Wellspring celebrates deal for a ordable housing for people with disabilities

County donates building

BY ELLIS ARNOLD EARNOLD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Damon Bunch remembers hearing people at his schools say: “ ere isn’t going to be a place for him.”

“I never thought I would be able to be independent, to really be able to understand that life,” said Bunch, who is excited about an upcoming apartment complex for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. “My family, we didn’t have a lot of money growing up.”

He thinks of Wellspring Community, the nonpro t that helped him nd his place, as a second family that has supported him.

Bunch, 23, wants to “show the world that we may have IDD,” but “God put us on this earth for a purpose.”

Bunch spoke to Douglas County’s elected leaders as a crowd of other folks with disabilities sat behind him, gathered in Castle Rock for the meeting where the county transferred ownership of a former hotel property to Wellspring to serve as an a ordable housing complex for people with IDD, along with other residents.

It’s about more than a building — it’s about “reclaiming hope,” said Nicole DeVries, executive director of

Wellspring.

“Just like most of us, many adults with IDD grow up and think, ‘I don’t want to live with my parents anymore.’ ey watch their friends, they watch their siblings move out and reach a level of independence that (for them) seems out of reach,” DeVries said.

But now, folks with IDD are dreaming of what they want their rooms to look like if they move into Wellspring’s upcoming housing, she said. e county purchased a former La Quinta hotel on Park Street in Castle Rock for $6.4 million in October using funding from the federal e nonpro t also has o ered other programs, like Wellspring Wonders Choir. In 2013, thanks to a partnership with Castle Oaks Covenant Church, Wellspring moved into a new facility with o ce space, classroom space, a 900-square-foot commercial kitchen and the opportunity to operate all of its programs under one roof, the website says. Wellspring’s housing will include 24/7 on-site sta to o er residents assistance, though they will not be medical providers. After the remodeling, the property will o er integrated housing, meaning both residents

“Our community is now seeing people with IDD are not people to be served — they are people to live with,” DeVries said.

American Rescue Plan Act and had planned to transfer the property to Wellspring, which intends to remodel it into 42 income-restricted apartments.

Wellspring’s mission is to provide “educational, enrichment and business enterprise opportunities” to adults with IDD and empower them to live “full, productive and satisfying lives,” the nonpro t’s website says.

Wellspring began in 2008 with four young women with developmental disabilities learning how to bake cookies in a private kitchen. Soon, their cookies were selling at local churches and Wellspring’s rst business enterprise, Wellspring Bakery, the website says.