When it is at capacity, Serve City provides individuals with alternate resources, Ector said.
“We refer people to the Butler County Sheriff’s Office, where they have the lobby open for individuals who need to get out of the cold,” she said. “We refer individuals to the new cold shelter in Oxford, (Oxford Winter House). We refer them to Hope House Mission (in Middletown), the Grove Street men’s chapel, where men can go and sleep if they need a place to stay."
Ector said Serve City had to cease operations of its overnight emergency cold shelter about two years ago “just because of capacity and not having the staffing to be able to manage that as effectively as we would want.”
Serve City refers people to any of the area libraries that work with the Butler County Emergency Management Agency to allow people to stop by during the day to escape the cold, Ector said.
Volunteers at Serve City faced their own set of challenges during bad weather the weekend of Jan. 24 and 25, when the region got walloped with record snowfall and dangerously low temperatures.
“Over the weekend, when all of the bad weather was forecast, we did have the volunteers not come out to deliver meals, if they were meal sponsors, just because there were all of the warnings to stay inside,” she said Tuesday. “But we have a volunteer here right now, and we really haven’t seen much of a difference in that.
In addition, Serve City has “a relatively small parking area,” one that has to accommodate its staff, meal sponsors and volunteers, plus anyone coming in providing partner agency services, she said.
“We had a snow removal company come out and there’s a limited space to put all that snow,” Ector said. “The amount of snow has been a bit of an issues in the parking lot.”
Ector said Serve City managed to open its pop-up pantry, which runs each Tuesday from 10 a.m. to noon.
“We did have 14 individuals come through there, which I thought was a good number, considering the weather,” she said.
Program Director Dustin Bowman, who oversees the shelter and its housing program, said the most important thing to remember is whether it’s cold or it’s hot outside, unfortunately, Butler County “always has individuals who are experiencing homelessness.”
“So whether it’s rain or shine, my staff show up and provide a warm, safe place for individuals to sleep at night,” Bowman said.
Serving Homeless with Alternate Lodging of Middletown (SHALOM) houses unhoused individuals nightly at eight local churches.
Bill Fugate, SHALOM’s director, said its churches have been “extremely busy.”
Sixty-six individuals have been provided shelter and warmth since Jan. 4 — double what the organization would usually see in a similar timeframe. Fugate said they’ve had to turn away a few individuals due to overcrowding.
“We wish that there were more local options for the unhoused at this time of year, but unfortunately there are not many options available,” he said.
Fugate said the snowfall was a “major” issue as it arrived on a relocation day from Stratford Heights Church of God at 4419 Nelson Road to St. John Church at 1405 First Ave.
“We are blessed with so many great volunteers from our churches, and although difficult, we managed to keep everyone safe and warm,” Fugate said.
Butler County Emergency Management Agency Director Jim Bolen said the agency has been in regular contact with the area warming centers throughout the county since the week before the snowstorm arrived.
“When we identified that there’s a potential need for a warming center, we reach out to them just make sure there’s nothing that’s going to prevent them from serving as a warming center, and then just making sure that they’re okay with us publishing that,” said Bolen, who has been with the agency since 2016 and served as its director since 2023.
He said the enters reported no issues with capacity or volunteers last week.
The agency’s role includes ensuring warming centers can operate effectively during weather events.
“If there was a need for, say, water, or ... something else,” Bolen said. “We have great relationships with our law enforcement partners, so, if they had concerns, we could help them reach out to law enforcement.”
