CARBONDALE, Colo. — At the end of a month’s long journey from Venezuela to America, Carbondale is an unlikely destination.
But big cities like Denver aren't the only ones dealing with migrant arrivals. The small town of Carbondale outside Aspen cannot handle the number of people who’ve shown up there. There’s no shelter, and the mayor says he's worried about migrants sleeping outside and dying in the winter cold.
"We arrived in Carbondale on Saturday," said Edgar Hernandez, who arrived in Carbondale a few days ago. For now, the back of his Honda is home.
"In the car with my friends. There’s five of us that sleep in this car, and another five who sleep in the other car," Hernandez said in an interview in Spanish.
He bought the car with his brother. It cost them several weeks’ worth of salaries each but allowed them to travel from Denver to the mountains. They couldn’t find work in the city and heard the resort towns had plenty of jobs that paid well.
"If you need me to clean a bathroom, I’ll do it," Hernandez said. "If you want me to wash your car, tell me and I’ll go wash it quickly. What we want is to work."
Hernandez is one of more than 125 migrants that have arrived here over recent weeks. In a town with a population of 7,000 and no homeless shelter or services, the city says it’s raised the homeless population by 500%.
"We don’t want to become a destination for people," Mayor Ben Bohmfalk said. "We can’t take more people than we have now. We’re really over what we can handle."
Last week, Bohmfalk asked the state for more than $200,000 to help house and feed the migrants. He wants to help but knows his town doesn’t have the resources for all these people.
"It’s below 10 degrees at night most nights, and it will be for the next few months," Bohmfalk said. "If people sleep outside in those conditions, they might not make it."
An emergency shelter opened up to house 60 people at a time inside a building with extra space. The rest sleep outside in the parking lot and try to stay warm.
While there are jobs available in and around the resort towns, there is very little housing. Rent is extremely expensive, and the communities are already in the middle of a housing crisis. There is not enough housing for employees of ski resorts in places like Aspen.
"We don’t want people to see these stories and think, oh, Carbondale is the place to go. They’re really welcoming," Bohmfalk said. "We are absolutely not equipped to take more people."
City leaders in Carbondale believe that people are showing up there through word of mouth. Most start in Denver and then find a way up to the mountains. Once one person spread the word that the area has lots of jobs, it’s been hard to stop people from making their way there.
Carbondale calls itself a small town with a big heart, but not even that mindset can help everyone who’s come here.
"Life is already much better here than Venezuela," said Hernandez. "A thousand times better."
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