Another sprawling tent city rises in the shadow of downtown Colorado Springs

A crumbling concrete barrier stands sentry in a field behind a few posh apartments in downtown Colorado Springs’ Lowell neighborhood, spray-painted with a warning: “TURN BACK NOW…”Call it a doormat to “the quarry,” as a sprawling homeless encampment is called by those who live there. Colorado Springs News Anger erupts over Colorado Springs’ lack of affordable housing during meeting on homelessness Jakob Rodgers At least 145 tents and tarp-covered shelters — several of which appear abandoned, resembling little more than heaps of trash — are behind the barrier, covering most of 10 acres of fields where perhaps more than 100 people live.It’s on the outskirts of downtown, a five-minute walk from the Colorado Springs Police Department’s headquarters but a world apart from all of it. Just 100 yards from $400,000-condos, these tents and tarps are tucked into every ravine, marked by rising puffs of smoke and bordered often by piles of discarded plastic bottles, food wrappers and bike parts.It’s the latest — and one of the largest — in a long and seemingly endless line of tent cities to sprout in Colorado Springs, usually alongside creeks or within a stone’s throw of an over-capacity shelter.In at least one respect, this one seems different.This time, there… Read full this story

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