The Mayor's Mixtape
Mayor Heather Graham's weekly brief of current events related to the City of Pueblo.
The Mayor's Mixtape
The Mayor's Mixtape-Episode 16
Mayor Heather Graham hosts Sarah Money, Manager of Recovery Services with SafeSide Recovery. Pueblo City Council approved the contract award for SafeSide Recovery Foundation to provide operations management of the Pueblo Shelter. Mayor Graham and Sarah talk about the rebuilding of trust, peer recovery support specialists and community partnerships.
Mayor Graham gives a brief City Council recap and talks about the importance of refraining from lighting off fireworks within city limits. Aerial fireworks are illegal and harmful to friends and neighbors throughout the city.
Don't forget to email your questions or topic suggestions to mayor@pueblo.us.
Go, go, Okay. Welcome to the 16th episode of the Mayor's Mixtape.
Haley Sue Robinson:I'm Haley Sue Robinson, Director of Public Affairs.
Mayor Heather Graham:City of Pueblo, Mayor Heather Graham.
Sarah Money:and my name is Sarah Money. I'm the Manager of Recovery Services with SafeSide.
Haley Sue Robinson:So we have another guest on the podcast today, Very excited about that. Just want to remind everyone. You can find this podcast on Apple, Spotify, Buzzsprout, YouTube. You can also rewatch it on local government channel 17. There are lots of opportunities to listen to this podcast. Share it with your friends and family and don't forget that you have the opportunity to submit questions or topics. You can email us, mayor@ pueblo. us. So the reason we have a guest on the show this morning is last night City Council approved the award to Safe Side Recovery Foundation.
Sarah Money:Finally.
Haley Sue Robinson:Yeah, it feels like that the contract for the shelter operations and the use of the facilities located at 710 West 4th Street and 728 West 4th Street, known as the Pueblo Shelter Campus. Mayor, before we jump into things with Sarah, can you walk us through a bit of the timeline with the RFP process and also what it looked like to get us to this point with an operator for Pueblo shelter.
Mayor Heather Graham:Sure, so I think that the demise of the shelter started back in October where the previous board had come to community members essentially saying it was like a Wednesday.
Mayor Heather Graham:You know, by Saturday we're going to have to close the shelter. You know we've run out of funding. We don't know what we're going to do. We're going to have a lot of unhoused individuals out on the streets. They called a community meeting together. At that time the city stepped in and allocated some emergency funding to help with the shelter and help with the operations and acquired back the 710 and the 728 building. Our partners at Safe Side Recovery were renting an office space at the shelter at the time and they came aboard with the city to help us continue to provide services and not really have any hiccups in the process until now.
Mayor Heather Graham:And so at the beginning of the year took a proposal to City Council.
Mayor Heather Graham:City Council was kind of um, there was a couple different directions that they maybe wanted to go.
Mayor Heather Graham:They maybe wanted to have the city run the shelter and created an entire city department but that's not really the city's specialty, not something that we're capable of doing and providing the behavioral health services and programming services in general.
Mayor Heather Graham:And so my proposal to city council was we would create an RFP on things that we were looking for for a shelter provider. We visited the shelter in Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs Rescue Mission, to kind of see what they did and really mimicked what we want our shelter in the city of Pueblo to look like after Colorado Springs and so created an RFP. Um took a while to get the RFP out, to get the applicants to apply, so we had several interested parties. Um, none of the other parties, except for Safe Side, were 100% applicable to take over the shelter, and so, after lots of back and forth and many trips to City Council with the proposal last night the RFP finally passed and so Safe Side will run the shelter through the end of this year and it's a 12-month RFP, so six months into next year and then we'll revisit and re-evaluate and see how it's going and probably enter into another agreement next June.
Haley Sue Robinson:So yeah, so this is the beginning of a of a long-term partnership.
Mayor Heather Graham:Yeah, the, and you know we've had some, some great successes. The, the emergency shelter, has run every single night since October. That's not something that the city did previously with the last administration or city managers before it would be kind of more of a pop-up venue that when it was real cold they were able to open and have emergency shelter. SafeSide and the staff at the rescue mission were able to operate it every night in October and then we were like okay, I think that we this needs to stay open. SafeSide said this needs to stay open, you know, every night from now on.
