Fort Collins Looks to Help out Those Who Need It the Most

Fort Collins Looks to Help out Those Who Need It the Most

Amanda Surber

The Community Development Block Grant Commission (CDBG) helps people struggling in Fort Collins by arming them with the knowledge and opportunity to move forward in life in three days of meetings set up to improve these conditions.

On March 29, 2011, many different organizations were present to make their case known that they were available to help the citizens of Fort Collins who needed a push in the right or new direction.

The meeting moved efficiently and the time allotted for each organization fulfilled getting out the information they needed to get to their respective groups of interest, whether that be children, the elderly, low-income or minority groups.


An elderly man getting help getting where he needs to go.


Sometimes everyone needs a little bit of help moving towards the future, especially if they have faced hardships in the past. It is nice to know that Fort Collins has a process which allows for people to be educated about and given the chance to attain affordable housing or get the specific care they deserve.

The CDBG and programs such as the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) get around two million dollars in funds per year and they typically use the money for land acquisition, rehabilitation, public facilities and public services.

Public services are a necessity in a city like Fort Collins because it has such a diverse population. There are elderly people, children who are struggling to get a normal childhood and people who are struggling in this economy and looking for a way to get themselves and their families through it.

This meeting for the people was not only to help the people it was to inform people of Fort Collins about the struggles we face as a city. Fort Collins may be a college town to those who view it from the outside, but after attending this meeting it showed what Fort Collins was all about.

Fort Collins is about “helping each other out even when times seem tough, you just have to power through,” said chief planner of this cycle of the Competitive Process, Ken Waido.

Many groups presented their cases at the meeting over a couple hour periods and each group had a fifteen minute window to make their case known and informed people of what they were all about.

“Each group offers a unique and specific set of tools that could possibly help someone in the future to get back on their feet or to meet current goals,” said Waido. Groups of people addressed included the elderly, children, minorities and those who were hungry both physically and emotionally.

A group that stood out was the Catholic Charities; they made a case in talking about helping both the homeless elderly and the homeless in general. They want people to “become more aware of the growing number of elderly homeless people in Fort Collins,” said a spokesperson for Catholic Charities.


Catholic Charities


Another group that was in attendance at the meeting was Neighbor to Neighbor (N2N) and they made their cases in the areas of housing counseling and rent assistance. These two issues they made were stated to intend to help out the less fortunate of Fort Collins.

“Every person in Fort Collins deserves to have somewhere to live and with the help of city programs, that dream can sometimes become a reality,” said a spokesperson from Neighbor to Neighbor.


Neighbor to Neighbor (N2N)


This meeting gave many different people hope in the city of Fort Collins and the hope to move on to bigger and better things in the future.