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10 10 24 Denver Rescue Mission CEO Dennis Van Kampen on today's World Homeless Day
Good morning. It is Colorado's morning news for more than 130 years. The Denver Rescue Mission has been at the forefront of providing needed services to homeless populations in the Denver metro area and across the front range. And in the last year alone, the mission helped to find stable living for 574 households. We're highlighting this now because today is World Homelessness Day. And joining us on the Kaway Common Spirit Health Hotline to talk more about it is the president and CEO for the Denver Rescue Mission. It's Dennis Van Campen. Dennis, thank you so much for your time this morning. Yes, thank you. It's great to be here. Walk us through a little bit about this World Homelessness Day that's taking place today. The overall mission and the meaning that we have behind this. Yeah, you know, this day is designed to bring attention to the crisis of homelessness by not only here, but around the world. You know, unfortunately, homelessness continues to increase. And it is a problem that is solvable. It's community by community. If we all work together, we can move the needle back on homelessness. And that's a large part of today to really remind us all that there is a problem. It is solvable and we can make it different. I was going to ask Dennis, has homelessness increased in the say past 5, 10 years specifically to Denver? Yeah, I think across the country and as well as Denver, over the past 10 years for sure, it has increased. COVID didn't did accelerate that for sure. But if you look at the point in time count, which is something that every community has to do once a year, HUD requires it. If you look at point in time count from 2017 to 2023, the numbers have almost doubled in the Denver area. So we're certainly going in in a challenging direction. With that challenge, what do you believe are some of the biggest challenges that the Denver Rescue Mission has when it comes to combating homelessness? Yeah, I think first the lack of affordable housing, obviously, is huge. You know, we just do not have enough housing. And then what happens is the people that we work with certainly don't qualify for even affordable housing. So we have several people that shelter with us that have full-time jobs. They're working really hard. They're maintaining jobs, they're pulling down a paycheck, and they don't make enough to be able to afford the cost of housing. Also, last year, Denver set an all-time record for eviction rates. And this year we're on track to actually break the record from last year. So combine that with mental illness and addictions and things like that. We kind of have the perfect storm in homelessness. People living on the margins, literally a paycheck away in many instances. And I'm maybe conflating issues here, Dennis. But have you seen more of an uptick as well with the influx of migrants who've had coming into the city? You know, we have certainly, I think, at the height of the migrants coming in about 10% of our shelter population work or migrants. It's down, I think, about 6 or 7% right now. So that certainly has increased the numbers for sure. Now, while we do have these challenges throughout our city, what are some of the success stories that the Denver Rescue Mission has had and some of the work that you do in order to help some of these people get out of the shelters and into affordable housing? That's a great question. Thank you. You know, as you mentioned, last year, 574 households. And we call it households because that could be one person, two people, a family of four that we have helped leave homelessness for more stable housing. Those are the stories that are so impactful and sometimes don't get told. There was a guy that was with us. He came in the shelter and after some time in the shelter, he decided to get into our program so he moved into our new life program. And by the end of that program, he decided that he really wanted to be a plumber. So he became, went into an apprentice program. And now today he is housed. He is working, making a really decent living wage. And he likely will never return to homelessness again. And it's that kind of story that happens over and over and over again. So, you know, while certainly homelessness is increasing, we can't forget that there are many, many people that are leaving homelessness forever. We started the discussion and I think you referenced by saying that homelessness is an issue that can be solved. Most issues come down to whether they're will or skill. Dennis, is the issue of homelessness? Is it a will issue where the will of those that can help the problem don't have it or is it a skill issue? We don't have the tools necessary to help solve the homelessness issue. Yeah, you know, I think will is certainly a part of it. I think that my belief has always been in my career that if we all come together, we can solve this problem. And what I mean by all is the government can't solve this problem alone. Nonprofits can't solve this problem alone. But when we get the government, nonprofit organizations, churches, businesses, you know, communities coming together to solve this problem, I truly believe we can do that. So going off of that, Dennis, and in wrapping up with you, how could listeners help contribute to that as well with the Denver Rescue Mission? Yeah, you know, I always say three things that listeners can do. The first thing is, in my opinion, the most important, if you're a person of faith, pray for us. You know, this is really, really hard work. And we are the doorways for the city. And we get people that come in that are really struggling with mental illness, and it's really hard in our staff. So that's the first thing. The second thing is a volunteer. We have so many volunteer opportunities. We can go to our website, and you can find out more about that. And lastly, certainly donate. Every dollar that comes in, we use that to help people leave homelessness. And, you know, our vision is through the power of Christ to bring an end to homelessness, one life at a time in Denver and Northern Colorado. So we've invite the public to support us. And our commitment is that we will use those dollars and those prayers and volunteer time. We'll be good stewards of that. President and CEO for the Denver Rescue Mission, Dennis Van Camp, and thank you, Dennis. Yes, thank you.