Recently a poll was posted to a local Laramie Facebook group asking the question, “Who thinks having a homeless shelter in Laramie would be a good idea?” There are many responses to the question.
Kaitlyn Reed-Mercer has lived in Laramie her whole life and currently works as the life enrichment director at the Spring Wind Assisted Living facility. Ever since she was a young girl she has worked to help those in need.
“I think I was probably eight and I was in Denver and there was a whole bunch of homeless people downtown,” Mercer said. “I had a whole bunch of spending money and I went to one of the shops downtown and I bought them all lunch.”
Her generosity hasn’t stopped since then. Although Mercer has never worked first hand in a homeless shelter she says she has privately done her part for those she sees need help.
“I’m one of those people that take in the travelers,” Mercer said.
She’s been taking people into her home for about five years now. The last time she did it was early in March of this year when she saw a group of travelers who were sitting outside of Safeway.
“These people were freezing to death,” Mercer said. “I brought them to my home, they stayed for four days.”
In those four days Mercer provided them with haircuts, brought them to the Clothing Cottage where they got new clothes and even made sure they had better backpacks to travel with. When the roads were open again Mercer continued her hospitality by driving them from Laramie to the homeless shelter in Cheyenne.
Although she has such an amazing generosity, Mercer also expressed her concerns with doing things like this.
“I also have a family, and you don’t know people and I have two small children,” Mercer said. “I could have put myself in a situation that wasn’t ideal.”
This, Mercer urges, is one of the reasons a homeless shelter in Laramie would be beneficial. She also expressed her lack of understanding as to why there are several empty facilities around town, when they could be used as a homeless shelter.
What Laramie does have to offer those without a home are things such as Interfaith Good Samaritan, which is located in the civic center and provides food and hotel room vouchers. Mercer states, however, that the vouchers are only good for one night and they have to make sure the hotels are willing to participate. Interfaith Good Samaritan also provides bus tickets to Cheyenne to the homeless shelter there.
Also available in Laramie is the Clothing Cottage, which does $30 vouchers for free clothes, and the Soup Kitchen located in the Catholic church on 3rd street.
Although there are some resources and options, when it comes to how big the homeless population problem in Laramie might be, Wyoming does not actually have any current public statistics on it.
“On the post [the poll] there was a lady who said something like 88 homeless children live within Albany County School District,” Mercer said.
Mercer states that she would like to see better opportunities for parents or guardians of those children to get and hold jobs, but even with things such as the Workforce Center there is still a need for vital documents to support them, something which most homeless persons do not have.
Despite Mercer saying there was about 350 votes on the supporting side of getting a homeless shelter set up in Laramie, she doesn’t necessarily believe it’s a possibility.
“Honestly, I don’t think the possibility is very high,” Mercer said. “But that is something I’m going to actively try to change.”
Mercer is currently working on gathering statistics and further information to better her case, which she will present in a letter to the City of Laramie and to the city council.
