Big news—for the first time in over twenty years, Our Saviour’s Shelter is empty! But the work goes on.
You may not know, but early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Our Saviour’s expanded their emergency shelter operations to remain open 24/7. This allowed guests to remain safer during the day, without exposing themselves and others to further risk out on the streets. The staff also moved the most vulnerable guests, including seniors and those with underlying health conditions, into a hotel where they could safely isolate.
On May 1, in the second phase of Our Saviour’s pandemic response, staff proactively moved all current shelter guests into separate rooms at a hotel. Moving guests out of a cramped, congregate setting marked another huge step in keeping people without a home safe. Many guests expressed feelings of relief. In a major achievement, the shelter was able to accomplish this before encountering even one confirmed case of COVID-19!
According to David Fey, Our Saviour’s interim executive director, they are pleased to be working with community partner, St. Stephen’s Human Services, on this latest initiative. Staff from both organizations are jointly providing 24/7 case management and support services for 160 guests at the hotel, including the total populations from each of their respective shelters as well as a significant number of unsheltered homeless adults.
The shelter wishes to thank everyone who has helped get them to this point. In the past two months, many have stepped up to offer increased support through financial gifts, donations of essential supplies, and meals at the shelter—including Nokomis Heights. For this, they are beyond grateful.
Unfortunately, the transition to a hotel means the shelter is no longer able to accept meals from volunteer providers. They look forward to returning to “normal” shelter operations in the future and welcoming back volunteers, but in the meantime, we must serve is different ways. First and foremost, we can support them financially.
The shelter has found they must raise an additional $14,000 per week to cover COVID-related costs, such as hazard and overtime pay, cleaning supplies, hygiene supplies, personal protective equipment, and increased facilities usage. While actively pursuing emergency public funding, they continue to rely heavily on donors like us to keep the shelter running and guests and frontline staff as safe as possible. We encourage you to donate financially to the NHLC Shelter fund. You may mail a check to church (mark Shelter Fund in memo line), or contact Dana Lonn to arrange for electronic funds transfer. The money will be used to buy essential items for the shelter and for direct financial support.
If you want to directly provide essential items for the shelter, you may drop off any of the following items at Nokomis Heights between 9am noon on Mondays and Tuesdays (ring doorbell), and we will arrange for delivery to Shelter personnel:
Health: Vitamin C individual packs, travel-size ibuprofen or acetaminophen, bandanas or masks
Food: Disposable cups, kitchen towels (the less expensive multi-packs)(or rags for cleaning), aluminum foil, plastic wrap, Press ‘n Seal wrap, coffee, non-dairy creamer, sugar, individually packaged granola bars
Personal care: T-shirts for men and women in all sizes, women’s sanitary supplies (pads and tampons), “Depends” in sizes medium and up, large pump-style bottles of hand lotion to refill the smaller personal bottles (as we’ve learned, constant hand sanitizing is very drying), cotton balls, travel size toothpaste
Solo activities: Adult coloring books and colored pencils, markers, pens, or crayons; watercolor set and paper; decks of cards; solo games, puzzles, word-find and crossword puzzle books
Laundry supply kits: 3 detergent pods, 3 dryer sheets packaged into sandwich-size bags (the pods are easier to distribute in individual kits and reduce over use of soap in machines)
Thank you for your continued support of Our Saviour’s ministry with those who are homeless. With your gifts, you are indeed saving lives!
