Even though the summer nights are still warm, the Severe Weather Shelter Network has winter on its mind and is looking for new volunteers to help the homeless this coming cold season.
The organization, which houses homeless people on cold nights and takes them to participating churches in the Lakewood and Littleton areas, expanded last year and was able to serve almost twice as many people per night as the previous winter. The network is part of the Love INC ministry in Littleton.
This coming year, executive director Lynn Ann Huizingh said she has added one more Lakewood church to the weekly rotation and hopes to have one more in Littleton.
Participating churches take turns, with each one taking a full week to house homeless people on cold nights that dip below 20 degrees when dry or 32 degrees when wet. Lakewood now has four area churches while Littleton hopes to add a fourth. The season ran from Oct. 1 to April 30.
“We’re really trying to stabilize the two rotations,” Huizingh said.
In the 2013-14 winter, the first in the shelter’s existence, there were 82 shelter nights with an average of 25 guests per night. Last winter, there were only 62 nights, but an average of 45 homeless people were housed and fed each night, as two churches were open instead of one.
Also, the service was able to stay open for more consecutive nights. Huizingh said the first year her group was capped at six nights in a row, but last winter, she was able to serve 21 consecutive nights when needed.
“That was a new experience for us to shelter that many days in a row,” she said.
The churches are staffed by volunteers, many of whom attend the participating church, and .
To volunteer, contact Huizingh at lynnann.swshelternetwork@gmail.com or 720-515-9313.
Joe Vaccarelli: 303-954-2396, jvaccarelli@denverpost.com or twitter.com/joe_vacc