Mayor Heather Graham:So it took to City Council no more emergency ordinances, it's at. It's up to SafeSide and the operator of the shelter how often they want to open and so it's been open every single night and on the really cold days that we had in December and January it was open 24-7. So that's changed. We've also brought alongside another partner that will be at the shelter every Thursday from 1 to 4, Pueblo Community Health Center and they're going to be providing urgent care, primary care and behavioral health services. So last Thursday was our grand opening.
Haley Sue Robinson:Yeah, their pop-up clinic.
Mayor Heather Graham:Of the pop-up clinic and it was a success, and we hope that they're able to help additional residents and unhoused individuals who need treatment. And then we're also working the 710 building has several different office spaces and so we're looking at bringing other partners within the community to come and entertain a few hours every day to perform different resources and programming to different clients
Haley Sue Robinson:Sure so, since, since we're on the topic of of partnerships, um, at this kind of like a two-part question, Sarah, maybe you can talk to the external partnerships and then May or maybe you can talk about, like kind of, the inner workings of the city departments and what that partnership has looked like for the Pueblo Shelter. Sarah, you want to go first.
Sarah Money:Sure, I'll dive right in. So you know, as the Mayor said, there's been a lot that has gone on with the shelter and with SafeSide. I joined SafeSide in March and I'm so grateful to be a part of the new future and where we're going. I've been in Pueblo for just over five years and it's been really important to me in my time here to work with all of the community partners that we can in order to make our community better. And so you know, now that I have joined SafeSide, we're building new partnerships and I've been able to carry over some of the partnerships that I had formerly built, which has been really, really cool.
Sarah Money:You know really what we envision our shelter being, with the support of the city, is full wraparound services, a one-stop shop for people who are unhoused.
Sarah Money:You know it would help alleviate so many barriers for those in our community that struggle with transportation or just not knowing where to go If we can direct them to a single point and say, hey, you can get your medical needs taken care of, we can talk about employment, we can help you get into housing and we can give you a safe place to stay. You know the opportunities are endless. Those are just some of the options that we have. It's been really exciting over the last couple of months. We've seen the community want to be a part of what the shelter is doing, and so we've been working with some other local recovery organizations. We've been working with different kind of resource providers to be able to really connect our folks with resources and help build back the trust that our unhoused population has lost from the shelter. We recognize that's happened and kind of the more we can do to show that we're a place to be trusted, we're a place that's here to help. I think the better off we all are.
Haley Sue Robinson:Yeah, absolutely. And, Mayor, can you kind of walk us through what it's been like since the city took over the shelter and maybe some of the transformation of the space and kind of conversation that we've had with many partners?
Sarah Money:So the 710 building, which was the building that we were doing the emergency shelter in.
Haley Sue Robinson:It's the big U-shaped building.
Sarah Money:Yeah, our Public Works um department uh has been very helpful and you know we have, we have new flooring, we have new paint um, and we had, we had a dryer that needed to be hooked up and a washing machine, um, so they, you know, they came in and right away it's one phone call and they're there to help do the labor and get what needs to be done and upgraded and up to code at the shelter. So Public Works has been fantastic. I have Melissa Cook who is our housing administrator. She is the individual who wrote the RFP, who's kind of the brains behind putting the shelter together and what that could look like and different funding sources and grants that we can apply to to continue the shelter for years to come. We have who else? Who am I missing?
Haley Sue Robinson:Our community services division?
Sarah Money:Yeah, community service Mike Purdy. Um, he's our shelter liaison. Um, he, really he, he goes out and works with different community partners and is able to uh, find food and, um, whatever, really whatever the shelter needs, um, he, he does plumbing work sometimes at the shelter.
