Warming centers see heavy use
Published 12:00 pm Saturday, January 11, 2025
Warm clothes, shoes, snacks, beverages and other winter supplies are set out on a table for community members to have at the warming center set up in the Capitol in downtown Bowling Green on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. GRACE MCDOWELL / DAILY NEWS
Warm clothes, shoes, snacks, beverages and other winter supplies are set out on a table for community members to have at the warming center set up in the Capitol in downtown Bowling Green on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. GRACE MCDOWELL / DAILY NEWS
Warm clothes, shoes, snacks, beverages and other winter supplies are set out on a table for community members to have at the warming center set up in the Capitol in downtown Bowling Green on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. GRACE MCDOWELL / DAILY NEWS
A stack of hand warmers sit out on a table beside winter clothes, shoes, snacks and beverages for community members to have at the warming center set up in the Capitol in downtown Bowling Green on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. GRACE MCDOWELL / DAILY NEWS
Warm clothes, shoes, snacks, beverages and other winter supplies are set out on a table for community members to have at the warming center set up in the Capitol in downtown Bowling Green on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. GRACE MCDOWELL / DAILY NEWS
Warm clothes, shoes, snacks, beverages and other winter supplies are set out on a table for community members to have at the warming center set up in the Capitol in downtown Bowling Green on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. GRACE MCDOWELL / DAILY NEWS
BY DAVID MAMARIL HOROWITZ
david.horowitz@bgdailynews.com
Amid freezing temperatures Monday afternoon, the spacious Community Room at Sugar Maple Square became a refuge for residents seeking warmth and support.
Well over a dozen people sat at several long tables. Several rested or slept, neatly spaced alongside one another, atop layers along the floor. Donated socks, scarves, caps and other attire were laid along a lengthy table. Snacks, pizza, water, coffee and hand warmers were placed upon another, as movies were played on a television.
Several HOTEL INC leadership and staff managed the site, and a doctor tended to people in the afternoon.
The partnership-driven warming center was the first of three opened this past week to supply additional indoors refuge throughout the weeklong cold. By the day’s end, 28 dropped in; on Tuesday and Wednesday, some 40 and 65 people took warmth at the downtown Capitol warming center, respectively.
“The warming centers, they’re a big help, because there are some people who don’t have nowhere to go to get out of the elements, to get out of the cold,” said Justin Stewart, a Bowling Green resident experiencing homelessness who visited the Monday center.
From 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. each weekday, nonprofits collaborated to provide these centers: HOTEL INC partnered with Warren County to turn the latter’s Sugar Maple Community Room into a warming center Monday. The Capitol expanded its hours and offerings as a warming center Tuesday through Thursday. Lifeskills’ Wellness Connection facility, normally open to the public around office hours Tuesday through Thursday, scheduled a Friday opening with expanded hours.
The library’s Little Free Shuttle, donated by Red Cross last summer, and the Sheriff’s Office transported people to warming centers; the shuttle additionally took people to Room in the Inn’s check-in for overnight shelter there, as well.
Partnerships have been essential to providing much-needed services for the area’s unhoused and housing-insecure residents.
The centers are the latest collaboration among nonprofits and local government to do so.
“We don’t want to overload in times of crisis systems like the library, like The Salvation Army, who are doing this work all the time,” said Magnolia Gramling, manager of The Capitol and co-founder of the homelessness services nonprofit BG Neighbors. “Instead, we want to have more hands working on the same thing so that the full weight of this winter crisis weather does not fall on the shoulders of the people who are already doing this work all year long.”
They also, she said, likely helped facilitate a sense of normalcy.
“Being at the movies, I think, is an important part of it, so you don’t just sit around,” she added. “You’re thinking, “I’m at a movie theater, there’s popcorn, I’m with my friends. These people know me. ‘ ”
The need for warm spaces in winter is dire. For residents who live on the streets, this winter is also different from previous ones because The Safer Kentucky Act, passed last year, bans people from setting up tents or sleeping on public property.
And, though there’s no accurate count of unhoused residents citywide, likely more than 320 residents who visited Lifeskills’ Bowling Green Wellness Connection center last year had been living on city streets when they first visited, Amy Hinton, Lifeskills’ community support program manager, previously estimated.
During the day, Bowling Green has the two library branches open weekdays and the Lifeskills’ Wellness Connection center open Tuesday through Thursday; The Salvation Army provides additional shelter day and night when temperatures fall below 35 degrees for an extended period; and Room in the Inn collaborates with churches to provide warm spaces overnight throughout winter.
Emily Witthuhn, community outreach manager at WCPL, confirmed Thursday that providers will open temporary warming centers again next week, though the times and locations are still under discussion.
Nonprofits are coordinating to figure out a best plan of action for this coming week, multiple providers said.
“Should the other partnering organizations be called upon for additional warming centers like the ones being offered this week, (The Capitol and WCPL) stand ready to meet that need,” Gramling said, a statement that Witthuhn corroborated.
Gains
Partnerships, preparation, investments in The Capitol, and the Little Free Shuttle helped facilitate the sudden addition of warming centers compared with last year.
HOTEL INC Director of Operations Rebecca Troxell recalled that last year a cold snap fell on the Martin Luther King holiday weekend, which meant nonprofits had more of a scramble getting things situated, as many offices and businesses were closed.
“It worked great once we got there, but it was a learning process,” Troxell said. “This year, the Warren County resilience team worked together to come up with a plan for a warming center, so this came up much more easily than before.”
HOTEL INC Executive Director Karen Foley added that the Little Free Shuttle could be a good option for those who may be wary of law enforcement.
Gramling added that the relationships built among nonprofits the past year have enabled providers such as the library to plan for the freezing temperatures ahead of time. It’s the difference between getting two days’ notice and instead meeting with the library’s staff, outreach manager and executive program manager a week before inclement weather to make a plan, she said.
Those at The Capitol also benefited from two new space heaters installed over the past year — which have risen the temperature from 55 degrees to 68. Gramling gave much credit to former Capitol manager Ginger Knight, who cleaned and helped transform the building.
“Shes the person who really took it from a building in disuse and in disrepair and brought it to carry the torch for the public library,” Gramling said. “She was here when the decision was made to make it a public library branch,” she said.
Community members showed appreciation for the providers and the spaces.
“Yesterday, they picked me up and dropped me off and gave me a meal to eat; this morning, I got picked up and brought to another place,” said Derek Hill, a Bowling Green resident who said that he’s experiencing temporary homelessness, Tuesday at the Capitol. “I’m warm today again — fresh pair of socks, warm clothing on, new jacket … They have not let me down.”
Added Samantha Rose, also an unhoused resident, “It just brings a lot of help here. It’s cold outside. It brings extra clothes and food that we can’t normally go out and get ourselves because it’s just too cold out there.”
