By Jennifer Dempsey
Homelessness in Chaffee County has increased 400% in the last decade according to Bonnie MacDonald, executive administrator for New Sharing and Caring.
“It used to be that we would get one or two calls a month, now it’s one or two a day,” she said. “We can’t always keep track of these people because they might meet somebody at a bar or something who says, ‘oh, here’s a couch.’ A couple of years ago we ended up with two babies from what we call couch surfing. We hope and pray that doesn’t happen again.”
For the past ten years MacDonald has opened her home to men and women needing a place to stay, many coming out of the county jail.