Local nonprofit set to open warming center Nov. 1
Evergreen Community Initiatives (ECI) will open its new warming center Sunday, Nov. 1, in the Franciscans Downtown’s basement on Main Street in Stevens Point.
The warming center will be open every night from 8:30 p.m. to 6 a.m. until the temperatures stays above 20 degrees throughout the night.
The center will be able to accommodate up to 12 people at one time. Occupants will have a place to store their personal belongings and a recliner to sleep on for the night.
“It’s a sleeping facility,” said Joel Besemer, co-chair of ECI. “There are other resources available for people during the day when it’s cold. The public library is open, the Franciscans will be open. There’s just nothing open at night.”
Tiffany Krueger, the other co-chair of ECI, said part of the need for the warming center is because the Salvation Army’s Hope Center has been and continues to be full.
“They are full. They have been full, they don’t know why,” Krueger said. “Homelessness is on the rise in our community, but we are finding out it’s all over. Everywhere in Wisconsin, all the different homeless shelters (are full).”
Krueger said that she has worked with 87 individuals since March in Portage County who have been sleeping outside. The warming center’s sole mission is to prevent people from continuing to sleep outside once winter returns.
“It’s just cold, people can’t survive the temperatures that Wisconsin has,” Krueger said. “These are real people. It’s the humanity part of it, that is why it’s very important to me, to make sure that this (warming center) comes to reality.”
The warming center will be entirely volunteer run. Krueger said they are still in need of volunteer to work the overnight shifts. One shift runs from 8:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. and the other shift runs from 1:30 to 6 a.m. Volunteers can sign up online at wisconsineci.org/giving-back/volunteer.
“Our mission is to help those in need and encourage the community to get involved,” said Krueger. “With this warming center, we will create it, but the community has to embrace it for it to happen.”
The warming center will not turn away those using alcohol or narcotics, although those substances will not be allowed on the premises. Besemer said individuals using substances might not be able to stay at the Hope Center because of families and children there.
“Normally they would have enough overflow there to take care of both issues, but with more and more families needing the Hope Center we are taking on the position of serving those who have not been served before or who can’t necessarily be served because of those rules,” said Besemer.
Krueger said the need reaches far beyond just the population of those living with addiction and that with the shelter full, more and more people are in need of a warm place to sleep.
“Last year we were working with a gentleman, it was around Christmas, and he had nowhere to go,” Krueger said. “He was sleeping downtown and it was freezing cold. It got to negative 35 degrees. There was nowhere for him to go. He was hospitalized for frostbite. Thankfully a hotel owner took him in, but with this increase that we are seeing, we are not going to have a million hotel owners to take these people in.”
Besemer said homelessness is a problem that is not going away and it’s on the community to step up and help.
“There are plenty of resources and time to go around to take care of this segment of the population that needs it. It’s on all of us to do it,” said Besemer. “We can’t just sit there and let them freeze to death and we can’t bus them to a warmer climate. That is just shuffling the problem around. It’s not a solution to ship them anywhere else. They are ours, they are our community members, we take care of them.”
Once Krueger makes contact with someone experiencing homelessness, she said her first goal is to put them in touch with resources that can meet their needs, such as CAP Services Rapid Rehousing program, which can help people find housing in the area.
“A lot of the people who we are working with right now that are experiencing homelessness, they are working. They have family here,” said Krueger. “The answer is not to send them somewhere else. This is their home. Just because they are having a hard time and things are not going well for them doesn’t mean they need to be shooed away. We are working with them to continue to get back on their feet, and stay with their family and stay local if this is where their home is.”
Beyond volunteers, Krueger said the warming center is also in need of donations to maintain daily operations, as well as funding for a building location next winter. The Franciscans Downtown donated the use of its basement this winter, but Krueger said she doesn’t know where they will be next year.
Pending sufficient funding, ECI may eventually want to open a fully operating shelter instead of only a warming center, Krueger said.
“We would like to have a place where we can have the meals, our food pantry, our clothing pantry, our kid’s closet, all the different initiatives we have, housed under one facility,” Krueger said. “But having a shelter, there are lots and lots and lots of things you have to abide by, rules and regulations and right now we are just simply trying to save people from freezing to death.”
Krueger and Besemer have been working with those living in poverty and the homeless population of Portage County for the past six years. Besemer has worked with nonprofits for 15 years. Krueger’s interest in helping homeless people was sparked by her own experiences.
“I had a past and I was homeless when I was younger for a shorter stint of time,” Krueger said. “Somebody looked after me and helped me get on my feet and believed in me and was there for me, even though I was really broken at the time. He passed away and I am just trying to pay it forward as much as I can.”