Sarah Money:I mean, it's really just a call he's kind of a jack of all trades and so you know he's, he's helped a lot um, so there's a really good partnership right now between the city and SafeS ide, uh, the operations of the shelter. So we're very fortunate to have, you know, city employees who who care about the unhoused and, um, you know, if, if I need something, I make one call um, it's there. Also, in the um area where we're doing the clinic, uh, Urban Renewal Authority donated some of the furniture that it's being used Um, so shout out to Pueblo Urban Renewal and their board for donating some of the furniture that's being used in there. It's really exciting. So people want to do good in the community and when you see something good like this happening, partners show up and we're very thankful for that.
Haley Sue Robinson:And I think one thing that is unique you know, we heard a lot of this, I think at the beginning of your tenure here with the Mayor's Office is that there was sewer line work that needed to be done and repair work that needed to be done and it was taking so long. And so one thing now that the city has taken over, like you spoke, you can just make a phone call and the that repair work is done right away. There's no um. You know, do we go out for a contract and we wait for the bid? And does the shelter have enough money to do the repair work and will we make payroll? And those were the struggles before that the community was hearing.
Haley Sue Robinson:And and now that
Mayor Heather Graham:We can focus on programming and providing services
Haley Sue Robinson:Exactly.
Haley Sue Robinson:So, speaking of programming and services, Sarah, can you talk to us a little bit about what makes SafeSide unique and kind of the mission of SafeSide Recovery?
Sarah Money:Yeah, SafeSide Recovery is, I just have to say, one of the best organizations I've worked for in my tenure so far. We are a statewide peer support organization and so we're embedded kind of all around the state in different settings. We work at the Colorado Springs Rescue Mission, so I've been spending some time up there helping out our peer coaches. We also have some sober living further up north in the state. We work in some drop-in centers and really just provide peer support. We fill some gaps that are not currently being filled when we're talking about recovery or working with individuals who are coming off the streets. What I love about peer support is it's really people who have been there, people who have walked that life, people who have been unhoused, people who are in recovery from substance use disorder or in recovery from mental health conditions, and so you know it's really unique compared to working with a therapist or working with, you know, a life coach. It's someone who has been there and said, hey, man, I've done this, you can do it too. I'm here to hold your hand and get you there. And you know more and more I've seen the beauty of peer support and we hear it from our residents. So some of the things that you know we do here locally. It's similar to what we do in our other locations, but we run groups throughout the week. We have, I think, a total of 12 groups currently that are for our residents. We talk about things like healthy communication, like relapse prevention, emotional regulation, healthy boundaries, and really try to provide the skills that people are looking for. I run an employment group too, and that has started to get a lot more popular. We have one-on-one coaching that's available for all of our residents and really, if you're working one-on-one with someone, that's the best way to show hey, I care about you, I see you, let's move forward when you're ready.
Sarah Money:Starting this week, we actually added case management. So that's a new direction we're going in. It is, it is. It was present at the shelter before and dropped off for a bit. What I'll say. We are the first location that SafeS ide is starting case management. So we're kind of using the pueblo shelter to trial it and then expand it across the state.
Sarah Money:Um, I think we have a lot of opportunities like that here locally. You know we have a great team statewide. We all support each other. We all look out for each other and if someone's you know struggling, it's like, hey, take the week off, like we really want you to be in a good place where you can come back and work with clients in the way you need. As we're moving forward, I'll just throw out some teasers.
Sarah Money:One of our new directions is to provide more outreach support. You know, we know that we have a residency program and we also have our outreach shelter and providing, you know, direct outreach to the individuals that are staying at our outreach shelter, maybe not quite ready to get into the residency program, maybe they have some hesitation or some questions. You know, really supporting our outreach clients is how we're going to move forward and help them take that next step. We're talking with some other agencies around town that don't have peer support to be able to maybe host some groups there. A lot of opportunities and you know the work that we're doing is not just internal inside the shelter. I'm really grateful that we're expanding further outside because, again, that's going to help build the trust with our unhoused community as well as with community partners and just the community in general. I know a lot of trust was broken and that's one big thing that we find really important as SafeSide is to be transparent, to be open and, you know, to really be that solid community partner that we've needed.
Haley Sue Robinson:Sure and you both have touched on this kind of throughout is that trust piece. I know there was a lot of upheaval with public perception and there was also a point after October when a lot of clients said I don't feel comfortable going to the Pueblo shelter. It's not a place that I actually think is a safe place for me. So let's talk a little bit about what it has been like to build back that trust and what it looks like to move forward, because we know that that's not just inherent now that SafeSide is awarded the contract.
