Violence perpetrated by a gang that reigned terror over Claribel Gomez’s hometown in Mexico reached a tipping point in 2023. Threats towards her and her family were only escalating, she said.

“They said they were going to kidnap me and my kids,” Gomez told Summit Daily News through a translator.

She knew she had to get her 4-, 10- and 15-year-old children out of Mexico — and soon — she said.

Following in the steps of her sister, she made her way to Summit County, where she and her children have lived for six months.

At first, Gomez and her children lived with numerous people, and she said five people had to vie for a spot on a twin bunk bed. Gomez said the living situation was not fit for her children since the lifestyles of the other people in the home put her children at risk. 

Connections she made in Summit County led her to Mountain Dreamers, a local nonprofit that helps new immigrants with their transition into Summit County. Employees of the nonprofit set her up with a temporary living situation in a former hotel in Silverthorne, a place she has been living in since December.

Mountain Dreamers staff assured her that she can stay until July and that they will help her find a new place when the time comes.

Despite the offer, she said she loses sleep over the fear that she and her children will be unable to find another place to live. 

The Gomezes are among a handful of families that Mountain Dreamers have helped provide transitional housing for in the last several months. Through partnerships with local governments, the nonprofit has placed families temporarily in units in Breckenridge and Silverthorne for anywhere from one month to six months. 

Mountain Dreamers helps people pay rent for these units, and Director Peter Bakken said the nonprofit is able to do that thanks to a grant from the Newcomers Fund, which is offered by the Rose Community Foundation in Denver, alongside financial help from the county.

Program coordinator Yerania Reynoso said Gomez’s situation, although not ideal, is less dire than other families the organization is helping. She said a father and his two kids haven’t been able to secure new housing after their lease expired May 1.

Bakken said his organization began efforts to help find new immigrants transitional housing this fall after community input found a noticeable new trend in immigration to the area. Bakken said Mountain Dreamers has historically helped individual immigrants, but now they are seeing more children and families ask for assistance due to conflict in Central and South America.

According to the United Nations, the number of asylum-seekers and refugees from Central America — particularly El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras — reached over 687,000 in mid-2023. The organization said a humanitarian crisis in this region has largely been caused by violence and persecution brought on by criminal organizations. 

Bakken said many of the South American immigrants that have been coming to them recently are fleeing conflict in Venezuela.  

The United Nations said the situation in Venezuela is one of the worst displacement crises in the world currently. According to the United Nations, Venezuelans have been experiencing rampant violence, gang warfare, increased crime rates and shortages of food, medicine and essential services, which has caused 7.7 million to flee the country since 2014, according to April statistics from the United Nations.

According to Bakken, Mountain Dreamers saw a 20% increase in people served from 2022 to 2023.

Staff at Mountain Dreamers say they are currently working with 35 families who fled their home countries. Statistics from the nonprofit show that most people are from Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela and Nicaragua. 

Only a handful of these families have been able to secure transitional housing, but Mountain Dreamers hopes to increase its efforts to help more families.

County Manager Dave Rossi estimated that Summit County government has provided around $40,000 to Mountain Dreamers to help finance transitional housing efforts.

Rossi said many of the situations that have been brought to the county’s attention involve families who haven’t been here long and have lost a lease or been displaced from homes. 

In addition to aiding in this months-long transitional housing solution, Rossi said the county also wants to have some sort of emergency shelter management plan. He said he’s been in conversation with peer counties such as Pitkin, Garfield, and Eagle to gauge ways to approach the situation. Counties want to be prepared if they get hit with a situation such as the one Carbondale encountered this fall, where around 80 immigrants were found living under a bridge in Carbondale this November.

The increase in immigrants led to the town launching its Carbondale Newcomer Response initiative, which lays out the town’s plans to welcome newcomers to the community. Rossi also pointed to the recently published “Newcomers Playbook,” which is a guide for the city of Denver on how to welcome migrants.

He said he wouldn’t be surprised if towns and organizations across Colorado start to come up with similar plans.

At an April 23 meeting, Breckenridge town manager Shannon Haynes briefly ran Town Council through how the town has chipped in to help while also presenting potential opportunities where the town can continue to contribute.

Haynes told council about a family that the town recently set up with transitional housing in a town-owned unit. She said the town helped house the family, which consisted of a mom and three daughters, for a month. She said the oldest daughter was pregnant and the family needed a lifeline. 

“We were trying to help get those folks on their feet, get them out of living in a car and then get them work and find another place to live,” Haynes told council members. 

Haynes said Breckenridge has an opportunity to contribute to transitional housing with a recent condominium it purchased.

In early April, the town purchased property up near Baldy Trailhead that Haynes said the town is in talks with Mountain Dreamers about creating a master lease that would give the nonprofit a place to temporarily house new immigrants. Haynes explained to council that it is likely they will be presented with a proposed three-year lease with Mountain Dreamers.