DENVER – A grassroots community organizations is helping stop evictions in the East Colfax/West Aurora neighborhood.
The East Colfax Community Collective launched its eviction rapid response text line in 2020.
“We request that they text us ‘Urgent, eviction in process’ along with the address of the person who’s getting evicted,” said Kalena Wong, East Colfax Community Collective housing assistance campaign manager.
Wong said the text line has been extremely important for the community.
“Community members are able to connect with us immediately. We have two full-time staff that are always on the text line,” Wong said.
Wong said the staff members help negotiate with landlords and provide emergency housing resources.
But Wong said the Collective also takes proactive steps to stop evictions before they begin.
“We’ve been reaching out to many different landlords and saying ‘Hey, give us a list of your delinquencies,' then we’ll see if we can connect with these people,” Wong said. “A lot of the people that we’re working with speak different languages and so we always bring our interpreters with us to explain the resources that are out there.”
Wong said because of this proactive approach, they did not see a large increase in calls following the end of the eviction moratorium.
Wong said there aren’t enough resources for eviction defense and the Collective is filling a hole that they saw in the system.
If you or someone you know needs eviction help, text "URGENT Eviction in Progress" to 720-295-0152.