Local domestic abuse org receives $4 million housing grant from the state
2757 design co./Courtesy image
Response, a non-profit that serves survivors of domestic and sexual abuse, received a $4 million grant from the Colorado State Housing Board to support the construction of a domestic abuse shelter in Basalt.
“Response is so honored to receive the full amount of our request to the Division of Housing, which shows their faith in us as an organization and in our project,” said Shannon Meyer, executive director of the non-profit. “This grant brings us so close to the finish line, now we turn to our community to help us make this project a reality.”
The state also approved a three-year, $700,000 grant to support Response housing programs.
The Halle Center for Hope and Healing will be the first domestic-abuse shelter in the upper valley and will provide a new base of operations for Response. The shelter will provide short-term housing for survivors and their children who are fleeing abuse in a trauma-informed setting.
The shelter will contain seven efficiency units — five for a survivor and their children, and two for single survivors. Each room will contain a kitchenette and bathroom, and there will also be a common kitchen, living area, and play yard for survivors to benefit from healing in community with others.
The shelter permitting is working its way through Basalt Town Hall. The space is 6,770-square-foot, open-facing building with office space, client rooms, a deed-restricted two-bedroom housing unit, and a 17-space parking lot at 325 E. Cody Lane.
The budget is estimated to be approximately $8.5 million, Meyer said.
“Our hope is to raise the remaining $800,000 by October, so that we can break ground as soon as we receive our construction permits from the town of Basalt,” she said. “Our goal is to break ground by late October and open the doors of the center in the fall of 2024.”
With a lead campaign gift from the Arizona-based Diane and Bruce Halle Foundation — which resulted in the shelter name — Response kicked off its capital fundraising in the spring. Local governments in Response’s service area contributed.
The non-profit has been serving survivors of domestic and sexual abuse, stalking, and human trafficking in the Roaring Fork Valley for 40 years.
