Jenny Todd, 8, and her 7-year-old brother, Josiah, are homeless.
Along with their 5-year-old brother, Aleczander, they are among six children that live in a small Denver motel room.
“It’s tight, (but) it’s better than sleeping on the street,” said Matthew Todd, the children’s father.
The family ended up in a motel on Colfax Avenue six months ago after Todd pleaded guilty to felony menacing and lost his full time job.
“I get up, I get ready, I go down the street to the labor ready place and wait for a ticket. Sometimes I’ll have a ticket by 6:30; sometimes I’ll have a ticket by seven. Sometimes, like today, I don’t have a ticket at all. Just depends on how much work they have,” said Todd.
“You do what you do to survive, whatever it takes,” he said.
A number of groups in Colorado, including Family Tree, and the Colorado Interagency Council on Homelessness, are counting the number of homeless statewide. It’s the first winter count in 17 years.
Organizers hope it will help Colorado and its local governments understand why people become homeless and how to help them.
Organizers say the two-day survey could help them tap in to new resources - such as permanent and transitional housing.
"It impacts the amount of funding that comes to this area," said Linda Barringer with Family Tree. "Right now there is $15 million in funding being considered by HUD that will come to this area directly for services for people that are homeless."
She hopes it will bring more people in from the cold and erase homelessness from Denver's landscape.
The first official state wide count was done last summer. Volunteers and organizations counted nearly 12,000 homeless.
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