The keys to surviving cold winters outdoors are dry clothes and a tarp over the tent, said Jesse Roe, who has lived in Horse Gulch for seven years.
Jesse Roe, who has been living outdoors in Durango since 2003, takes a moment to rest while hiking up to his campsite in Horse Gulch.
Jesse Roe shows off the fire pit at his campsite. Roe said the rocks, which also line the bottom of the pit, radiate heat, making large campfires unnecessary.
Jesse Roe holds the gloves he uses when the weather turns cold.Jesse Roe talks about his campsite in Horse Gulch.
“Always keep an extra set of dry clothes,” he said recently while eating lunch at Manna Soup Kitchen. “I see a lot of homeless don’t keep up on that.”
As winter approaches, some homeless residents will pack up and head south. They are called snowbirds. But many others stay year-round, camped out on the public lands outside Durango.
They are motivated to stay for the same reasons others have chosen Durango as home: “I like it here,” Roe said. “I’ve met a lot of good people. The Durango people are very giving and helpful.”
Residents who are homeless are aided by Manna Soup Kitchen, which provides hot meals, sack lunches, showers, thrift store vouchers, donations and laundry facilities.
“I’ve been to a lot of places in the United States,” Roe said during a visit to his campsite. “That’s about the best soup kitchen I’ve been to. How many places do you know where you can do free laundry?”
For Richard Landmark, who also lives year-round in Horse Gulch, La Plata County is home.
Landmark moved to Southwest Colorado from Denver in 1979 and graduated from Ignacio High School in 1981
Some people who are homeless leave for the winter, he said, but most stay.
“It thins out a little bit,” he said. “People do like the birds and fly south.”
Landmark said he resents it when people expect him to change his lifestyle to resemble something more traditional.
“Who’s to say we have to pay rent?” he said. “Who’s to say we have to have a 30-year mortgage?
“You’ve got the attitude of, ‘I can do it, you can do it.’ Well so do I. If we can live outside when it’s 10 to 20 below zero, you can do it.”
Landmark said it’s easy enough to survive the winters here, with a little common sense. It is important to stay dry, remain hydrated and maintain a balanced diet, he said.
Those who get drunk and pass out in the snow are the ones who die from hypothermia, Roe said.
It happens about once a year, said La Plata County Coroner Dr. Carol Huser.
The Durango Police Department does sweeps of homeless camps once a year, typically during the spring or summer. It forces the homeless to find a new spot for a couple of weeks, Roe said.
“Once a year they come by, run us out, clean it up, and then we come back,” he said.
Homeless advocates estimate 90 people live year-round on the public lands outside Durango. Only about a third of the homeless population moves for the winter, said Mike Richard, back office manager at Manna Soup Kitchen.
“A lot of times, they’ll come traipsing through the snow, and their feet are wet,” Richard said. “And once their feet get wet, they’ll get cold and get sick.”
Roe said it is important to plan ahead in the winter. When he leaves his campsite in the morning to go to Manna, he packs an extra set of dry clothes. He needs them after walking through the snow. At Manna, he’ll change into the dry clothes while drying his wet clothes. When he goes back to his campsite, he gets wet again, but he’ll have the dry clothes for the night.
“You leave out of here, you know you’re going to get wet,” Roe said.
To stay warm, Roe has a futon and two sleeping bags.
He visits local thrift stores before winter to stock up on snow gear. His favorite winter accessory is a pair of lightweight NorthFace snow pants.
He stretches a tarp over his tent that allows the snow to slide off to one side rather than pile up on the tent, which can cause it to collapse, he said.
Some people sleep year-round in cars.
Gary, who declined to give his last name, said his own breath makes his car 10 to 15 degrees warmer than the outside temperature.
The winter is tough, he said, because there are fewer hours of daylight. Gary said he doesn’t use alcohol or drugs.
“It does get to be hard psychologically during the winter to keep yourself occupied,” he said. “What do you do to keep yourself occupied in the dark? You can’t read. Where do you sit, and what do you do? It’s too early to go to bed at 6 p.m.”
The library helps a lot, he said, but it stays open only until 8 p.m.
The homeless are especially grateful for gloves, hats and socks residents donate to the soup kitchen, Roe said.
“A lot of us depend on donations to the kitchen,” he said.
He picks up odd jobs like snow removal or cutting wood during the winter to help support himself. If conditions become too intolerable, a group of friends may pitch in to pay for a motel room in town.
But for the most part, winter is like a rainstorm, Roe said, but colder.
“It ain’t hard to do,” he said. “You just have to put yourself to doing it.” Help ua "Make A Difference In A Life" Hislovestreetministries.com
shane@durango herald.com
