Transportation as a Pathway: How this Colorado Non-Profit Is Reframing Mobility’s Role in Housing Stability

By: Liz Currie, Marketing Manager, Sunshine Rides 

A new nonprofit in Mesa County, Colorado has officially opened its doors, centering transportation as the critical support system that enables programming. Sunshine Community, in association with Sunshine Rides, operates with a straightforward mission: preventing homelessness where possible and reversing it where it already exists. 

While housing is often framed as the primary solution to homelessness, stability is rarely achieved through housing alone - and housing can rarely be achieved without stability. Access to healthcare, employment, financial systems, social services and community, coupled with life skills is what determines whether housing is sustained.  

Transportation sits quietly at the center of that access, yet it’s often treated as an operational detail rather than a foundational pillar. Sunshine Community is working to pair life skills with access, incorporating transportation into the fabric of their services. 

Administrative Safeguards and Integrated Programming 

The organization’s initial vision focused on a gap that frequently derails individuals experiencing housing insecurity: the lack of safe administrative and financial infrastructure. Without reliable ways to store identification, manage paperwork, or safely access financial tools, people without housing are disproportionately vulnerable to setbacks such as lost IDs, missed benefit renewals, or stolen documents - issues that can reset progress overnight. 

From that starting point, Sunshine Community’s services have expanded into two distinct but complementary programs: one focused on preventing homelessness, and the other focused on reversing it. 

The ALICE Program: Preventing the Fall 

One branch of programming serves individuals living below the ALICE threshold. ALICE stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed; households that earn above the federal poverty line but still cannot afford basic necessities like housing, childcare, food, healthcare, and transportation. In Mesa County and across the country, ALICE households represent a large and often invisible population living one emergency away from losing their housing. 

Sunshine Community’s ALICE Program provides administrative and financial support designed to stabilize people before crisis hits. By offering safeguards, guidance, and navigation support with things like budgeting and taxes, the program aims to reduce the likelihood that a temporary disruption (a missed paycheck, a medical bill, a lost document) cascades into homelessness.  

For transportation providers, this prevention-oriented approach underscores an important truth: mobility is not only a response mechanism. It’s a stabilizing force that helps people remain housed, employed and connected. It’s a warm reminder to transportation organizations everywhere that our work creates possibilities.   

Reversing Homelessness: A Structured Path Forward 

The second program is a more intensive, targeted extension of services, currently supporting six individuals who have been identified as ready to take intentional steps toward permanent housing. Participants have already engaged with stabilizing resources and are in a place where structured support can meaningfully accelerate progress. 

This program is not designed for rapid placement alone. Its focus is long-term success. 

Participants enter a structured 6–12 month program that includes: 

• Housing for the duration of participation 

• Peer coaching in household skills such as laundry, cooking, and safe banking practices 

• Health and wellness check-ins 

• Navigation support for employment, housing, and essential services 

• Reliable transportation to and from appointments, interviews, and services 

  
  

A common gap in homelessness programming lies between survival on the street and sustainability inside four walls. Thriving in permanent housing requires a shift in routines, systems, and expectations. 

Each month, the hub comes alive with additional programs that support dignity, health and mobility, including a bike clinic, pet vaccination services, a foot soak clinic offered in partnership with the Colorado Mesa University Nursing Program, and a dental hygiene clinic in partnership with Colorado Northwestern Community College in Rangely, Colorado.  

“As funny as it sounds, the real hope of all of this is to never see them again”, shares Executive Director Alexis Hitzeroth, smiling. The goal is not dependency, but durable independence. “So many programs have people going from Z to A and it’s just not realistic. Priorities for survival look a lot different now. We want to give people the tools to keep their housing and to thrive there”.  

The early results are promising: Sunshine Community has already placed one individual into permanent housing. 

Transportation as Infrastructure, Not Afterthought

Where this model becomes particularly applicable to transportation leaders is its integration of mobility as a core pillar rather than an afterthought. Reliable transportation is rarely framed as a foundational component of homelessness recovery programs, yet it’s one of the most consistent predictors of upward mobility. The population being served often has no personal vehicle, unreliable access to public transit, and a high dependence on appointment-based systems.

In this context, one missed ride can cascade into weeks of delay: a missed healthcare appointment postpones medication, a missed housing intake pushes timelines back, a missed job interview restarts the employment search entirely.

By providing consistent, no-cost transportation, the program removes a layer of friction that so often derails progress. Participants are able to focus on rebuilding their lives rather than navigating logistics.

What This Means for Transportation Providers

Sunshine Community offers a replicable lesson for the transportation industry: when mobility is embedded directly into social service programming, outcomes improve.

For providers across the country, this model highlights several takeaways:

●        Transportation access is a determining factor in housing stability and prevention

●        Embedding mobility into service partnerships increases long-term success

●        Localized, collaborative models are well-positioned to meet complex community needs

●        Transportation’s impact can extend beyond logistics and into community development

Sunshine Community’s approach is a reminder that when people can reliably reach the resources that support their health, employment, and participation in their communities, independence can become sustainable.

Learn more about the program how you can support it at www.sunshinecommunity.cares.

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