Emergency Warming Center Deemed a Success by City Officials

By Adam Swift

Overall, the operation of an overnight emergency warming center at the Rosetti Cowan Senior Center this winter was a success, according to Health and Human Services Chief Lauren Buck.

However, there are some issues that could be addressed if the city moves forward with the operation of a warming center next winter, Buck told the City Council on Monday night.

“The warming center was open from Jan. 15 to March 31,” said Buck. “We had a very mild winter this year, only about 47 days below freezing. Our total number of individual client encounters was 593, which represents about 96 unique individuals who used the center.”

The average number of clients per night in January was about four, February about eight, and March about 10.

During the time the center was open, Buck said there were three calls from the warming center to police. One was for a medical incident, and the other two were for incidents that she said were deescalated quickly.

“Overall, it was a very safe operation, we had no major incidents at the center,” said Buck.

There was no spread of illness between the clients and the staff, or between the clients and the seniors who used the center during the day, Buck said.

“We had no major issues with use of the building, we had cleaning happening multiple times per week, there were no rodent issues inside the building, trash issues were addressed quickly, and we didn’t see any majorly concerning drug or alcohol paraphernalia,” said Buck. “We didn’t have any real disruptions of the senior center activities, either, we were able to hold all normal activities during business hours throughout the course of the pilot.”

In general, Buck said the pilot program showed there was slow, sustainable growth, with only three nights during the operation in March when the center was at full capacity and people had to be turned away.

“I think that addressed the anxiety that a lot of people had that we would see lines around the building, we never really saw that,” said Buck.

The city had a good working relationship with Housing Families, who operated the emergency warming center, and the police department, according to Buck. She said officers were able to use the warming center when they had to drop off people for overnight hours, especially on cold nights.

Buck also noted that the senior center was outfitted with some security upgrades that will remain at the site, including several cameras inside and outside the building.

“We definitely did have some challenges, there were some operational challenges like the smell of the cleaning products that were used, the smell of the plastic dividers, and cigarette butts outside the building,” said Buck. “We addressed those, but in general, whenever there is an issue, people want to see them fixed right away, and potentially it took some time to fix each one of those, but we tried to address them as soon as we found out about them.”

Housing Families stated that one of the challenges was that due to the nature of the two-story building, with the warming center on the second floor, they had to provide more staff, increasing the cost of the operation.

“They expressed that potentially if we could find a one-story building that it would save some money,” said Buck. “Obviously, there is always some of the continued anxiety of some of the population, the senior citizens and some neighbors.”

Looking to the future, Buck said she believes the city has proven there is a need for a warming center.

“I think we will potentially need to research other locations, but as we know, no location is going to be perfect for this,” said Buck. She added that the city will also need to look for continued sources of funding for the warming center.