Community resource fair helps families in need

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (Wyoming News Now) - As post-pandemic resources dry out, many families wonder how they will make ends meet. An event this Saturday is hoping it can help out.

Laramie County School District 1 and the Cheyenne Landlord’s Association are holding a resource fair on Saturday.

The goal is to help the community grapple with some upcoming occurrences, including ending pandemic resources over the next three months, leaving many families unable to face food, rent and mortgage inflation head-on.

”We see programs and things like that a lot of families relied on coming to an end, and therefore, we’re going to see a fall out because of that,” said Jessica Sayers, McKinney Vento Navigator, LCSD1 and Homeless Liaison.

The fair will have about 30 agencies, including housing, food, legal-aid resources, and more.

”Our hope is that by getting that information out to those schools in the district that those families will be notified so that they can come in and seek help for themselves or anyone else they might know that might be affected,” said Sayers.

The other occurrence involves an upcoming increase in the housing shortage.

Community advocates say that an aging apartment complex will begin its renovation and needs to relocate about 200 inhabitants within the next quarter. Still, with limited capacity, there’s no place to put them.

On top of that, an aging nursing home has to relocate about 95 elderly folks to finish repairs.

”But frankly, it doesnt matter; we dont have that type of housing and we’re not going to build a low income housing unit in 90 days,” said Julie Gliem, Cheyenne Landlord’s Association.

Some folks have gotten help finding housing in Casper, but authorities are concerned that most will not.

”Some of them will be going out of state, and quite frankly, some of them will be living in their cars in Cheyenne,” said Gliem.

Experts say Cheyenne is at a 98 percent occupied capacity leaving little room to grow or move.

In a statement from Brenda Birkle, the Executive Director of My Front Door and formerly the Affordable Housing Task Force.

“We need creative solutions for both for-profit and nonprofit developers. Two were brought to the corporations committee last year during the interim session, land banks and a statewide housing trust fund. We hope to pick those topics back up in the future,” said Birkle.

Experts say they hope the community shows up for the event and gets the help they need.

The fair will be on April 22nd from 10 to 2 pm at the LCSD 1 Storey Gym.

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