Sarah Money:It's definitely not, and it's been a challenge, but not as big of a challenge as I anticipated honestly. Today's actually my three-month anniversary working at SafeSide, which you know I'm striving to be here, Thank you. You know, my work previously was really with folks that are struggling with substance use and housing insecurity and so, you know, as I was preparing to transition over, I was letting people know hey, I'm about to go start working at the shelter and what was really cool, we had folks coming for our outreach meal at 4:30 that had never been there before. That said, I heard you were here and that's why I wanted to come. And there is no bigger honor in my mind that you know we can rebuild trust and we are people who are trusted. You know I work with a lot of community advocates. We all do at SafeSide. It's not just about the work that I'm doing, but you know our community advocates have been great at spreading the message, about saying like, hey, connect with Sarah. Hey, this is what's changed down there. Hey, like, go talk to this person at the shelter.
Sarah Money:Word spreads pretty quickly and once residents and outreach clients started to see a change, they started communicating that across the board as well. I actually had someone about a month ago come up and she's in recovery now, looks fantastic. I almost didn't recognize her and she had come by the shelter, stayed as an outreach client for a good period of time and what she said when I saw her was you know, people on the streets are talking about you and they're talking about the shelter and people are more comfortable going there. I'm seeing less people lingering around, and that blew me away.
Haley Sue Robinson:That's great.
Sarah Money:You know. It's not.
Sarah Money:It shouldn't be hard to build trust. Sure, If you show up and you're genuine and you're honest and you see people as humans, it's not. It's not tough, Um, and people have every reason not to trust the shelter because of the history. We understand that and so you know, we all take the time to really talk with all of our outreach clients, to work with our residents, and we've seen a difference. Our residents have seen a difference and they've communicated that. We've had a lot more people interested in residency. We've also had a lot of people move out into permanent housing. That are now, you know, either through the voucher system or because they're fully employed and they're able to afford an apartment and so, yeah, it's, it's becoming a really beautiful thing and, you know, as we continue to do the work, as we continue to show up and be that genuine, honest, reliable partner, I know the trust will only continue to build.
Haley Sue Robinson:Absolutely. And, Mayor, I know one thing that was really important to you, or something that a lot of folks talked to you about, was the current staff at the shelter and what that transition looked like. A lot of folks were very concerned that if SafeSide came in, that everyone would be fired or everyone would lose their jobs, or what does? What does that look like for the folks that currently worked at the shelter and that was a big priority for you.
Mayor Heather Graham:Yeah, I think you know we didn't want to see a lot of turnover. I think that we, the individuals who are there at the shelter every day, um, they build relationships and rapport, and so to come in and have a new entity running and, uh, you know, starting from ground zero, I think that that could have been very difficult for the residents that were at the shelter at the time and I think that it's the relationships that those individuals have made is why the shelter is as successful as it is now. There's trust and there's relationships. It's like a big family over there. If anybody ever wants to go and stop by for a meal or play a game or just jam out, hang out and talk,
Haley Sue Robinson:Yeah, it's an open-door policy.
Mayor Heather Graham:Totally.
Haley Sue Robinson:There's an opportunity. I know Rob has outreached and said stop by Safe Side Saturdays, which is the outreach day, and it feels, you know they get food trucks or they have hot dogs and it feels more like a community outreach event rather than just, hey, this is unique to just the shelter and nobody else can come, type of thing.
Mayor Heather Graham:Yeah, absolutely.
Sarah Money:I have something really cool to share about that, actually. So we took a bit of a break from Safe Side Saturday and are relaunching, actually starting this Saturday. What we had kind of discussed among the peer coaches is what if we cut it down to once a month and really work to make it a more sustainable event and we work with other community agencies, maybe rotate around town, and we talked with some other partners. That is still a goal. However, when we announced that we only want to do it once a month, or that's our goal once a month, we had residents saying why? Why, we want to do it every other week. We'll show up to volunteer, it's not a problem, we'll be there. And so, you know, yesterday, at our residence meeting, I shared hey, we're going to do it twice a month. You know, y'all gave your feedback, we heard you and this is what we're going to do, and they're really excited.
