Warming Shelter Update: 1.16.2023

Thanks to everyone who has donated and offered support to us. To update - We surged our emergency shelter capacity at The Emily House and opened a warming shelter in coordination with LCG at Brown Park for overflow. We currently have 120 people at Emily House and 35 people at Brown Park. Our staff continued to drive around throughout the night to find anyone sleeping outside and offer them shelter. 

Yesterday, the heater went out at St. Joseph Diner. We bought a few space heaters to help keep it warm. The repair estimate is $5,000; it will take 4-6 weeks for the parts to come in. It’s a very old unit, so we are going to just replace it. It will still take some time to get that done, so it is pretty chilly in the diner today, even with the space heaters. 

St. Joseph Diner will be cooking for all of the shelters and boxing food to be delivered. There are also about 20 people who showed up in the diner this morning. Hopefully we can convince them to go to one of the shelters today. 

We continue to appeal for assistance with the added cost of staffing, hot meals, heater replacement, and utilities. Monetary donations can be made at https://give.classy.org/FreezeShelter.