The Community Partnership of the Ozarks has two main needs right now as it works to make sure shelters are open overnight when temperatures dip below freezing.
One is a need for an indoor central access point downtown where those experiencing homelessness can eat a meal and get a ride to the overnight shelters. The other is a need for volunteers to work at those shelters.
Michelle Garand, vice-president of Affordable Housing and Prevention at the Community Partnership of the Ozarks, said they’re currently using summer meal sites – mostly churches -- as meeting places for meals and transportation to the shelters. The problem is, those sites are outdoors, and people often have to wait a long time in the cold.
"In December, it's just really way too cold for people to stand outside to eat, you know, for those several hours while we're getting people signed up for shelter and getting them transported because sometimes it takes us maybe two rotations of transportation to get everybody up to their site just depending on the crowd that's trying to get there," said Garand.
The Veterans Coming Home Center had served as a central meeting site in past years, but it wasn’t able to do so this year.
City Utilities provides a bus to take people to shelters, and CPO provides a shuttle.
There are seven shelters at churches that provide a place for people to sleep overnight when temperatures are 32 degrees or below.
One church opens at 15 degrees or lower, and there are two overflow shelters for a total of 295 beds.
But one of those churches – Grace United Methodist -- couldn’t open Monday night to house women due to a lack of volunteers.
"So we definitely want to make sure that that never happens again," Garand said.
She urges people to think about volunteering at the overnight shelters. You can find more information at cpozarks.org/homelessness.
And she said, if anyone is interested in providing a space in the downtown area seven nights a week during the winter for meal service and pickup for those needing shelter, to contact her directly.