Sarah Money:And so what we're doing, moving forward, the second Saturday of the month is always, you know, I don't want to say low key, but you know, we have our donations, we have food, we have resources that we're connecting people with, and then the fourth Saturday of the month, we're going to be working with community partners and inviting them onto our property and really, hopefully, connecting people with the resources that they might not be connected to currently. One exciting partnership we have is with DHS, and we've had folks from DHS showing up on site when we need and just to come and hang out. They know that we have folks that need to talk to them, so they'll drop by when they have a chance. They dropped off some backpacks and other donations last week, and so you know it's about coming together and being the best that we can, and I think by having that event once a month it's not going to be overburdensome on our local community providers, and that's something a lot of us struggle with. There's more than enough work to go around
Haley Sue Robinson:Sure, so it's preserving that burnout but then meeting the needs of what the residents have asked for.
Sarah Money:Yeah.
Haley Sue Robinson:That's fantastic. Great Well, Sarah. Thank you so much for joining us this morning. We're very excited that SafeSide is now officially the operations manager and oversight of the Pueblo shelter, so thank you so much for joining us today.
Mayor Heather Graham:And if our viewers I know you're doing the Pueblo 1000 right now, so if our viewers would like to donate uh to the shelter, how can they go about doing that?
Sarah Money:Oh gosh, I should know the website right off the top of my head, um
Haley Sue Robinson:We can list the information in with the podcast, but it's through the Safe Side Foundation because it is an established nonprofit and so folks can feel safe about donating and you know there's different donation levels $25, $50. You can do a one-time donation or a reoccurring, but we'll make sure that we include that information in our link and in the show notes for those of you who are just listening and maybe not watching. Thank you, thank you so much. Yeah, thanks for coming. Thanks again, Sarah. All right, so, Mayor, last night City Council kind of went late, but one thing that, as far as a City Council recap, one thing that was discussed in the work session, was potential upcoming ballot measures, and I know this is something that we've kind of briefly discussed previously. But can you walk us through what that timeline looks like and what folks can expect moving forward?
Mayor Heather Graham:Sure. So any city councilor or Mayor can try to pass an ordinance to place something on the ballot. So we heard five I think five different ballot proposals last night on different topics that City Council would like to propose. So the direction at this point now is we're going to have a work session on June 30th where each city councilor will make their proposal about their respective ballot issue and language. It'll then go on first reading,
Haley Sue Robinson:Okay,
Mayor Heather Graham:and then you know, second reading and the City Council will vote on the ordinance to place the ballot issue on the ballot for November, and so all of that has to be completed by September 5th. So I would imagine we'd start to see those ordinances come late July and then in August. The city also is going to be running a couple different charter amendments. We're going to talk tax proposal in July and then we're also going to talk about a potential sales tax share to incentivize new businesses to come into the city is one of my proposals that I'm going to be bringing forward. So you'll see those coming up.
Haley Sue Robinson:And that June 30th. You know folks at home might be like, okay, why June 30th? But it's the fifth Monday.
Mayor Heather Graham:Right, so it wasn't scheduled.
Haley Sue Robinson:Yeah, normally we cancel the fifth Monday.
Haley Sue Robinson:But you know, there was a lot of discussion during the work session of like, hey, we should invite some folks for a work session, and it kind of felt like we were stacking. And so at one point one of the counselors said, hey, maybe we should just have a special work session. And then someone said why don't we just do the fifth Monday, so we'll see that um at the end of June. And also when you talk about um ordinances coming forward, that's to approve the ballot language, correct?
Mayor Heather Graham:Yep.
Haley Sue Robinson:Okay. So they're voting on the ballot language but then it will go
Mayor Heather Graham:to a vote of the people in November
Haley Sue Robinson:Okay, okay, so it's not like once that ordinance passes, it's signed sealed, delivered, like a regular ordinance.
Haley Sue Robinson:Yeah, yeah, the only thing they're voting on is the actual language
Mayor Heather Graham:Yep community will have to vote on it.
