BOISE, Idaho — What do you do when there is not enough capacity in homeless shelters during the winter? As temperatures continue to drop, shelters and community organizations have been making plans to answer that question to help Boise's most vulnerable population.
Our Path Home is a public-private collaboration working to end homelessness and is led by the City of Boise. Their emergency shelter overflow program provides the homeless with a place to stay during dangerous conditions when shelters are full.
"When shelters reach capacity this winter the program will work to provide a bed for everybody first by prioritizing placement at shelters. And then once all shelters hit capacity, the second portion is by working to place people into emergency shelter space, such as hotels that we partner with," Eli Griffin, Our Path Home coordinator for the City of Boise said. "So that when there is a program trigger event, such as freezing temperatures, we can ensure folks have a safe place to be at night.”
The City of Boise is funding the program, which is being run by Interfaith Sanctuary.
"So if we can't serve someone at our shelter on our property and we need to refer them out, and if they're not eligible to go to the other shelter, then we have funding to move them to a motel partner to ensure that if at all possible, no one is sleeping outside who is asking for shelter," Jodi Peterson-Stigers, executive director for Interfaith Sanctuary said.
Interfaith Sanctuary has also set up a warming shelter behind their building. The medical military tent blocks wind and has a heater inside.
"We don't have enough beds in our shelter to serve the people who are coming to our shelter for shelter at night. And that's a really hard thing to turn someone away from a shelter when it's 19 degrees out," Peterson-Stigers said. "So this tent allows us to add 21 more beds. We have army cots, and winter sleeping bags, we can actually make sure that they're on our property safe. We can do welfare checks, and we can let them in to use the services."
Interfaith Sanctuary was able to buy the M*A*S*H-style tent from Boise Army Navy at a reduced price. Idaho Potato Drop is lending the shelter additional electric and propane heaters to run day and night.
Corpus Cristi House is another homeless shelter in Boise. Both shelters are expanding their daytime services to meet increased demand this winter.
Peterson-Stigers said extreme heat and extreme cold lead to more people on the streets seeking shelter. The fastest-growing homeless population is senior citizens, who can be medically fragile.
“Now with the growing number of seniors and people who are out on the street, even at the beginning of the month for us because we're the low barrier shelter. We're not seeing a lot of wiggle room,” Peterson-Stigers said.
To keep up with the heightened demand, both Interfaith Sanctuary and Corpus Christi are doing a call-out for volunteers and donations.
"We're actually looking to get some support from the community because we're going to have more people in the backside of the property. So volunteers would be really helpful for food service and making sure that people are staying warm, if they need donations of jackets and stuff like that," Peterson-Stigers said.
The shelter is looking for volunteers, especially for their daytime shifts from Monday-Sunday. They're also looking for donations of winter clothes.
"I think it's important to know that this time of year when people are kind of trying on their winter gear from last year, and if they're thinking it's not fashionable enough, or if it maybe doesn't fit any longer, but it's still in good use. We need donations of winter jackets, under clothing - like long sleeve, sweatshirts, sweatpants...anything that can lift up core temperature for people who are outside for long exposure," Peterson-Stigers said.
"And the one thing that's happened, really in the last couple of years is that homelessness isn't just living in this area now," said Peterson-Stigers. "There's been people who have been falling out of their housing, who are living in their cars, and are maybe far away from our resources. And they don't quite know that those resources are there because they've never been homeless. So we do ask the community to keep an eye out for that - if they see someone that seems like they're in distress. If they could carry some coats and things in their car...Because I think that's the thing that's most concerning right now, is that we don't know exactly who needs help if they're not right in this area."
More information on volunteering and donations can be found on the Interfaith Sanctuary website and Facebook. Financial donations can also be made here.
Watch more Local News:
See the latest news from around the Treasure Valley and the Gem State in our YouTube playlist: