When the temperature drops below freezing, Living Hope Church in central Vancouver opens its chapel to the homeless.
The church has been an overnight warming center since Sunday. It was also open a handful of days during last month’s cold spell, making it a “pop-up shelter” that opens when needed. Around 40 to 60 people stay each evening, said Neal Curtiss, Living Hope’s ministry pastor.
“The Bible calls us and moves us to serve those who are underserved,” he said. “People — wherever they’re at in life and whatever’s happened to them — they matter. They matter to God and they matter to us.”
Thursday night’s forecasted low temperature in Vancouver was 11 degrees and tonight’s forecasted low is 20 degrees, according to the National Weather Service in Portland. While Saturday and Sunday are predicted to be warmer, there is a winter storm watch in effect for those days. Snow or sleet and freezing rain are possible, the weather service said.
Living Hope Warming Center
• Where: The chapel at 2533 N.E. Andresen Road.
• When: Typically 6 p.m. to 9 a.m. when the temperature drops below freezing.
• Website: Check www.facebook.com/LHCVancouver or www.211info.org/emergency/#clark for updates.
• Call the Housing Hotline at 360-695-9677 if you’re in need of shelter.
You Can Help
• Donate sleeping bags, coats, socks, glove and hats between 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. at Living Hope Church, 2711 N.E. Andresen Road, or between 6 and 9 p.m. at the chapel next door, 2533 N.E. Andresen Road.
• Those interested in volunteering should call Living Hope Church at 360-944-3905. All volunteers have to go through a background check.
The warming center is an extension of Living Hope’s Live Love Center, a ministry serving the homeless that’s been around for several years. Every Wednesday and Sunday the church provides a meal, food baskets, clothing, sleeping bags, tents and tarps to meet the immediate needs of those living outside.
Dinner is provided at the warming center and volunteers show a movie before bedtime. People are given breakfast and a sack lunch in the morning and are out the door by 9 a.m. A group called Angels of God does the cooking. It’s a “huge undertaking” that involves 30 to 40 volunteers, mostly church members, who work in shifts, Curtiss said.
“There’s a certain aspect to it that takes a lot of effort and labor but it’s all done with love,” he said.
About a dozen churches in the Portland metro area are offering refuge during this bout of severe weather, but Living Hope is the only one in Clark County — at least, according to the 211 Info telephone hotline.
Some volunteers have been homeless and know what it’s like, Curtiss said. He’s thankful for everyone who’s helped and called it a joint effort of church and community.
“We are considered a low-barrier shelter, which means we don’t have people do a Breathalyzer at the door. We take anybody who needs a place,” Curtiss said. “We don’t ask why or where they’re at, we just accept them in.”
Larger problem
While Living Hope’s initiative is a “huge help,” the fact that the community needs this shelter points to a larger problem, said Andy Silver, executive director of the Vancouver-based Council for the Homeless.
“The overall situation is still a pretty over-tapped shelter system,” he said.
Permanent shelters operated by local nonprofit Share are full and have added extra spaces due to the weather, and the Winter Hospitality Overflow shelters at St. Paul Lutheran Church downtown and St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Vancouver also fill quickly. The day center at Friends of the Carpenter can host up to 16 people when there is severe weather. That makes Living Hope’s facility sort of an overflow shelter for the overflow shelters.
“It would be nice to see our government partners a bit more involved with their public buildings,” Silver said.
There are no public buildings in Clark County that are official warming centers, just as there were no official daytime cooling centers in the summer, Silver said. He added that the local weather doesn’t seem to be as mild as it was in years past, making summers and winters more dangerous for those living outside. There should be a coordinated effort around how to deal with people who are homeless or other people who may need help during extreme weather, Silver said.
In neighboring Cowlitz County, Cowlitz PUD is open during the day as a warming center. The Portland Building, an administrative building for the city of Portland, serves as an overnight warming center from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. And, the East County Health Center in Gresham, Ore., offers the same service. Salem (Ore.) Public Library is a warming center during the day, and the city’s old Department of Energy building becomes an overnight warming center when there’s extreme weather. Wilsonville, Ore.’s community center and public library are considered daytime warming centers.
Part of the problem in Clark County is that there’s not enough year-round shelter capacity, Silver said. Vancouver’s two Winter Hospitality Overflow shelters were meant to fill any gaps and ensure nobody gets turned away from shelter. Now, that’s not the case, Silver said. People can get turned away when there is no space to offer them in the regular or overflow shelters. So, people are being referred to Living Hope.
Officials look to add shelter spaces in the relatively near future, Silver said.
However, he added, “There’s a lot of cold weather between now and then, so we can’t just wait.”
