CHEYENNE, Wyo. — When asked Tuesday how much work needed to go into the Stage Coach Motel to make it a safe, secure place for transitional housing, Comea Shelter director Robin Bocanegra said that “considerable” rehab needed to be done before the organization could go forward with its plans there.
A day later, a man was arrested following a shooting on the motel’s premises at 1515 W. Lincolnway, only further exemplifying how much work there is left to go.
The shelter, which acquired ownership of the motel earlier this year through American Rescue Plan funds, said it has not yet begun a future program to convert the building to transitional housing for those with mental health and substance-use issues. Bocanegra said she wanted to clear up the misconception that any new policies, which are currently awaiting city approval, failed to stop the recent shooting.
Paul Allen King, 63, of Cheyenne was arrested on several charges — including two counts of attempted second-degree murder — after he was alleged to have retrieved a gun and fired “multiple shots” in response to an argument with another man at the motel Wednesday morning, per a release that day from the Cheyenne Police Department.
Bocanegra said that the suspect was “on our radar,” but the shelter didn’t have cause to evict him due to the fact that he had lived there before the takeover, paid rent on time and was “very compliant” up until his arrest, she said. To her, the incident merely increased the urgency for the shelter to get the green light to renovate and fully control the property so that chances of incidents like Wednesday’s are limited.
“Currently, the city will not allow us or approve us to start our program … and that’s not even going to go before city council for a vote until mid-September,” Bocanegra said. “I have reached out to the mayor to see if there’s anything we can do to change that, because if we can’t put the security measures in place, we can’t guarantee that this won’t keep happening.”
Bocanegra mentioned prior to Wednesday the multiple measures the shelter plans to install once full approval happens, including a security fence, a secure entrance with check-ins and curfews, and an overall extra bit of control for those in the program who are battling addictions or other issues.
Residents who are holdovers from previous ownership may or may not qualify for the shelter’s program, and Bocanegra said the organization is working with those who won’t to find another place to live. Those who remain (and who enter the program later) will be monitored by the shelter in a controlled environment with the ultimate goal of helping those within it get better, Bocanegra said.
“When people criticize and say, ‘Well, yeah, you’re going to let people drink, so no wonder you have problems,’ well, it’s not that we’re just going to let them drink willy-nilly,” Bocanegra said while giving examples of policies to come. “We search their bags [and] we keep a record of how much alcohol they’re consuming so that we can gradually reduce that use. … It’s not supposed to be a party. It’s meant to [have] you drink enough to keep the shakes away as you work through the day to detox.”
In the 12 years Bocanegra said that she’s lived in Cheyenne, she remarked that she’s seen the city’s homeless population grow, and that for her to “sit back” and have the shelter only “tolerating the problem” isn’t why Comea was founded in the first place. And as the city currently has no long-term transitional housing program, she feels strongly about getting something helpful put in place.
Failures and mistakes will happen in the program, Bocanegra said, but she noted that she and the shelter will continuously work as it goes along to make it better in response. And if the public continually tags along behind the shelter in support, she believes it’ll only make the program that much better.
“I love Cheyenne. I think it’s an amazing little town and I want to keep it that way and I want to do my part — and so does Comea,” Bocanegra said. “So it’s disappointing that people feel like it’s no longer a great community. But then, let’s do something. Let’s be proactive. And that’s what this program is trying to do; we’re trying to find a solution to a really serious problem.”