Salvation Army expands daytime warming center to twice weekly -- and as needed

Nov. 13—The Salvation Army's multipurpose room was quiet Wednesday morning.

A handful of people sat at long tables in the center of the room. On a nearby cot, a guest took a nap. Snacks, coffee and hot meals, as well as coloring supplies and puzzles, were on hand.

The space, which has served as a once-weekly resource and warming center for homeless Santa Feans for nearly a year, was open for business for the first time on a Wednesday.

The local Salvation Army and a group of determined volunteers have organized a resource center on Thursdays since February, said Ismael Gutierrez, an officer and pastor at organization's downtown facility, 525 W. Alameda Street. They now plan to maintain a two-day-a-week schedule throughout the winter, with resources available from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays.

If staff and volunteer capacity permits, Gutierrez said, they'll add Tuesdays to the calendar and bump the schedule to three days a week.

The expanded hours and renewed focus on offering a warm place for unsheltered people to spend the day come after Santa Fe was struck last week with an early season snowstorm and freezing temperatures that dipped down into the teens. The storm left two people dead, likely because of exposure.

Another round of winter weather — albeit less severe — is forecast to arrive late Sunday or early Monday.

Foul weather doesn't always arrive on the warming center's schedule.

When the blast of snow and bitter cold temperatures hit Santa Fe last week, organizers made an exception to their usual schedule — opening up the warming center Friday.

That was a good idea. Gutierrez said a few people arrived in bad shape.

One man in particular arrived unresponsive, the pastor recalled. Beneath his soaked clothing, the man's skin was blue and purple.

If the man had spent another hour outside, Gutierrez said, "unfortunately, it would have been the worst."

The organization plans to prepare for dangerously cold winter days and will open as needed when the city of Santa Fe calls for a Code Blue — meaning its Alternative Response Unit heads out to distribute warm gear to those who are unsheltered and offer rides to local shelters.

"Anytime there's a severe storm, we're going to go ahead and open up," Gutierrez said.

The warming center began through a partnership with the S3 Santa Fe Housing Initiative Community Volunteers.

Originally, the S3 volunteers envisioned a five-day-per-week operation. But the program doesn't yet have the personnel or funds for such an expansion.

"We're not there yet," Gutierrez said.

Those who come in out of the cold at The Salvation Army's warming center can also eat lunch, launder clothing, take showers and receive additional services from roving providers, like representatives from La Familia Health and volunteer hairdressers.

For Gutierrez, a California native, his first winter in Santa Fe — the 2022-23 season — was a tough, uniquely cold one.

"People are out in the cold, right? On cold days, it just seems kind of inhumane," he said. "So, it was one of the things that I've been wanting to do, is have a place during the winter for them to come in and just stay warm."

The goal became a reality when Gutierrez connected with members of the S3 Santa Fe Housing Initiative Community Volunteers.

S3 volunteer Linda Regnier spearheaded the push for a warming center in Santa Fe. "Someplace needed to exist for people in the winter here," she said.

She did the research, visiting warming centers in Albuquerque and Montana, and slowly recruited her fellow S3 volunteers, including Rachel Thompson, to staff a would-be center.

The team of volunteers brought the issue to Gutierrez, Thompson recalled, and the pastor agreed to a four-week trial run, which started in February.

"It was really very successful, and we all really wanted to keep going," Thompson said. "So we began to do it every Thursday."

Though the Salvation Army has in-house showers, the Interfaith Community Shelter at Pete's Place began sending its mobile hygiene unit to the day shelter in March.

Gutierrez estimated it will cost about $60,000 to get the program through the winter, and it's not yet fully funded.

The city of Santa Fe provided $20,000 to help support the initiative, city spokesperson Regina Ruiz wrote in an email.

The resource and warming center is just one of many programs the local Salvation Army provides — meaning the organization's staff have to focus on other things, too.

"We're just trying to figure out ways to partner with people, leverage the resources we have — but, you know, that takes time," Gutierrez said.

More affordable housing, another homeless shelter, additional communities of small Pallet home units — all these are key to alleviating homelessness in Santa Fe, Regnier said.

In the meantime, she and her fellow volunteers will remain focused on their piece of the puzzle: expanding the resource and warming center's services to two days per week. Then three.

"All those things would be wonderful," Regnier said. "But I think for us, we just continue doing what we're doing, make it successful three days a week."