Pendleton Warming Station will open Wednesday
By Terry Murry on Saturday, November 11th, 2023 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
PENDLETON – For the first time in three winters, Neighbor 2 Neighbor will open the Pendleton Warming Station as a congregate temporary shelter on Wednesday. The facility at 715 S.E. Court Ave. provides overnight accommodations for those facing homelessness during the winter months when the potential for hypothermia is elevated.
The warming station houses its guests in common sleeping areas with staff present to provide services and manage the operation. Since the pandemic began, N2N has been providing motel vouchers in order to ensure the safety of both the guests and the volunteers who staff the facility.
“COVID really threw us a curve,” Executive Director Dwight Johnson said.
The organization secured the cooperation of a local motel and obtained grant funding from several sources to provide a warm place to sleep. Last winter, 165 different individuals received shelter. By the season’s end, 921 motel vouchers had provided 1,642 individual lodging nights.
“We helped a lot of different homeless folks with many different stories,” N2N Operations Lead Shirley Westfall said. “Some of our people had been homeless for a long time and were familiar to us; others were newly homeless facing a situation they had not been in before.”
Some of the homeless individuals were passing through and in need of short term assistance while many either had connections to Pendleton or had lived in the city for a long time. Westfall said they expect to see the same mix again this year.
During the pandemic, Neighbor 2 Neighbor lost about 75 percent of its volunteers. In 2019, the warming station had just under 90 people available to assist with the overnight operations. Five people are required to keep the station open, and the organization now only has 25 active volunteers. Johnson said three volunteers are required for the intake shift while two need to be present overnight. One of those two must be awake at all times. N2N estimates it requires a pool of at least 60 active volunteers to keep the warming station open with any consistency. To address that shortage, Neighbor 2 Neighbor is operating with a mix of volunteers and employees.
“We have been very careful with our finances and have just enough carryover to allow us to hire three overnight employees from mid-November to mid-March,” Johnson said. “This will put a strain on our budget, so fingers crossed we get through the winter without any unanticipated expenses, or all bets are off.”
The volunteers will be used during the intake period, but mostly employees will do the overnight shifts. The employees will also perform several duties like washing bedding and cleaning.
While the primary mission of the warming station is to give homeless people an alternative to sleeping outside during winter, the staff also provides other services to help those guests find housing assistance. Rules of conduct are in place and violation of them can result in a variety of consequences, including temporary or lifetime trespass. N2N works closely with other agencies providing assistance to the homeless to avoid duplication of services.
Johnson said that recently the organization has met with Pendleton City Manager Robb Corbett to discuss opportunities the city might have to help with N2N’s mission.
“Robb was very supportive to our operation here,” Johnson said. “It really does benefit both those facing homelessness and our community residents to have a place where folks can get off the street at night.”
Neighbor 2 Neighbor still faces uncertainty as the new employee program and a newly-discovered plumbing issue are straining its finances. As a result, the food service operation – Veda’s Café – has been suspended until more stable funding is secured. In addition, with the current small group of volunteers, there is barely enough staff to open the facility.
Neighbor 2 Neighbor is asking community members to help with additional funding and volunteer assistance. Direct donations of funds are welcome. Donations of warm clothing and snack items are also welcome. As for volunteering, N2N provides special training that includes safety and operational procedures. Since it first opened in 2011, the warming station has never had a serious incident where a volunteer was significantly threatened or assaulted, Johnson said.
“The folks we serve are very appreciative of the volunteers down here and what we do,” Jeanette Herron, a long-time volunteer, said. “I think this has kept everyone safe over the years. I don’t know of anyone who has regretted volunteering at the warming station. It’s been an amazing experience.
More information about the organization including how to volunteer or donate is at http://n2npendleton.org/. People can also call 765-791-8332 to learn more.
Photo from Neighbor 2 Neighbor shows people lining up for motel vouchers last winter.
