Volunteers interested in supporting the warming center in the future can contact Peggy Lewis Powers at 419-564-9542 or email her at truthbaptistchurch14@gmail.com or click here to sign up for a volunteer shift.
MANSFIELD — Stories of residents who stayed at a holiday weekend warming shelter during the recent winter storm are a reminder of challenges faced by Richland County’s unhoused population.
Eleven people spent Christmas Eve sleeping on cots inside the Salvation Army’s Dewald Center, organizer Peggy Lewis Powers said.
According to Powers, eight people stayed at the center Thursday night. By Friday night, there were 11, most of whom stayed until the center closed down on Tuesday morning.
All of the residents were homeless men, except for one woman who came with her partner. Powers said the couple recently got jobs and hope to find their own place once they get their first paycheck.
One man told Powers he had a housing voucher from the Mansfield Metropolitan Housing Authority, but he hasn’t found a place to rent.
Another guest had been evicted on Thursday. Powers, whose non-profit Truth Ministries serves unhoused people, arranged for him to move into transitional housing Tuesday morning.
“He’ll get his own place eventually,” she said. “He’s a veteran and he has Social Security.”
One warming shelter resident was 25 years old. He told Powers he’s been homeless since his release from Richland Correctional Institution in November. Reentering society has been challenging because he doesn’t have a birth certificate or social security card.
Another man who stayed at the shelter is in the process of applying for disability benefits.
As head of Truth Ministries and charity thrift store Addy’s Attic, Powers is no stranger to Mansfield’s unhoused. So when temperatures started to drop in October, she approached the Salvation Army about serving as a warming center site.
The center opened its doors for evening a shelter during a cold snap in November, but this was different as temperatures went below zero and windchills reached -35.
The Dewald warming center opened Thursday at 7 p.m. and stayed open for the next four and a half days. The 24/7 operation was manned entirely by volunteers, who signed up via an online form.
Warming centers typically aren’t open during the day, since those in need of shelter can go to other places like big box stores or the local library.
Powers and the Salvation Army made an exception due to the severity of the cold and the fact that most indoor public spaces were closed for the holidays.
Powers said she experienced moments of panic when it looked like there wouldn’t be enough helpers over the holiday weekend, but there ended up always being enough.
“It went surprisingly well, especially with volunteers who had never done it before,” Powers said. “It was literally one volunteer telling the next shift what to do.”
Volunteer Terry Carter said the community came through to keep the warming center running.
“During the daytime, individuals had access to the lunchroom,” she said. “They received some donations of clothing and gloves and boots. They had some donations of food items and meals and snacks that were brought in.”
Bender said families came in to volunteer Christmas day.
“The people that came were so gracious,” he said. “We had a group that brought stockings filled with little goodies on Christmas Eve.”
Carter volunteered on Christmas evening at 11 p.m. until 8 a.m. the next day. She said it was a pretty easy task, since most people are asleep. She handed out blankets and hot chocolate, then settled in with some knitting and audiobooks.
Powers said she hopes to continue offering an overnight warming shelter at the Salvation Army whenever temperatures drop below 20 degrees.
Powers and Salvation Army Major Bob Bender said that ideally, the threshold for opening the center would higher, but volunteer availability is limited.
“It’d be tough to open it up whenever it’s 32 degrees or lower, because that would be almost every day in the winter,” Bender said.
Powers said her goal for the future includes preparing further out by looking at weather reports and signing up volunteers ahead of time.
“I think what’s going to happen going forward is that we’ll be more prepared, we’ll have a bigger volunteer base.”
Carter said have volunteers on call one or two days a month could be a way to ensure adequate staffing in the future.
“There are probably between 200 and 300 churches in Richland county,” she said. “If each church had two people that were willing to commit in a month, they could easily man it.”
Bender said the Salvation Army can’t open its doors to the public during the day due to children’s programming, but the Dewald Center will continue to be a resource for overnight shelter.
“It’s what the Salvation Army should be doing,” he said. “But it’s only possible when volunteers can step up and help cover those shifts.”
“Hopefully we won’t get another cold snap, but winter just started.”
