Comea makes room for more

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (Wyoming News Now) - The Comea House and Resource Center officials were prepared to help.

The community worked with the city, county, and state officials to ensure everyone, especially the homeless, were off the street during the unprecedented cold snap that started on Dec. 21st.

“People are coming in out of the cold, and we haven’t had any fatalities that we’re aware of, and that is the goal,” said Robin Bocanegra, Executive Director of Comea House & Resources Center.

The homeless shelter accommodates 48 in the men’s dorm, 12 in the women’s, and 20 on other floors, but they were still over 20 beds short.

They are adding extra mats for the week, but more importantly, everyone got in and stayed warm.

“It was pretty crowded, there’s wall to wall people. It’s a little dicey because you’ve got that many people in a crowded room for hours on end,” said Bocanegra.

Folks were dropping things off at the shelter, like blankets, coffee, hot chocolate and cash, which is most needed for their high heating bills and additional staffing.

“Our heating bill was already $5200 the last month, so I know it’s going to be higher with this cold weather,” said Bocanegra.

Their maintenance crew came in to fix the heater to help accommodate for the extra demand.

“I came in Wednesday morning and the furnace couldn’t really keep up, so it felt very cold in here; it was still better than outside,” said Bocanegra.

On Saturday, volunteers and gifts will start to help to make spirits bright.

Folks at the shelter will get Christmas stockings, a wish-list holiday gift, and dinner; more than anything, folks are grateful.

“Cheyenne has been for 40 years; they’ve been good to the comea shelter. They have supported us for 40 years; this was a community-thought-out project, and we wouldn’t be here without the community.

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