Local shelters provide warmth as homeless population battles bitter cold temps.

Yahoo

19-02-2025

Winter weather has been harsh, especially due to wind chill. Temperatures have consistently been near or below zero degrees.
While most people have a warm place to work or a home to return to at night, hundreds of people in Erie don't, and they spend hours out in the elements just trying to survive.
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'We walk in their shoes from our house to our cars. We stay in a certain level of warmth. When it's something that's not a temporary thing but rather an absolute need that they have no other options, that's where we step in and open our doors,' said Chuck Nelson, board chairman of the Upper Room of Erie.
The Upper Room of Erie is open from 9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. and has sheltered dozens of people each day from the bitter cold.
It's staffed by people who have experienced homelessness themselves.
'There's no barriers to entry. This is something where they just come in for the heat. There's not a diagnosis of a diagnosis, drug use, or anything like that. They come in for just heat,' said Nelson.
EUMA's Our Neighbor's Place seasonal overflow shelter has housed 246 different people throughout the winter — many of those being returning guests night after night.
'Two nights ago we were at 58, the average is around 47 a night,' said Kurt Crays, executive director of the EUMA. 'Even with a sleeping bag, folks are at a great risk of not being able to survive the night unless they had a place like EUMA's Our Neighbor's Place.'
While the impact of having a warm place to lay your head for the night can't be overstated, the long-term goal remains to be a pathway to permanent housing.
Crays said in his ten years of service, he's never seen the trend in local homelessness shift like this.
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'The individuals who are coming to our neighbor's place are increasingly between the ages of 18-24,' said Crays. 'Our oldest resident here is 72. There are individuals who can barely walk, are using assistive devices, and that is concerning for me. I just want to let folks know that that is what our community is experiencing right now.'
Crays said their work isn't possible without volunteers from across the region as well as a network of 14 churches to coordinate care each night.
With temperatures being as low as they have been, there's a serious need for donations of things like hand warmers, sweatpants, and other thermal clothing.
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