The Coldest Nights

Thank you for your continued support of the Mission and our ministries to the less fortunate in our community. This is a copy of our website front page during the coldest nights. Our efforts were to target anyone willing to come in our of the cold and enter our shelter or other shelters in the city. This effort was a joint effort between a number of shelters and the city of Louisville.

There are several contingency plans to alleviate the lodging problem quickly should the shelters reach their stated capacities. A plan with Metro Government involves using several existing hotel rooms at Hotel Louisville as short term emergency shelter lodging, including food service. This contingency will only be used if the shelters become full and are no longer able to assist homeless individuals seeking shelter. Some of the shelters are operating under “Operation White Flag” protocols, volunteering to open space not normally used for shelter, and by relaxing rules that may be in place under normal conditions. Wayside also has several emergency options should these aberrant conditions continue. These include opening space in transitional areas of the shelter and hotel. We are ending most nights with about 50-100 beds available in local shelters and contingencies for lodging another 100-200 people should the shelter beds fill. Our contingency plans were developed six months ago and the agreement with the city developed over the weekend.

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The Low Barrier Shelter is open 24 hours a day for dropping in to warm up, eat a meal, and/or take a shower. A state-licensed social worker is on duty during most days and an Adult Peer Support Specialist is on duty most nights. Transportation is provided for homeless individuals to and from homeless camps or lodging locations when requested. Call 502-996-1888 for more information and/or transportation.

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Wayside Christian Mission Transport Calls for 2/21

• During Operation White Flag, Wayside Christian Mission agreed with city requests to provide emergency transportation for people out in the cold to Wayside or other area shelters. During the colder nights we averaged 10-20 transportation attempts. In about half the attemps, people would refuse the ride or say they preferred to stay out. This was a life saving activity which resulted in many people entering shelter during the coldest days.