Colorado Housing Connects rescues woman from homelessness

Earlier this year, Kesha moved nearly 1,300 miles away from her Michigan home with her two teenage children to live with her oldest son in Colorado Springs.

But after her family split ways, Kesha and her children suddenly found themselves homeless for eight months in a new part of the country. The family stayed at different motels and couch surfed to stay afloat. But the burden of struggling with homelessness was larger than having unstable housing — it contributed to a negative effect on Kesha’s mental health.

“It was tough, it was really tough. It added to depression, it caused depression,” Kesha said. “It was kind of unreal to just have something like that up and happen all of a sudden.”

While seeking resources that could help her find housing, Kesha was referred to Brothers Redevelopment’s statewide housing helpline, Colorado Housing Connects (1-844-926-6632). And thanks to that connection, she began working with Colorado Housing Connects Housing Counselor/Navigator Katrina Brown who took Kesha under her wing.

Brown helped Kesha and her children access security deposit assistance for an apartment along with finances for her first month of rent so that the family could finally have a stable housing situation. She also assisted the family in accessing food assistance, furniture for their new apartment and even recruited her friends to donate gift cards to Kesha for places like Walmart and Target.

“When I say Colorado Housing Connects basically helped us with everything, I really mean it. It was comforting to know that we had someone in our corner, and we weren’t going to go through everything alone,” Kesha said.