Get to Know Fort Lyon
Since 2013, the Fort Lyon Supportive Residential Community has provided recovery-oriented transitional housing on an expansive campus in Bent County, Colorado by combining housing with peer support, and educational, vocational, and employment services to people experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness. The program is made possible through a statewide collaboration between Colorado Coalition for the Homeless (the Coalition), the Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA), and Bent County. The cost per person at Fort Lyon is $18,800 per year. It costs $45,993 per person per year for medical and mental health services, substance abuse treatment, incarceration, and temporary shelter costs for those chronically experiencing homelessness. Fort Lyon is not only impactful to residents, but also represents a reduction of over 59% in costs to taxpayers as compared to no interventions for those experiencing homelessness with substance use disorders.
When the doors opened in the fall of 2013, just 27 residents were onsite. Over the past 10 years, 2218 unique individuals have been supported in their substance use recovery journeys at Fort Lyon. At present, the facility can welcome up to 250 individuals at any given time and employs over 50 local staff in the Bent County region.
Read Fort Lyon reports here.
If you are a homeless service provider or health care provider seeking to refer a candidate to the Fort Lyon program, please visit our Fort Lyon Referral page.
Fort Lyon is part of state and community efforts to repurpose the former Fort Lyon VA Hospital facility to meet the needs of people from across the state. Initial funding to establish and operate the Fort Lyon Supportive Residential Community was provided by the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, through federal, state, local and private sources including commitments from Bent County Office of Economic Development for local transportation.
In addition to Colorado Department of Local Affairs and Bent County Office of Economic Development, partners of the program include:
- Arkansas Valley Regional Medical Center
- Colorado Health Care Policy and Finance Authority
- Colorado Division of Behavioral Health
- Lamar Community College
- Otero Junior College
- Prowers Medical Center
- Region Six Alcohol and Drug Abuse Corporation (RESADA)
- Southeast Health Group
- Valley Wide Health Systems, Inc.