Prepares for First Residents This Summer By Megan Mayes
B
ack on August 19, Anchor House broke ground on a project to provide affordable housing to teenagers who are leaving the foster care system. Now, almost nine months later, the end is in sight. The brand new transitional housing facility is expected to be finished by the end of June. John Bosio, board president for the Anchor House project, gave us an update in April saying “We are about 50% complete … all of the mechanical trades are working now. They will be working for another month, one month for drywall, and then final finishes will take a month.” While there only seems to be a few steps left to the finish line, many teams of volunteers will be putting in a heroic final effort to bring the project to fruition.
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Our Broomfield™ Magazine | May 2021
The project was started in 2014 by clergy from the Lutheran Church of Hope, who wanted to address housing needs in the Broomfield community. The formerly vacant plot of land will soon be home to an eight unit apartment building. Anchor House will provide safe and affordable transitional housing to young people who will be newly emancipated from the foster care system in Broomfield, Boulder, and Adams counties. Of the more than 500 kids who will turn 18 in these programs in the next four years, most will be without support systems and an affordable place to live. Anchor House can help meet these needs for some by providing a roof over their heads, case managers, and mentors who will help them learn valuable life skills. Each apartment will be fully furnished and equipped with every necessity, including kitchen utensils and linens. A tremendous number of volunteers were responsible for nearly all of the work to build Anchor House. According to John, the volunteers have come from a variety of metro area cities with “some just being interested in what [they] are doing, and others having a connection to the foster care system.” Besides mechanical jobs which were done by contracted professionals, groups of volunteers have completed framing,
