Gazette News:
Step Springs
Nearing Completion
Step Springs nears completion of residential addiction recovery center for homeless men
By DEBBIE KELLEY debbie.kelley@gazette.com
Jun 23, 2025
A 55-year-old office building in a commercial and industrial zone off Garden of the Gods Road and Interstate 25 has been gutted and stripped down to its interior shell.
Rising out of the wreckage is a new 50-bed rehabilitation center called Step Springs, where addicted men who are homeless or on the verge will get their mojo back and become the best version of themselves.
Paul Scudo, CEO of Step, a men’s substance-use recovery program in Denver and the under-construction Step Springs, said there’s “tremendous need” in Colorado Springs for his nonprofit organization’s services, as an estimated 70% of males in the homeless population are addicted to alcohol or drugs.
The $6.5 million project will be completed around Aug. 30, he said. The cost includes last May’s $2.3 million acquisition of the 13,700-square-foot property, along with expenses of the renovation, furniture, fixtures and supplies. The new facility is expected to open in mid- to late October, with a ribbon-cutting scheduled for Sept. 16.
The Colorado Springs center, at 4525 Northpark Drive, will be a replica of Step Denver with 15 fewer beds than the 65 in Denver near Coors Field. The flagship site has been offering the organization’s road-to-sobriety program for 42 years.
The organization’s expansion into Colorado Springs materialized after community leaders asked if it would be possible to bring the successful model here. Men from El Paso, Pueblo and Fremont counties likely will be the primary clients.
The program holds clients accountable and does not tolerate any deviation from the expectations, said Scudo, a former drug addict.
“This idea of teaching them life skills, career counseling, accountability, behavioral change — it’s very different than what most organizations are doing,” he said. “Other organizations are trying to meet an individual where they’re at. In most cases, if you don’t have some expectations, it’s easy for them to continue to flounder and engage in the same behavior over and over.”
There’s no charge to enter the Step program, but people must be ready to get sober and off the streets.
Clients earn privileges as they work on attaining and maintaining sobriety while at the same time securing steady, full-time employment and stable housing. As they accomplish goals and hit milestones, they move from communal living to private rooms with amenities.
They must pay daily, weekly or monthly fees after they find a full-time job, which Scudo said averages 30 to 45 days.
“We’re trying to turn their lives around into productive, contributing members of the community, so that they’re working, housed and entered into recovery from the disease of addiction,” Scudo said.
Scudo calls the model “highly successful” and said he expects the same for the organization’s new location.
One year after graduating, the organization most recently received survey responses from 83% ofStep Denver graduates about how they’re doing post-rehab. Of those who responded, 88%reported that they are still sober, 90% are still employed and 91% have stable independent housing, Scudo said.
Because some men aren’t as ready to quit using drugs or alcohol as they think when they enter the Step program, there’s a 30% dropout rate, he added.
Liani Murphy, program director for Serenity Recovery Connection, a nonprofit that trains peers to help men and women stay sober, recently toured the remodeling at the building and believesStep Springs will “make a big contribution to the community because there’s a lot of need for recovery support services for men.”
“It’s an amazing facility, and our organization is excited to collaborate with them in whatever capacity we can,” she said.
That could be client referrals, training peer recovery coaches and community support, said Scott Jessop, spokesman for Serenity Recovery Connection.
“There’s a saying in the recovery community that ‘it’s collaboration, not competition,’” he said.
Step Springs also will field referrals from service providers such as Springs Rescue Mission,Homeward Pikes Peak, veterans’ organizations and others.
The 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health estimates that 48.5 million Americans age 12 and older have a substance use disorder.
“They (Step Denver) have a wonderful four-pillar program that has a well-documented success rate, and we are anxious for them to open their doors and help our community,” Jessop said.
Fifteen employees will work out of the new center, and some services will be centralized in the Denver office, Scudo said. A waiting list will not be started, Scudo said, as by the time October comes, people may have relapsed, changed their minds or found another program.
“A week to two weeks out, we’ll reach out to our partners to see if they have anybody that will bea good fit that we can interview,” he said. “Our hope is we’ll get 30 people when we open.”
Beds turn over so frequently from people completing the program or otherwise leaving that thecenter in Denver practically always has a bed available, for same-day admission if someone decides they want to commit to getting sober at that moment, Scudo said.
Major funders for the startup of Step Springs include El Pomar Foundation, the Adolph CoorsFoundation, the Anschutz Foundation, the Daniels Fund, the Colorado Springs HealthFoundation and the Dakota Foundation.
For more information on Step Springs, go to https://stepsprings.org/.
