HAAT Force
  • Home
  • Our Impact
  • About Us
  • Need Shelter?
  • Support our Work
  • Donate
  • Home
  • Our Impact
  • About Us
  • Need Shelter?
  • Support our Work
  • Donate
Picture
HAAT Force South Metro, founded in 2010, provides severe weather motel shelter for families and people with disabilities, medical issues or animals. Our guests include pregnant women and older adults experiencing homelessness.  

This program operates from October through April.

During the 2021-2022 severe weather season, we provided 153 motel vouchers for 1090 person-nights of shelter. Our guests included families with children ranging in age from 6 months to 17 years old. Many of our guests, including families, were spending the nights in vehicles. Many had disabilities and/or medical conditions, including frostbite. Several were living outdoors, in tents or in unstable living situations such as a couch or garage. The need was great and the severe weather from December 2021 through March 2022 was relentless!

HAAT Force partners with Arapahoe County Housing Navigators and other resources to help our guests with their immediate and long-term needs. In addition, Colorado Access has enabled HAAT Force to shelter a number of people while their medical needs are being met. Each of our guests has unique needs and circumstances. 

Click here for our end-of-season newsletter for 2021-2022 and a full story of our work.
Click here for our end-of-season newsletter for 2020-2021 and a full story of our work.

Client Testimonials
We received the following message from one of our severe weather motel voucher guests: "please accept my gratitude for the warm dry nights you and your organization have so graciously bestowed upon me...it was wonderful being able to shower when I wanted and use the bathroom when I needed and to charge my phone or leave things and not worry about them disappearing. You guys are giving so much more than shelter from the elements with these rooms...you're giving peace of mind and safety. It becomes exhausting being homeless...from the bottom of my heart thank you and God bless us all."

During the 2020-2021 season, we partnered with Arapahoe County in a unique continuous shelter program, in response to the pandemic. Our continuous motel shelter guests also expressed appreciation to HAAT Force. One woman in the program starting in September 2020 has three children, the youngest in kindergarten, and said that the stability provided by the motel shelter was invaluable to her and her family.

A married couple in the continuous shelter program has struggled with daunting challenges. The husband has endured severe back injuries and surgeries resulting from physical labor. Despite past battles with a depression disorder, his wife has a positive outlook and works as a housekeeper with an outstanding performance record. They have experienced repeated bouts of homelessness during their time together. They're very familiar with places to find temporary shelter along South Broadway. "I did not like sleeping at the bus stops," he says. She adds that "washing up by running through park sprinklers" is no treat, either.

This couple took advantage of the continuous shelter program to focus on the future. With the help of Case Managers from The Reciprocity Collective they (and others in the program) we able to find permanent housing. They look beyond the challenges they've overcome. They are determined to sustain themselves, with enough "extra" time and resources to help others as well. "We try to give back to people in need and those who've helped us."