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Crisis Cold Weather Shelter Program opens extra spaces in severe conditions

Guests and volunteers get the night started at Unity of Springfield
courtesy of Lisa Landrigan
/
Unity of Springfield
Guests and volunteers get the night started at Unity of Springfield

The program brings additional sites onboard when temperatures get below 20. And more sites are open when a weather emergency is declared by the team.

Snow, ice and cold have been gripping much of the region and country this week. In the Ozarks we’ve had temperatures in the single digits and wind chill values below zero.

In Springfield the Crisis Cold Weather Shelter Program has been responding. The cooperative project of the Ozarks Alliance to End Homelessness, local non-profits and churches opened five additional overflow shelters to help keep people out of the dangerous cold this week.

Most sites participating in the Shelter Program are open when temperatures get below freezing, but the program brings additional sites onboard when temperatures get below 20. And more sites are open when a weather emergency is declared by the team.

Staff from the Community Partnership of the Ozarks are part of managing the program. They say bringing on additional shelters during severe weather does increase their need for volunteers to staff those shelters.

More information, including how to volunteer, is online.

Our severe cold snap is expected to end this weekend into next week, with returns to highs near 40 in the forecast.