Being safe isn’t something most people think about constantly, but for Gina Lott, who for three years has been homeless and living in her car, in a tent and at Colorado Springs emergency shelters, it’s been a daily concern.

Soon, she won’t have to worry as much about safety and will be able to focus on other issues, like her physical and mental health.

“I started crying happy tears when I heard the news,” she said.

After applying for housing almost exactly one year ago, Lott received word this month — while she was staying at the Salvation Army’s local shelter with her nearly 1-year-old baby and 17-year-old daughter — that her request is being fulfilled.

“I hadn’t had much interest in trying to put it back together for a while — not having a place makes it a big challenge,” she said. “This is an answer to a lot of prayers. I’ll have a safe spot where I can start to put things back together. It’s hopefully going to be life changing.”

Miller is one of 42 families and individuals selected as inaugural residents of a new affordable-housing development for homeless people in Colorado Springs called The Commons, a few blocks north of The Citadel mall.

The 50-unit complex is Colorado Springs’ first permanent, supportive housing complex for families, said Beth Roalstad, executive director of

Homeward Pikes Peak, which provides supportive housing and recovery services for homeless people.

The campus also is unique in that it will have 24/7 on-site staff and ongoing case management for residents, said Brooke Sulski, Homeward Pikes Peak’s lead case manager for The Commons.

“In general, I’m hearing that they don’t believe it — like it’s too good to be true,” Sulski said.

“A lot have never had a home, they have bad credit, they have felonies — and limited landlords will work with them.”

Homeward Pikes Peak and Denver-based Rocky Mountain Communities, which will manage the property, built the complex, the first of two that will be erected on the site.

Increased costs of building materials and labor pushed the $18.6 million price of the project to $19.9 million, Roalstad said.

Residents were supposed to start moving in on March 20, but final walk-throughs showed elements that still need attention, Sulski said. Move-ins should happen in the next two weeks, she said.

Lott can’t wait. Smiles emerged and tears flowed while she, her two youngest children and her husband, Timothy, toured the property Wednesday for the first time.

“We’ve lived places that were smaller than the size of this bathroom,” Lott said during a peek at a three-bedroom apartment. “I’m just really excited to finish putting the rest of life back together so we can be self-sustaining again.”

The gated development provides independent living — not lockdown — in one- two- and three-bedroom apartments that come fully furnished, with “everything they need to live,” from new dishes and cookware to bedding, cleaning supplies and furniture, Sulski said.

It’s a no-frills building but special touches such as bunkbeds, doorbells, intercoms, a trash chute, a free laundry room on every floor, a fitness center and a food pantry make it welcoming and homey.

Eight of the units are set aside for homeless military veterans and are being handled through the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Prospective tenants were offered the opportunity to live there after representatives from local agencies that serve the homeless combed through hundreds of names compiled from a registration and management system of indigent people who had signed up for housing.

People selected qualify for permanent supportive-housing vouchers, Sulski said.

Under the model, residents are accepted with substance abuse, mental illness, physical limitations, joblessness and other constraints, and include people who are usually rejected elsewhere, she said.

Reduced income has prevented Tarin Rahl and her special-needs daughter from getting back into a permanent home, until now.

Frequent moves — the last two to a homeless shelter, then a transitional housing program in an old motel — have exacerbated behavioral and cognitive problems for the 9-year-old girl, her mom said.

“She’s not medically stable enough for me to work a regular, full-time job,” Rahl said.

Rahl, 36, says her daughter is excited about having her bedroom at The Commons — a first in her life.

“We talked about her decorating it and possibly getting a sensory swing,” Rahl said.

The indoor swing attaches to the ceiling and helps regulate a child’s senses and prevents meltdowns, she said.

Rahl’s goal is to “have a safe place for my daughter to get stable enough so I can go back to work.” In the past, she has been a cook and a behavioral health technician.

Tenants pay 30% of their income in rent and can live at The Commons indefinitely, as they receive help with medical and mental needs, employment, counseling, group activities, budgeting, clothing for job interviews and other assistance.

Homeward Pikes Peak was awarded a Statewide Supportive Housing Expansion grant so new residents who receive Medicaid benefits can obtain the medical and behavioral health care they need, Roalstad said.

“This is beneficial because case managers will be able to help clients stabilize, live successfully in an apartment rather than an emergency shelter, doubled up with friends and families, and access food resources and community supports,” Roalstad said.

“Altogether, this will reduce the Medicaid member’s utilization of expensive emergency room health care or being in crisis all the time.”

A series of misfortunes in a short time, starting with the death of one of her four children and continuing with a family breakdown, her grandson being sent to foster care, the murder of her best friend, her mom being diagnosed with cancer, her boyfriend going to prison and her daughter ending up in juvenile detention and then prison led to Lott’s job loss, eviction and homelessness.

“It was a lot to handle,” she said.

Lott also got into trouble with the law and went to jail last spring. A month later, in April 2022, Miller had another baby.

“I had given up on getting assistance,” she said. But while living in shelters she found help from various organizations that supplied bus passes, diapers and baby gear, and legal assistance.

Lott has been dedicated in applying for programs and following through with setting and achieving goals to improve her life, Sulski said.

“You guys deserve this,” Sulski told Lott and her family Wednesday. “You worked really hard, and you did it.”

Organizations including Catholic Charities of Central Colorado, Peak Vista Community Health Centers, Diversus and Pikes Peak Workforce Center will have representatives on The Commons campus.

The next phase, a 69-unit apartment complex with an estimated price tag of $36 million, is expected to break ground early next year, with an 18-month construction schedule, Roalstad said.