and able. Homeward Pikes Peak is honored to continue this work with Family Promise and other valued community partners.

I would like to piggyback on Barb Parnell’s letter about our homeless population. A number of the people that I see at Westside Cares have a monthly income.

Unfortunately, it is not enough to pay the amazingly high rents here in our city. Add to that, landlords asking for first and last month’s rent plus a deposit, and it makes it impossible!

So, we need to think outside the box! Bring back what worked in the past here and what still works in many countries. What we need are hostels or boarding houses. People could afford a small room with a bathroom down the hall.

At the very least, give them a place to store their belongings during the day. That way, they can move around unencumbered and perhaps seek employment.

Thank you, Glenn Shellhouse, (editorial July 27)for pointing out the misrepresentation of low-barrier housing in the Gazette’s July 22 editorial. Colorado Springs has just seen an essential low-barrier family shelter close for lack of sufficient funds. Family Promise will continue to support families, but on a smaller and more restrictive scale. As we experience an extreme affordable housing crisis here, we need many more innovative solutions, not false criticism.

They will not all succeed. That’s OK, because right now, the labor force is grotesquely stretched across a gap between the cost of essential services and their paycheck. We need to keep trying. As a pastor, I help working people who make enough to pay $700 a month on housing. If you check the rentals available, you will see that there are none even close to that. Now imagine going to the grocery store. Imagine needing car repairs.

The Gazette would do better to ask what happened to the city’s affordable housing initiative. It might research the impact that less restrictive zoning could have on that cost gap for workers our city depend on. It could endorse taking down barriers, rather than putting them up.

In the July 24 paper, I read Jason Gaulden’s article on the reemergence of vocational training and it’s value. It reminded me of an old quote by Winston Churchill: “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing…..eventually.”

It’s indeed time to turn away from: “one size fits all schooling,” “everyone needs to go to college” (regardless of whether they have that ambition), “we only want to put our money into college bound students” (quoted to me by a person talking to one of my son’s high school principals), yada, yada, yada.

That attitude sounds more like someone seeking adulation than filling a need. Going to college is one thing. Staying there is something else.

Gaulden’s article was relevant to this day and age when we have too many psychology, sociology, political science, etc., majors who can’t find suitable jobs. These subjects might be fine but when I was in school as a WWII baby boomer, everyone wanted to send me and everyone else to college. “Oh but your test scores are so high, you have to go!” Famous last words and some degrees with a couple of dollars will buy you a cup of coffee, period. Best advice I ever got: “Learn to type; you may need it!”

Looking back, at 17, I should have gone to trade school. My brother couldn’t do anything with his hands but was wonderful at physics and math. I could do anything with my hands but being a girl, I wasn’t allowed in my father’s tool shop. Now I have my own tools. Mother wanted a nurse and I throw up at the sight of blood. That doesn’t take a subliminal message. When do we learn to think as individuals?

So here’s to the female mechanics and male nurses out there. I salute you and I hope to see more of you getting the education and doing the jobs you’re suited to. If college is needed, fine and if trade school is needed, fine also.

Thank you, Jason Gaulden, for wonderful ideas in a new direction. No one should have to hate a school that isn’t suited to them.

Ryan McKibben, Chairman Christian Anschutz, Vice Chairman Chris Reen, Publisher Wayne Laugesen, Editorial Page Editor Pula Davis, Newsroom Operations Director