COMMUNITY PROFILE ALAMOSA’S SANCTIONED HOMELESS CAMP IS WORKING STORY AND PHOTOS BY GILES CLASEN IT TOOK CHRISTI BUCHANAN and Ricky Plunkett two years to get to Colorado from Texas. The two fled their home in East Texas to get away from a life of addiction, poverty, and trauma. Buchanan and Plunkett hoped to make a fresh start in Colorado Springs. Neither had a car, so they rolled through Texas on bicycles, sleeping in parks, shelters, and on the side of the road. They worked when they could find jobs, and hit up food pantries when they couldn’t. Their journey was slowed multiple times due to weather, breakdowns, and an arrest. Plunkett spent three months in jail in Trinidad, Colorado. He was ticketed for violating the town’s camping ban. When he couldn’t pay, he was arrested. Buchanan stayed in a Trinidad shelter while Plunkett served his time, and she felt something deep inside telling her to change directions and head to the San Luis Valley. “God just was like, ‘You need to go to Alamosa,’” Buchanan said. “And I’m like, ‘I’m not changing my plans at the last minute.’ I just kind of ignored it. But you can’t ignore God. Once I accepted that we needed to go to Alamosa, Ricky was freed.” Plunkett wasn’t sure about the idea, but he decided home was wherever Buchanan was, and that included Alamosa. The first winter in Alamosa nearly cost the two their lives. The San Luis winters are notoriously cold, and Plunkett and Buchanan weren’t prepared. “When we moved out, it was in the middle of winter. It was like negative 26 degrees. That was our first real winter, and it was an awakening for what we were in for,” Plunkett said. For the first 18 months, Plunkett and Buchanan lived at an unsanctioned campsite in the Devil’s Triangle, a strip of private property along the Rio Grande River hidden by railroad tracks. Then, the City of Alamosa made a decision: it planned to sweep the homeless encampments along the river and relocate the community to a new sanctioned campsite — St. Benedict. “We didn’t want to go, but we made the best of it,” Buchanan said. “We went to the very back corner, and we put up tarps and stuff and made like a shelter. We had a woodburning stove in it and all that good stuff there. We still froze our asses off. But we survived, and it was home, kind of.” ST. BENEDICT CAMP The St. Benedict Camp opened in Alamosa with federal POPEYE HAS PARTICIPATED IN THE ST. BENEDICT ENCAMPMENT FOR OVER A YEAR: “I’M NOT HOMELESS, THIS IS OUR HOME.” COVID funds and private foundation support to provide a sanctioned campsite for the unhoused community. The site, which is on the outskirts of town, has running water, 8 DENVER VOICE January 2025
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