After six years on the street, the ‘godmother of the West Side’ finds stable housing
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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Amy Goldsbury starts every morning with “The Wheel of Time,” reading as much of the 14-book fantasy series as she can before catching the bus for her 2 p.m. shift at Circle K.
She arrives at the store a few minutes before her shift begins, giving her enough time to light a Lucky Strike, grab a 20-ounce Red Bull from the gas station fridge and pick up a $20 scratch ticket. She once won $300 on a scratcher, but for Goldsbury, it’s not about winning — it’s about the simple thrill of playing, a small ritual to break up the hours.
“My life is now quiet, peaceful, and boring,” she said. “And I like it that way.”
Until January of this year, Goldsbury had been unhoused for six years. She never expected to have a roof over her head again. But on Aug. 11 — just two days before her 48th birthday — Goldsbury received life-changing news: she had won a different kind of lottery. She was finally moving indoors.
Goldsbury was chosen as a recipient of the Colorado Springs Housing Authority’s (CSHA) housing lottery. Each July, the CHSA opens its housing voucher lottery for three days and randomly selects 50 to 60 applicants each month. Applicants must recertify their voucher every year but vouchers last for life, unless the applicant exceeds 80% of El Paso County’s area median income, $51,600.
In 2024, approximately 3,800 people applied. and 50 to 60 people were randomly selected each month to receive a voucher.
When she received the news about the lottery, Goldsbury was living under the 25th Street Bridge in Old Colorado City. Kristy Milligan, her case manager and the executive director of Westside Cares — a social services organization serving the unhoused community on Colorado Springs’ West Side — came jogging up to her with the news.
The transition to housing wasn’t immediate. The process stretched on for months, which Milligan said is typical.
“The first thing I say to someone when they’ve been identified for housing is, ‘this is going to take a lot longer and be a lot harder than it should be,’” Milligan said.
“But we just have to keep after it.”
The city’s 2024 Point in Time Count, which counts the number of people living on the streets and staying in shelters, found 1,146 people experiencing homelessness last year. The median for a one-bedroom apartment in Colorado Springs is around $1,297. How much a voucher covers depends on the individual’s income.
Goldsbury was ready to wait. A few months was nothing compared to six years of sleeping outside. But the evening she learned about her voucher, a friend who worked near one of Goldsbury’s regular campsites approached her.
“You, my apartment, 2 p.m. You can stay for a week” Goldsbury recalled DeNue Moonsong telling her.
Goldsbury showed up five minutes past two on Moonsong’s porch with her belongings and a promise to keep quiet, clean and make sure Moonsong ate; she struggled with a low appetite, Goldsbury said.
Over the next week, they cooked meals together and bonded over their shared zodiac sign. It was August — Leo season — and they both believed the stars had aligned to bring them together.
“We’re both smart-ass Leos,” Goldsbury said.
A week after Goldsbury moved in with Moonsong, Moonsong had a seizure on the floor of her apartment. EMTs took her to UCHealth Memorial Hospital. Hours later, Goldsbury learned that Moonsong had died at 42 years old.
“I miss her terribly,” Goldsbury said.
“I wish she could’ve stuck around and seen this for herself,” Goldsbury gestured to her Circle K uniform.
Hours after Moonsong passed, as Goldsbury was sitting in Milligan’s office at Westside Cares, the voucher hit her email inbox. She could finally start looking for a place to live.
“That woman blessed me at the very end of her life with that voucher,” Goldsbury said. “She’s my best friend from beyond.”
After receiving her voucher, Goldsbury had a short but non-negotiable list of requisites for her housing: must be on the West Side and must have nice neighbors.
Goldsbury came across a row of apartments built out of a converted motel just off Colorado Avenue. The apartments are chunked into three rows of 12 units, each separated by a dirt road. Goldsbury’s unit is a former motel room, but the space is more than enough room.
Goldsbury’s rent is $1,050 per month. Her voucher covers $1,000. The Colorado Springs Housing Authority requires voucher recipients to apply for their voucher each year, and while Goldsbury expects to renew without issue, she is saving money to hopefully afford her apartment without needing the voucher one day.
“I want to be able to take the lease myself and afford it,” she said. “I want to do this for myself.”
Goldsbury became homeless in 2019 after escaping an abusive relationship. For the next six years, she lived on the west side of Colorado Springs, moving between bridges, Vermijo Park and the Midland Trail — both well-known gathering spots for the city’s unhoused community.
Like many cities, Colorado Springs has outlawed camping within city limits. Goldsbury found herself stuck in a cycle of camping citations, failure-to-appear warrants for missed court dates and subsequent arrests.
The process felt inescapable.
“It’s hard because they take your stuff every time you get in trouble, so you’re starting all over every few days or weeks,” Goldsbury said. “Not to mention you have no way to get to court when you don’t have a car or money for the bus.”
Despite the instability, Goldsbury built deep connections within the unhoused community, earning a reputation as the “godmother of the West Side” for her motherly nature and ability to mediate conflicts.
“She’s the mama bear,” said Noah Bodie, who has been unhoused on the West Side for five years. “It’s complicated now because she’s inside and has a job, but she’s still the mama bear.”
Goldsbury works at the Circle K on West Colorado Avenue, just across the street from Vermijo Park. Conflicts at the park are common, but Goldsbury and Bodie said certain places, like Circle K, Westside Cares and The Sanctuary church, serve as neutral ground.
“Because I know all of the ragamuffins on this side of town, I can tell them to knock it off when they’re at my store,” Goldsbury said. “This ain’t the place for that.”
Before she started her job at Circle K in January, Goldsbury was one of the unhoused regulars who congregated there. The store’s manager, Teisha Hudson, said she tries to support the unhoused community when she can, but customer complaints about safety muddy the situation.
“It’s complicated because they’re not hurting anybody by just standing there,” Hudson said. “At the same time, their presence sometimes brings drugs and other criminal activity, and we can’t have that here scaring our business away.”
In her six months as store manager, Hudson developed a strong relationship with Goldsbury, relying on her to enforce anti-loitering rules and ensure drug use happens away from the property. Goldsbury has a way of de-escalating situations before they spiral out of control, Hudson said.
“We get our fair share of unruly people — some will get an attitude, throw things at you, call you names — and she knows how to talk to them, how to calm them down,” Hudson said.
Hudson promised Goldsbury that as soon as she had stable housing, she could have a full-time job at the Circle K she had once relied on as a safe place. Now, that promise has become reality.
“She swore she’d have my back and she has not let me down in that,” Hudson said. “So it only made sense that I had to hire her.”
Circle K is much more than a gas station for Goldsbury. It’s a West Side staple and a place she’s made community. Now, making $15 an hour there, she hopes to save enough to one day not need her voucher anymore.
Since she moved into her apartment in January, Goldsbury has gotten dentures for missing teeth, read 13 books, dyed her hair purple — Moonsong’s favorite color — and held a steady job.
‘“What’s cool about Amy is that she told us that if she got housing, she was gonna get a job and work hard, and that's exactly what she did, which is so stinking cool,” Milligan said.
“All my greatest dreams have been acted upon,” Goldsbury said. “And how lucky is that.”
Type of story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
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