LAS ANIMAS — They stepped off a shuttle bus excited and eager to pose on the front steps of one of Colorado’s historic landmarks, proudly holding up Otero Junior College T-shirts.

The promise of a bright new future gleamed in their eyes.

But they aren’t the state’s typical college students.

They are 14 new residents of Colorado’s first state-funded homeless shelter at the former Fort Lyon Correctional Facility, and on Tuesday, they took the first steps toward enrolling in school.

The average age of the 70 residents now living at Fort Lyon is 49, which is the average life expectancy for someone who is chronically homeless, says James Ginsburg, program director for the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless.

Read more of Former Fort Lyon prison offers hope for Colorado’s homeless at Gazette.com