The building at 811 Myrtle Street in Fort Collins looks like a normal, small house on the outside. But inside, there are eight suites, each with its own private half bathroom. There’s also a flex space for larger families, two common spaces, a community kitchen, and a backyard.
“It’s quite roomy,” Annette Zacharias, director of the nonprofit Family Housing Network, said. “I had a volunteer who told me that this feels like a really cute little Hampton Inn.”
This space is going to be a free transitional housing shelter that’s opening in the fall, called the Myrtle House. Zacharias said this will double their capacity to serve unhoused families.
“We were turning away families like crazy. A year ago in September we turned away 24 families, we turned away another 30 in November,” she said. “We were bursting at the seams and we just kept hearing more and more families calling and needing help.”
Zacharias started looking for a place more than five years ago. Part of the wait was finding a place that was cozy and private. She never wanted families to live in a congregate setting.
“You're having to parent your kids in public, you're having to eat in public, sleep in public. They report that they don't get good rest. They report that their stuff gets stolen,” Zacharias said. “It just doesn't feel respectful or dignified.
The shelter has been designed with that dignity in mind. Families can have privacy and lock their door behind them in the suite. They can use a full bathroom on their own down the hall, wash their own clothes or cook their child’s favorite meal in the community kitchen. Zacharias said that makes a big difference for families.
“A former (shelter) guest said, ‘My dad always told me that home is where the heart is, but you can't wash laundry in your heart. You can't cook your kid a meal in your heart,’” Zacharias said. “We want this to be as home-like as possible.”
The shelter also has many things that unhoused families do not get the luxury of enjoying. That includes a wheelchair-accessible shower, bus pickup right outside the front entrance, and a private playground where children can play in the backyard.
But it is still a shelter at the end of the day, Zacharias said. The goal is to give families a stable home for three to four months and equip them with tools like creating a budget or a resume so they can work toward getting into permanent housing. Family Housing Network has a 94% success rate of keeping families housed for 13 months or more.
“If we can give someone back their self-respect and dignity, then they have the confidence to go forward and make good decisions, and they don't have to fall back into old decisions and old ways and think that that's all they have to offer themselves,” Zacharias said.
It will also be a nice change from their current situation. Volunteers currently set up beds in local churches and other places of faith and families rotate each weekend.
“They won't have to tear down the mattresses and put and load them up on the trailer and move them to the next site,” Zacharias said. “This will stop that rotation and lessen the trauma on the family.”
Zacharias is still trying to fundraise the last of the $2.2 million needed to make this shelter happen. Residents should move in around Thanksgiving.
