Homeless Shelter Now Open 7 Nights
The city’s winter homeless shelter is now open seven nights a week.
Public Action to Deliver Shelter hosts a shelter at a different location each night of the week, officials said. The shelter was open only five nights a week when it started Nov. 1. The last open night filled Dec. 6, when the Seventh-day Adventist Church on Sinaloa Avenue was able to free up space for the shelter.
Two churches that donated space last year were remodeling and could not accommodate the program this year, said Janet Gageby, director of the Samaritan Center.
“There’s no unwritten rule that Monday nights will be warm and Tuesday nights will be cold,” said John Purvis, who coordinates the PADS program.
The shelter serves 15 to 20 people a night at six locations. United Methodist Church hosts the shelter two nights a week, while the program operates one night a week each at Our Savior Lutheran, Trinity Lutheran, Seventh-day Adventist, the Church of Christ and the Knights of Columbus on Patricia Avenue. Other organizations send volunteers to help run the programs each night.
PADS would like to find an additional host to take over one of United Methodist’s nights.
“I figure the larger and more varied it is, the stronger it is,” Purvis said.
The program starts Nov. 1 and runs into April if the weather remains cool and volunteers are able to continue supporting the program.
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