St. Andrew and St. Paul Lutheran churches will open their doors Thursday night to shelter homeless people for the winter.
The two Vancouver churches are hosts for the Winter Hospitality Overflow program that runs between November and the end of March. It takes in people who can’t get into the year-round shelters that are already full. Geri Hiller with St. Paul said the church will be able to shelter 30 homeless men every night, which is six more than previous years. Through a pair of grants the church got new cots and sleeping pads, so nobody will sleep on the floor.
“This is the most ecumenical thing Vancouver does,” Hiller said, referring to the volunteers that come from diverse faith and secular backgrounds.
It takes about 12,000 volunteer hours to run the two overnight shelters. Last year, Hiller said, the two churches provided a combined 10,602 bed nights for people, a 6 percent increase from the year prior.
Carrie Thatcher, one of the site coordinators at St. Andrew, said they’re always looking for volunteers and donations, such as groceries, clothing and personal hygiene products. St. Andrew takes in families and single women, sheltering 50 people nightly.
The WHO shelters have also coordinated with churches that will open when the weather gets particularly bad. Thatcher said St. Andrew gave its old sleeping mats to Living Hope Church, the largest local severe weather shelter that also has the fewest barriers to entry.
Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church in east Vancouver and Immanuel Lutheran Church in the Vancouver Heights area are also planning to open in the event of severe weather.
Laura Ellsworth, strategic partnerships manager with the Council for the Homeless, said when temperatures dip below freezing or there’s snow or ice in forecast, each site can determine whether it has the capacity to open. Those needing shelter can call the council’s Housing Hotline to get matched with the shelter that’s the best fit for them.
Council for the Homeless is still looking for a church that’s willing to be a severe weather site in north Clark County.
“There are people who need shelter out there,” Ellsworth said. “Especially during bad weather trying to get to Vancouver to get inside is challenging.”
It’s too early to say how much bad weather we’ll have. Although the National Weather Service in Portland deals primarily with seven-day forecasts, it receives long-term predictions from the College Park, Md.-based Climate Prediction Center.
Matthew Cullen, a meteorologist in Portland, said the Climate Prediction Center believes the average temperature between December and February will be warmer than normal for the Pacific Northwest.
“That does not mean there won’t be cold days,” he said.
Cullen said it’s not clear what winter will be like in terms of precipitation, but there will likely be several particularly cold days and some days with more mild temperatures.
