This woman's journey offers hope to escape homelessness

Twila Freel used to sleep with her head at the door of her tent, pepper spray clutched in one hand and a knife in the other. 

Freel, 51, lived more than a decade on Fort Collins' streets since fleeing from domestic violence in a neighboring city years ago.

Her journey started in a domestic violence shelter. She slept in cheap motel rooms. She spent nights at area homeless shelters. Much of her final years as a member of Fort Collins' homeless community were spent tucked away in that tent on the outskirts of society, hiding in bushes and groves of trees from police who might give her a ticket and other homeless individuals who wanted to do her harm. 

But for the past month, Freel has slept in her own home, a townhouse on the northeast side of Fort Collins. 

"I wake up at night saying, 'Is this actually real? Do I actually live here?,'" Freel said. "I found myself pinching myself to make sure I'm awake." 

Freel's decade-long homeless journey is more than triple the average of 40 individuals who have gained housing since mid-October, according to self-reported data collected by the Sister Mary Alice Murphy Center for Hope.

The Murphy Center, a hub for homeless service providers managed by Homeless Gear, wants to make housing a reality for more of Fort Collins' at-risk homeless residents.

The organization will launch in June the Murphy Center Housing First Initiative, a program that will target high-risk homeless individuals living in Fort Collins.

The aim of the program is to reach people like Freel, who can fall through the cracks because they don't qualify for special programs that help homeless veterans or families.

David Rout, Homeless Gear's executive director, said there is a large segment of the population in need of help and that finding housing for these people will generate significant cost savings for the city.

"The data is pretty clear that if we can help our most vulnerable folks get into housing, we're going to see some significant cost savings in the community at large," Rout said.

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After Freel and one of her adult sons moved into her new home, she noticed immediate relief of the health issues that plagued her throughout street life. 

She once needed up to nine different medications to manage various health conditions, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and anxiety. After finding housing, that number was reduced to three medications. 

"It's been miraculous," she said. 

A recent case study by Outreach Fort Collins showed four homeless individuals cost Fort Collins' Poudre Valley Hospital more than $300,000 in uncompensated medical costs and tied up city police and court officials for 257 hours in seven months before they were off the streets.

The people chosen for the study were chronically homeless full-time Fort Collins residents, not transients, and were ultimately housed in permanent supportive housing or inpatient substance abuse housing due to a coordinated effort from area service providers, including Outreach Fort Collins and the Murphy Center. 

The Murphy Center's new program will draw on best practices used to help other segments of the homeless population. 

Homeless Gear's One Village One Family program pairs volunteer "villages" with homeless families to help with financial support and encouragement. It has helped 25 families get into housing since launching in January 2015. The Housing First Initiative will replicate this volunteer-based support model for individuals, Rout said. 

Coordinated Assessment and Housing Placement, or CAHPS, has helped more then 130 homeless veterans in Larimer and Weld counties find and maintain housing since launching in February 2015. 

CAHPS creates a by-name list of homeless people ranked by vulnerability to ensure those most in need find the right resources to get off the streets. Service providers across county lines work together to provide those resources.

The program announced plans this year to expand the model to other segments of the homeless population, including families and individuals.

The Murphy Center Housing First Initiative is, in part, a response to that coming expansion. The program's director, Marla Cleary, will start in June. 

Cleary will attend CAHPS meetings for individuals and also offer case management to some of the community's high-utilizers. 

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Another key piece of her position will be to provide data that will show service providers, city leaders and the community whether existing services are truly moving the needle for Fort Collins' homeless. 

Fort Collins' main data for the prevalence of homelessness is derived from a point-in-time count conducted each January. The count shows a total number of homeless in Fort Collins on a given night, separated by age, some health conditions and veteran status. 

What it doesn't show is if the roughly 300 individuals counted each year are the same people.

This year's count estimated 331 individuals were sleeping outside, in emergency shelters or in transitional housing in Fort Collins. Last year's count surveyed 290 individuals. 

One of Cleary's task will be to create a list of homeless clients who are considered Fort Collins residents — a definition that's still in the works, Rout said — and track if and when they move out of homelessness. 

"I think what we'll see is that there is a lot of movement," Rout said. "A lot of people are moving out of homelessness ... On the other hand, what I hope the data will show is what we need to work on." 

The data will be shared in quarterly and annual reports highlighting successes and areas for improvement, as well as an online community dashboard tracking Fort Collins' progress in making homelessness rare, short-lived and non-recurring. 

The first quarterly report is expected in September. 

"I think this data is going to give us the opportunity to come at least a little closer to expressing what we're actually doing, not just at the Murphy Center but as a community," Rout said. 

And behind each of those numbers and hopeful successes will be a person like Freel, who was able to move into housing with the support of area service providers.

With a roof over her head, Freel is able to address many of the issues that kept her homeless.

Though Freel had a job prior to becoming homeless, she ultimately lost it and is currently unable to work due to health problems. The stability of housing allowed her to apply for disability benefits, which have not yet been approved.

Once approved, those benefits will offer more stability than the days she "flew a sign," or panhandled, to get money for food.

Though shelters provide meals for the homeless, Freel said she had to start avoiding them for safety after a dispute with her soon-to-be ex-husband, another homeless individual.

Some days she would get enough by panhandling, but not always. One day she stood on a corner for 8 hours and walked away with $3. 

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She can now purchase more nutritious food, including milk, because she has a refrigerator. 

She is also able to regularly attend therapy appointments and get much-delayed dental care. 

And her anxiety levels have dropped significantly knowing she has a safe place to rest.

"I don't have to take everything with me when I leave, thinking it's going to get stolen," she said. "Because I know it won't."

Those are all things she had nearly given up hope for in the months leading up to housing. 

"This came through just as I (thought), 'Oh there's no hope. I'm going to be doing this for the rest of my life,' " she said.

Maybe one day she'll stop pinching herself to make sure it's not a dream.

"At times, it's still really hard to believe," Freel said. "Thank God that I know that there's people that care."

Follow Sarah Jane Kyle on Twitter @sarahjanekyle or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/reportersarahjane.

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