A leading Colorado Springs nonprofit agency that provides emergency funds for residents facing eviction and utilities’ shutoff and helps low-income families plan for a better future is relocating its headquarters and expanding.
REACH Pikes Peak is renovating 7,000 square feet inside the old Helen Hunt Elementary School in the Hillside neighborhood and moving from its downtown offices June 1, the organization said Wednesday.
CEO Patrice Ravenscroft said an anonymous donor is paying to rehab the first floor of the original school building, which opened in 1902 and closed in 2016. The campus at 917 E. Moreno Ave. is now a hub for nonprofit organizations that benefit residents in the low-income neighborhood defined as a “food and medical desert,” meaning it lacks a grocery store and doctors’ offices.
With 70,000 people in the area living below the federal poverty line and rents increasing exponentially, REACH, originally Pikes Peak Community Action Agency, is seeing a steady increase in people facing imminent eviction, Ravenscroft said.
“This is something that’s devastating our community,” she said. “REACH is a vital solution in our community to break long-term, systemic poverty.”
The city of Colorado Springs’ Initiative to End Homelessness estimates that the cost to the community to provide medical, judicial, law enforcement, emergency response and nonprofit services to one homeless individual is $57,000 per year.
REACH addresses immediate needs with funding from an Emergency Solutions Grant from the city, a $10,000 donation from El Pomar Foundation for homeless prevention and $20,000 from El Paso County Community Investment program, as well as donations from the public, Ravenscroft said.
The organization also works with clients to secure better jobs and rise above poverty through a matching savings program and educational and employment assistance.
“We feel our solutions aren’t just a Band-Aid but long-term,” Ravenscroft said. “We’re helping people become more financially healthy and are getting low-income folks to survive in the middle class.”
The move to a larger office will enable the organization to grow from working with 10,000 people a year to more than 20,000, Ravenscroft said. The new location also will provide a clothing closet and food pantry. In addition to its main office, REACH has rental and mortgage assistance offices in Calhan and Fountain.
“It’s a big step forward,” said REACH board member Kyle Park.
“Hillside is an area of need, and hopefully the move will make us more accessible.”
Contact the writer: 719-476-1656.
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