FAYETTEVILLE -- Coordination will be the key to protecting the city's most vulnerable populations from extreme cold this season, partner organizations say.
The City Council on Tuesday will consider allocating $21,442 for a cold weather response headed by various local nonprofit groups. The purpose is to keep unsheltered people from death or injury in extreme freezing weather. Efforts have already started. Several council members expressed support for the proposal during an agenda-setting session last Tuesday.
Seven Hills Homeless Center, Genesis Church, New Beginnings, Salvation Army, Central United Methodist Church, United Way of Northwest Arkansas and the Northwest Arkansas Continuum of Care are teaming up to provide emergency shelter for anyone who needs a safe, warm place to stay overnight, according to a proposal to the city.
The plan is to open emergency shelters when the weather hits 15 degrees or below. The Salvation Army has 71 beds available at its facilities in the city. Once capacity is reached, Genesis Church on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard will have cots set up for 29 people, with space available for more if necessary.
Learning from experience
Nonprofit partners learned last year the city lacks adequate resources to shelter people during extreme cold, said Solomon Burchfield, program manager for New Beginnings, a microshelter community on 19th Street. The region experienced a severe winter weather event for a week in February, with the temperature at one point hitting -20 degrees.
Fortunately, one-time money was made available through the city from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act to put together a quick response, Burchfield said. At the time, $22,500 went toward the cold weather response, with another $27,500 available to cover supplies, transportation, staffing and outreach. Nonprofit groups were able to keep about 200 people in shelters and hotels, and expect about the same number this year.
That money isn't available this year. Nonprofit groups hung onto donations, both monetary and in-kind, to prepare for this year's cold weather response. The money from the city will help cover staffing, security, supplies, outreach and utilities for an anticipated 21 days of service.
There were 157 people experiencing homelessness in Washington, Benton, Madison and Carroll counties a year ago, according to the Continuum of Care's latest 24-hour count. However, unsheltered people were not counted because of covid-19 restrictions.
There were 369 unsheltered and temporarily sheltered people counted in the four counties in January 2020. It was 529 in January 2019. The next 24-hour regional count is scheduled for Feb. 24.
The nonprofits are ready to go and have already provided four days of emergency shelter this season, Burchfield said. That was before this weekend, forecasts for which predicted rain and snow with lows in the upper teens or lower 20s.
The partners intend to use what they learned last year and build from it to create a coordinated response, Burchfield said. He referred to the approach as trauma-informed sheltering.
"Trauma-informed sheltering is a whole philosophy about creating a culture of welcome, helping people have as much privacy as they can, emphasizing safety and polling people about ways we can do it better each time so that their voice is included," Burchfield said.
Shelters will have beds spaced out, head to toe, in an attempt to keep people spaced with covid-19 cases surging in the region, Burchfield said. Rapid tests also will be available on site for people showing symptoms, he said.
Shelter with dignity
Rachel Kirksey, community care coordinator with Genesis Church, said leaving people out in extreme cold isn't an option. The shelters will follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines to try to prevent a spread of covid-19, she said.
This season marks the church's first time hosting an emergency shelter. The church already hosted people for two nights this year -- 15 the first night and 25 the next. It went well, not perfect, but people found shelter in a dignified manner, Kirskey said.
"That's our goal -- to not have a feeling of cattle being shuffled through," she said.
The church is operating as though it's a given Salvation Army will reach capacity, Kirskey said.
Salvation Army has 26 beds available at its shelter all the time and 45 more in overflow space. When the wind chill hits 34 degrees or below, the organization opens its overflow space for people to walk in. When the temperature hits 15 degrees or below, that's when the coordinated response kicks in to actively get people out of the cold.
The covid-19 pandemic changed the cold weather response, said Capt. Josh Robinett with the Salvation Army. Usually, the Salvation Army would handle the load of people seeking shelter in extreme cold. With the pandemic, beds had to be spaced out, limiting the number of people the organization could host, he said.
The organization has been working on a plan to expand its facilities for about three years. The plan is to more than double the shelter's capacity from 26 to 54 beds. The organization's dining space also will double, with a computer lab and two family-sized apartments to be constructed.
Planning for the unpredictable
Robinett said he hopes to begin the expansion this year. He said the local organization has been waiting on approval from the larger, national Salvation Army organization. Covid doesn't appear to be going away anytime soon, and the need is greater than ever, he said.
"There will still be a cold weather response, but I think it will look slightly different in the future," Robinett said. "That's yet to be determined. I think most people thought we'd be through covid by now."
The partner organizations plan to get together after this season's cold weather response and make a detailed plan for subsequent seasons. The city, for instance, has a process for nonprofit groups to apply for money through the federal Community Development Block Grant program. There also are other grant opportunities and community donations the partners could collect.
The goal is to have a formal plan developed by summer, said Mike Williams, chief executive officer of 7 Hills. Even if a prolonged cold snap exhausts the anticipated budget, nonprofit groups know they can rely on the community to help protect their unsheltered neighbors, he said.
"We're trying to plan against something that's unpredictable. You make your best guess on it and you hope for the best," Williams said. "The great thing about Fayetteville and Northwest Arkansas is our community rallies when there's urgent need."