Warming Center Opens 5 Nights Last Week

We're well into the winter season now and we've experienced several cold snaps and extreme rain events coming through our little piece of California.
Following the annual homeless memorial at Homeless Services Center, we realized our task was even more important. Warming Center Program (WCP) has taken a stand that no one should have to sleep outside when it freezes.

On Christmas night we filled Calvary Episcopal's Parish Hall with 65 guests and the following night 70 guests slept soundly there. We've begun to feature hot soup and free flowing decaf coffee all night long. We'll easily go through 6 gallons of soup before dawn. Hot soup is a powerful sedative and communicates warmth like little else, and that something else is the Parish Hall's heater, which easily kept the place very toasty. Our volunteer crew enjoyed hours of the chorus of snoring.
We're grateful to Maureen and Robin Davidson and Meredy Wells for making the very tasty and hearty soup on those nights.

On December 28 & 29 a frost came through, despite forecasts of 36 degrees. We were happy to be open during those nights at Quaker Meetinghouse Worship Hall.
When WCP is not in the downtown corridor we then set up a Shuttle Soup Stop from 7pm until whenever the site location is available. On those nights Brent Adams and Stacey Falls made soup on respective nights for the shuttle waiting area. Three full shuttles departed from the location on each night. We were honored to have Santa Cruz city council person Micah Posner hosting the shuttle stop and serving Stacey's soup on one very cold evening.

On the night of December 29, the shuttle was especially busy with phone calls from River St. Shelter, Freedom Sleepers, Psychiatric Health Facility, and more. During one shuttle trip through town, program administrator and shuttle driver, Brent discovered several people receiving citations for sleeping outside at the Red Church; he brought them all to Warming Center. Brent and Nancy Abbey made soup on the nights at the Meetinghouse. We hosted nearly 50 people each night that location.

On New Year's Eve there was yet another forecast that had dropped below the WCP temperature threshold and so the Center was opened again at Calvary Episcopal as all night party revelers streamed by throughout the night. Since there was an AA meeting that lasted until 9pm that night we couldn't enter the space until afterwards and so we set up the Soup Spot across the street where Michelle Melendez served a hearty rice and vegetable soup. Then Meredy came again with soup that was served in the Parish Hall all night long. That night began slowly with only 20 guests but as the night went into early morning the room began to fill and by the 5:30am wakeup call there were +50 people sleeping soundly.

This winter, WCP had raised it's temperature thresholds for activating the center in hopes that we'd provide much better service than last year, which was an unusually mild winter. After a sputtering start as Warming Center Program saw temperature forecasts only flirting with, and dancing just above the set of thresholds only to learn that there are very many forecasting locations in the area and that Grant St. Park's monitoring station would be the truest representation of the downtown area and Harvey West - WCP's primary area of focus. Additionally it was discovered that forecasts and actual temperatures can vary widely at times, leaving many in the frost even though forecasts had been at 36degrees. To greet these inaccuracies in forecasts WCP has been opening unofficially at a higher temperature threshold when we can.

We've taken a strong stand that no one should have to sleep outside when it's very cold or when it rains hard for multiple days.
We're always improving our service and thresholds for activation. We're now envisioning a new type of Warming Center/Winter Shelter combo for the coming years.

Join with us in this effort. We want to keep our list of volunteers fresh and robust so as to not burn people out. To volunteer, to donate blankets or money, please send an email expressing your wishes to compassionman [at] hotmail.com or call Brent 234-9848