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A number of unmade beds in a room with a narrow window running along the upper edge of the wall.
There are roughly a dozen beds at the Athens emergency warming center so far. Partition screens in the middle of the room separate men and women. [Theo Peck-Suzuki | WOUB/Report for America]

Supercharged by community support, Athens’ new emergency warming center is open


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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB/Report for America) — What began as an ad-hoc push to help the local unhoused population escape blistering cold weather has rapidly transformed into a clean — and, by all accounts, well-run — overnight warming center.

The emergency warming center opened Sunday night in the former fire station headquarters on Columbus Road. The city offered the building because its residential facilities, including showers and a kitchen, still work. The local peer recovery organization The Gathering Place is in charge of operations.

Executive Director Ginger Schmalenberg said the shelter is employing best practices on everything from intake to hygiene to pets. There is already a 15-page handbook for volunteers with guidelines and operating procedures, as well as a system for collecting nonessential items from visitors and administering medication. Bedding is sealed in plastic bags to mitigate bedbugs.

It’s a major lift for an organization with a staff of six whose only capacity to shelter people experiencing homelessness was, until this week, putting them in a hotel room. Nevertheless, Athens Service-Safety Director Andy Stone said the team there has done a phenomenal job so far.

“We have no concerns. Ginger and all her volunteers are doing absolutely amazing work. What an outstanding group!” Stone wrote in an email.

Schmalenberg said the community deserves much of the credit for what’s happening.

“If we didn’t have volunteers, we wouldn’t be able to do this,” Schmalenberg said.

That’s not the only way the community is getting involved, either.

“Plenty of food’s being provided. The community is just bringing in meals at night. There’s snacks there, there’s drinks, there are hot beverages. Breakfasts are brought in the night before that can be heated up. There’s cereals, oatmeal, fruit, yogurt,” Schmalenberg said.

The shelter has substantial advantages over hotels. For one, it’s significantly cheaper. When the polar vortex first hit, The Gathering Place spent thousands of dollars getting rooms for people.

The shelter also creates avenues for assistance in a way hotels do not.

“You have this opportunity that, they’re really getting services, they’re really being supported. You put ’em in a hotel, that’s just it,” Schmalenberg said.

Two papers taped to a glass door show a schedule and rules for the Athens emergency warming center.
The schedule for the Athens emergency warming center is posted on the front door of the old fire station on Columbus Road. [Theo Peck-Suzuki | WOUB/Report for America]
Schmalenberg said there have been some challenges maintaining contact with everyone in hotel rooms over the past two weeks. With the shelter, everyone who shows up does an intake form listing any economic or mental health issues they are experiencing. Staff can then immediately connect them with whatever services make sense.

It also helps sharpen the broader understanding of homelessness in Athens County.

“We’re trying to capture some data, like ‘How long have you been without stable, warm shelter?’” Schmalenberg said. “Because the benefit to this is to capture individuals who may not be in services, or have been in services but they’ve slipped through the cracks in some way.”

The shelter continues to ramp up its capacity after a limited opening Sunday. So far, seven people have spent the night there. Another 14 — mostly families with children — remain in hotel rooms. Schmalenberg said she’s working on setting up family rooms at the shelter and hopes to move them over soon.

Not everyone who was in a hotel room is transitioning to the shelter. Schmalenberg said many have found other arrangements.

“One got into sober living, three got into Timothy House. Because that’s the whole point: Where can people try to get something more permanent?” Schmalenberg said.

Others may not technically have been homeless in the first place, but rather looking for a reprieve from substandard living conditions — a burnt-out trailer with no water or electricity, for example. Finally, Schmalenberg suspects some are wary of shelters due to prior bad experiences. She said she hopes the warming center will win them over as its reputation grows.

Craig Joseph, a peer recovery specialist at The Gathering Place, said the shelter is much different from what he experienced when he was homeless.

“It’s been nice just to sit down there around the kitchen and just, just talk,” Joseph said.

Shared meals is one way the shelter creates important new connections for people.

“One of (the visitors), I’m actively working on getting them into treatment,” Joseph said.

The shelter closes during the day, at which point Joseph takes anyone who’s interested with him back to The Gathering Place.

“They’re just like, ‘Oh my gosh … I didn’t know this place existed and I feel like I’m at home. Like, I feel like I found a family.’ And that just, that right there, for me, is the value,” Joseph said.

Schmalenberg said she’s still working with local officials on developing additional policies, such as how cold or otherwise inhospitable the weather has to get for the shelter to open. At the moment, however, there’s a general consensus that right now is cold enough.

(Editor’s note: On Friday, Jan. 24, Schmalenberg informed WOUB that the shelter has now served 10 people in one night.)