DALLAS — Dallas’ Office of Homelessness Solutions is looking for more organizations to apply to become temporary emergency Inclement Weather Shelters this winter. Businesses and nonprofits are encouraged to apply for permits now and ultimately provide a safe, warm haven for individuals and their families as freezing temperatures approach.
“It's an emergency shelter. It's not meant to be long term. When we do have these temperatures that dip dangerously low, we have people, who are outside for whatever reason, who need to need to be housed in order to stay alive. There simply aren't enough beds for everyone in the city,” said City of Dallas Office of Homeless Solutions director Christine Crossley. "If we have an inclement weather event and people need to be inside to stay alive, the shelters will expand their capacity as much as they can but it's still not going to be enough to house everybody."
In accordance with Chapter 45 of the Dallas City Code, the city may make an inclement weather shelter declaration and open temporary inclement weather shelters during the winter when the temperature is forecasted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Weather Service to be 36 degrees Fahrenheit in wet weather and 32 degrees Fahrenheit in dry weather for three hours or more.
“An estimated 700 people experiencing homelessness die from hypothermia every year in the United States,” Crossley said. “Our office is committed to providing shelter to those most vulnerable to the elements this winter and is working with organizations across the city to bring our unsheltered neighbors in from the cold.”
Oak Lawn United Methodist Church has consistently been a place the City of Dallas can count on to take people in off the streets to potentially save their lives this winter.
“It was a freezing night four years ago when someone died sitting at a bus stop experiencing homelessness and they were right outside of a church,” said Rev. Rachel Baughman. “That really broke my heart in a way that changed it. And I really committed from that point on to say 'not in my backyard.' Nobody needs to die outside when we have countless empty warm buildings in the city of Dallas, and ours is one of them.”
Baughman knows it may sound daunting to transform a church into a shelter, but wants people to know they can contact OLUMC for help. Baughman wishes more people shared her same heart for serving.
"For other churches or businesses that might be considering applying to be a warming shelter, I think that it's a lot easier than you might expect it to be. Simply opening your doors and making it possible for people to come in might sound like a lot of risk to you. But the reality is you will receive more blessing than you could possibly realize," she said.
Most people are one or two steps away from homelessness, Baughman shared. She believes that Dallas is moving in the right direction toward homeless solutions, but encourages people to not push it under the rug any longer.
"It has been one of my life's greatest blessings to meet them and learn their story and become more aware of why people are experiencing homelessness. And then really how difficult it is to move out of homelessness and find your way back to a stable economic and environmental space,” Baughman said. "Even if you feel like it's not your cause, I just, I feel like it's our human cause to love and respect each other and to share what we have. And this is just one small way to share what we have just to make sure that life is sustainable, and that people are treated fairly.”
Interested applicants can download an application from dallascitynews.net and for more information on how to become a temporary emergency shelter, contact TIWS@Dallascityhall.com.