Pueden encontrar la versión en español aqui.
Editor’s note: Aspen Public Radio is only using the first names of new immigrants, or pseudonyms, to protect their privacy and safety in light of their immigration status and personal histories.
The overnight shelters set up by the town of Carbondale and Recovery Resources for new immigrants, mostly from Venezuela, are closing at the end of this weekend, leaving some unsure of their next steps.
The shelters at Town Hall and the United Methodist Church were started earlier this year with state funding to house about 40 people, after the temporary shelter space at the Third Street Center closed.
Rob Stein has been managing the town’s response and services for new immigrants.
He said the shelter system offered new arrivals a warm place to sleep through the winter as well as access to showers and some free meals, but some people have been leaving the shelters in recent weeks as they find stable work and somewhere to live.
“Lots of these folks have told us that they’d like to stay in the community and many have found housing,” he said. “Close to a dozen folks have opened up their homes and offered rooms, and so, that’s a next step for these guys.”
But Stein said some people will have nowhere to go on April 1 and he’s hoping more community members will come forward to offer a living space for newcomers while they get their feet on the ground.
“I want to support these guys in any way that I can,” he said. “And so the work continues to help them in this path that they're on towards more self-sufficiency and becoming more a part of our community.”
Ricardo, from Venezuela, just got his work authorization permit, but he still doesn’t know if he and his friends will be able to stay in the valley.
Ricardo and others staying at the shelter spoke in Spanish through interpreter Claudia Pawl with Convey Language Solutions. Pawl’s English translations are shown in italics.
“Muchos de nosotros no tenemos familia aquí y en la nieve no nos fue muy bien tampoco para poder adquirir el dinero necesario,” he said. “Ya que tampoco muchos de los compañeros tampoco cuentan con documentación para poder alquilar una casa o un o un apartamento… con tanta xenofobia que existe ahorita en Glenwood y en Carbondale, sobre referente a toda la migración.”
“A lot of us don’t have family here, and in the snow, we didn’t do very well to get the money we need. And a lot of people don’t have the paperwork to be able to rent a house or an apartment… and with all the xenophobia that’s here in Glenwood and Carbondale in response to immigration.”
Another man from Venezuela, who we’re calling D.C., and his brother are staying at the church, and are hoping to find a trailer or an apartment to rent.
“Pero ya conseguí un trabajo,” he said. “Creo que va a ser permanente, entonces ya cuento con un dinero para rentar algo, entonces si ustedes me podrían ayudar a conseguir, no sé, uno, traerle algo donde yo estar, porque como no conozco mucho aquí y son muy escasos los arriendo.”
“But I already got a job. I think that it’ll be permanent, so I’ll have the money to rent something. But I need help to find something, because I don’t know this valley very well, and rentals are very rare.”
Ricky Gomero, who works with Recovery Resources in Pitkin County and has been helping manage the shelters, said situations like D.C.’s are common.
“A lot of these guys have gone their way around, they figured it out, they have work permission orders, some of them got rooms, one person got a trailer,” Gomero said. “They’re slowly but surely getting around to it, but the people that don’t have anything, you really feel for them, especially in this valley. It’s not an easy valley to live in, with or without papers.”
Over the last three months, Gomero has been helping connect people with resources like housing and legal assistance to get their work permits and temporary protected status.
Gomero and others at Recovery Resources will continue to do outreach with new immigrants once the shelters are closed.
That includes conducting exit interviews with people who were staying at the shelters about their future plans and what kinds of support might be most helpful moving forward as well as creating a “street sheet” with resources for new immigrants.
“We have different organizations and we're trying to make a big coalition to get everything, like, ‘Oh, hey, I have a family service over here. Oh, hey, I have dental services over here. I have some type of shelter,’” Gomero said.
But for now, Gomero said they’re focused on getting through closing up the shelters on Monday.
“So April 1st, in the morning, is where we're gonna help everyone kind of move out,” he said. “So it should be a lot of emotions kind of carrying through that morning.”
And for all of the struggles, Ricardo and others staying at the shelters are grateful for the support they’ve been given in Carbondale.
“Muchas gracias a… las personas que contribuyeron con el refugio, que estamos muy contentos y trabajaron al 100 que hacia nosotros,” he said. “Que personas que se levantaron el día a día haciendo desayuno están pendiente de nosotros en cualquier necesidades que podíamos tener en cuanto a ropa, abrigo, vestimenta, trabajo.”
“Many thanks… to the people who contributed to the shelters, they gave 100% to help us,” he said. “The people who got up early day after day to help us, to check in, and make sure we had anything we might need: warm clothes, shelter, work.”