Haley Sue Robinson:Okay, great. Well, I don't know, it was a pretty late night.
Mayor Heather Graham:It was a good night. I think that there was lots of good conversations last night between City Council members. I was appreciative of decisions that they made last night, especially supporting the shelter. That's something that we've all been working very hard on, yeah, so thank you to all seven city councilors for your continued support with the shelter. There's times that we all, you know, don't agree, but that's one thing that I'm glad that we were able to agree on last night.
Haley Sue Robinson:Absolutely and you know, I think, another thing that we saw last night too was, although there was, you know, some discussion back and forth, whether it be at the work session or during the regular meeting, um, folks came to consensus last night and a lot of things, and we had a lot of folks come forward for public comment or for public hearings. It felt like municipal government at its finest right.
Mayor Heather Graham:And was a very interactive City Council meeting last night. Yeah, Ted Freeman's back.
Haley Sue Robinson:He is back, yeah. Yeah, Ted's back, so that's good, Absolutely Okay. Well, you know, we try and keep these relatively.
Mayor Heather Graham:We do have one more announcement though.
Haley Sue Robinson:Okay, tell us.
Mayor Heather Graham:You know, Councilwoman Maestri, you know, has received a lot of phone calls, as I'm sure all council people have, about the firework situation.
Mayor Heather Graham:Oh sure, in the city and so she asked that we remind people that we have ordinances in place that limit the sale of fireworks and the use of fireworks and the type of fireworks, and you know she asked me to recite the the law, and you know the law is it it shall be unlawful in the city for any person to possess any fireworks or to offer sale, expose for sale, sale or have in his or her possession with intent to offer sale, use or explode any fireworks. And so I don't know what they've been shooting off lately, but I mean they sound like bombs.
Haley Sue Robinson:I hear it in my house.
Mayor Heather Graham:I mean Counselor Gomez says dynamite, you know, and I agree, I believe it. I mean it's out of control.
Mayor Heather Graham:I mean, we all want to celebrate America and freedom on the 4th of July. You know today is June 10th, so you know, please hold your fireworks until the appropriate time. I'm down 90 officers right now. My officers don't have time to be patrolling the community writing tickets to people shooting off fireworks, and so just have some respect for each other and for your neighborhoods. You know, save it to the day. We have lots of animals, lots of,
Haley Sue Robinson:There's a lot of veterans. Yeah, that Folks with you know PTSD or anxiety.
Mayor Heather Graham:Absolutely and so find something better to do you know, until July 4th and then we can all celebrate together.
Haley Sue Robinson:Well, and I think another thing that's important is so the Fire Department. I talked with Chief Huber yesterday. They're going to start their bucket brigade. So that's you. You know, for firework safety we talk a lot about. Folks say, hey, I want to see people ticketed um. One of the main things, too, is we, we don't want to see fires right um, it's dangerous, and so we'll have the bucket brigade starting um. But another thing that's great in our community is we have big community fireworks events right um, something that City Council actually just sponsored Rolling on the Riverwalk um, and that's something
Mayor Heather Graham:best show in town
Haley Sue Robinson:that happens every year. Best fireworks, it's free.
Mayor Heather Graham:Food trucks
Haley Sue Robinson:right on the riverwalk um, and you can see it from everywhere in Pueblo um, I know CSU Pueblo is having a big event as well, so there's places for big fireworks displays rather than buying them, lighting them off yourself, scaring your neighbors and all those things.
Mayor Heather Graham:Starting fires
Haley Sue Robinson:Yes.
Haley Sue Robinson:Yeah, I'm glad you made that announcement.
Mayor Heather Graham:I'll keep making it, just to remind people that it's still June and not July yet, so
Haley Sue Robinson:Okay.
Haley Sue Robinson:Okay, great. Well, thank you, Mayor. I'm so glad we had Sarah on this morning to talk about SafeS ide. Um, don't forget, you can find us on Apple, Spotify, Buzzsprout, Youtube, channel 17. You can also email us your questions or topic suggestions Mayor@ pueblo. us and we'll see you next week.