COLORADO SPRINGS — A local homeless shelter is making it clear they’re not letting COVID-19 keep people from staying warm, and alive during this week’s frigid weather.
When they see a forecast like this week’s, leaders at Springs Rescue Mission know, it’s go time.
“We go.. okay… we gotta get ready, here it comes,” said Travis Williams, Chief Development Officer for Springs Rescue Mission. “When these temperatures drop, it is all hands on deck.”
Temperatures in the Springs could get as low as four degrees Sunday night. For the rescue mission, when days like that come, so do those in need of warmth.
“We have the capacity to shelter 450 individuals,” Williams said. “In some of these frigid cold seasons, we’ve sheltered as many as 475, so we’ve had to push past our max.”
But this year comes a challenge.
“We’re balancing a pandemic and we’re balancing frigid, frigid temperatures,” Williams said.
But they’re ready to take that challenge on.
“Our teams have been ready, we have hand sanitizing stations throughout the campus, hand washing stations, we check temperatures,” he said. “Fortunately there’s an isolation shelter that we can send folks who are symptomatic.”
The virus makes things a balancing act for sure, but it can’t be a deterrent.
“Our prayer is that we won’t be as tight, but again with this cold temperature, there are people who die out on the streets of Colorado Springs,” he said.
Williams said the shelter will be allowing people to stay as long as they need while those temperatures stick around, and they’re even welcoming pets.
