Influx of migrants worsens small Colorado mountain town’s housing shortage

A small Colorado mountain town that was already struggling with a housing crisis has become inundated with more than 120 Venezuelan migrants seeking refuge.

The migrants have reportedly been drawn to the town of Carbondale — 6,181 feet above sea level and 25 miles from an interstate — by hopes of working in a town they heard had severe labor shortages in the ski and hospitality industry, as well as in construction.

But many residents in the town of fewer than 7,000 people are being priced out of the community that is increasingly drawing tourists to its artsy downtown, with not enough housing for even its ski resort employees, 9News reports.

“We don’t want to become a destination for people,” Mayor Ben Bohmfalk told the local news station.

“We can’t take more people than we have now. We’re really over what we can handle.”

The town has been struggling with the migrant crisis since a group of 80 Venezuelan men were found living under a local bridge.

Since then, local officials have said, even more have been coming — including some women and children.

Some have taken shelter at hotels, supported by local organizations. Others are living out of their cars as temperatures in the area dip below freezing.

About 20 migrants more are being housed inside the meeting room at town hall, while another 60 are staying at the gym of the Third Street Center — a former elementary school that now rents spaces to artists and a ballet studio.

It was meant to be a short-term solution, as showers are located blocks away, according to the Washington Post.

Over the past month, residents have complained that trash is piling up outside and the migrants staying inside the makeshift shelter report that the plumbing is constantly clogging.

But as winter approaches, Third Street Center agreed to extend its arrangement — though it said it would reduce its number of occupants from 60 to 45, making it more difficult for town officials to house those who are left.

“Carbondale is generally pretty Democratic and liberal, so we’re getting a lot of ‘You’re doing the right thing,’” Third Street Center director Colin Laird told the Washington Post. 

“Unfortunately, we don’t have the capacity for the right thing anymore.”

City trustee Marty Silverstein added: “While I have a lot of sympathy for our new residents, we have people that have been living here five, 10 years that are severely struggling.”

Still, the board of trustees has committed to supporting shelter for up to 100 people through March, and enlisted a former schools superintendent to manage the situation.

In his new role, Rob Stein said the town is working to finalize a shelter arrangement for another 20 people and set up a fourth shelter for women and children, according to the Aspen Daily News.

But officials are scrambling to find space for these shelters, with more than a dozen sites in the region declining to assist, according to Town Manager Lauren Gister, who once counted more than 140 migrants in the city.

She added that nearby towns and counties have only offered to send cots and COVID tests.

“If we ignore the problem, we could create permanent homelessness in the Roaring Fork Valley at levels that have never been seen,” Alex Sanchez, executive director of Voces Unidas, a regional advocacy group, told Aspen Public Radio.

“People will die at the end of the day if we continue to see this lack of structure and coordination.”

Gister said she is also concerned about staffing more shelters.

Local organizations and municipalities are already understaffed, she noted, and shelters would require bilingual personnel for daily operations.

To try to deal with the influx, Bohmfalk requested nearly $224,000 in state emergency funds earlier this month.

He noted in his letter to the state that the migrants “effectively increased the town’s unhoused population by approximately 500% and increased the town’s population by 2%.”

Bohmfalk says he is disappointed by the lack of support coming from state and federal agencies.

“When we talk to our supporters in the Department of Local Affairs and said, you know, ‘Is there state support for this or federal support? Is there some agency that kind of comes in when this happens in a community?’ They basically said, ‘No,’” he told CBS Colorado.

The mayor is warning his counterparts in the region that they should brace for a humanitarian crisis: “You’ll probably feel these impacts in your community soon.”

In the meantime, he is warning migrants to stay away.

“We don’t want people to see these stories and think, ‘Oh, Carbondale is the place to go. They’re really welcoming,’” he told 9News.

“We are absolutely not equipped to take more people.”