homelessness

About $45 million went toward helping families of unhoused students in our region with basic necessities so students could concentrate on getting to class and doing schoolwork. But advocates fear that progress could be erased.

The goal is to build permanent, supportive housing for the vulnerable population.

Mountain West states have millions of dollars left to help the student population experiencing homelessness and must decide where they’re going by the end of September. But they’re optimistic they can meet the deadline.

The Riverton Rescue Mission is one step closer to seeing if building a shelter for unhoused members in the community might be possible. The group set out to raise $25,000 to fund a study to better understand if building a shelter would be feasible – and now that goal has turned into a reality.

The number of homeless in the city is estimated to be just over 200. The city says the increase is leading to them roaming the streets, loitering in the downtown area, and leaving at least 500 pounds of human waste. They've also been responsible for damaging a vacant hotel.

Back in December, a Riverton man’s death prompted conversations about resources for the unhoused population in Fremont County. Wyoming Public Radio’s Taylar Stagner found that that tragedy galvanized the community to come together and talk about how to fix the problem. Stagner attended the summit for Our Unhoused Neighbors in mid-March.

Every January, communities across the country come together and try to estimate the homeless population by going out at night and trying to locate those without a place to stay. Point in Time happens in late January in Wyoming. In Gillette, the Council of Community Services (CCS) also hosted its annual event on the same day this year. It’s meant to connect the local homeless population with several social service agencies to help them get back on their feet.

The Youth Emergency Services House, or Y.E.S. House in Gillette has housed young adults ages 18-24 at the Brook Street Inn as part of their Youth Homeless Demonstration Project. Approximately 30 young people from Northeast Wyoming have been housed at the leased hotel since the program's inception in October 2021.

Emergency rental assistance programs have served tens of thousands of people and handed out hundreds of millions of dollars for things like rent and utility payments since they began during the pandemic. Now, many places in the Mountain West are no longer accepting applications because they’ve run out of funds.

The 2022 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report shows that over the last two years, the overall number of people experiencing homelessness increased by less than 1%.