MILWAUKEE — As overnight temperatures drop below 20 degrees, St Ben’s Parish in Milwaukee opened its winter warming center Sunday for the time this season.
What started as a small initiative in 2017 with blankets on the floor has expanded to include meals and cots for 65 visitors.
“Far too often we have news reports of people who don't know about these resources, who are sleeping in their cars, abandoned buildings and they end up freezing to death,” Kenneth Howard said. "That is such an inhumane way for someone to have to be."
Howard serves as the assistant director of Capuchin Community Services, and he wants people in need to know that the folks at St. Ben’s desperately want to help.
St Ben’s is one of four spots in Milwaukee offering shelter overnight, all winter long, from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.
Guest House of Milwaukee – 1216 N 13th St.
Unity Lutheran Church – 1025 E. Oklahoma Ave.
St Ben’s Parish - 930 W. State St.
Repairer’s of the Breach - 1335 W. Vliet St.
Check out: Volunteers make warming shelter possible at St Ben's amid frigid temps
It’s a service that representatives from the Milwaukee Coalition on Housing and Homeless said more than one thousand people took advantage of last year alone.
"I'm just like anybody else, one paycheck away from being where someone else is,” Howard said. “Everyone deserves dignity, they deserve respect, and they deserve care.”
Howard said it’s people like long-time Capuchin volunteer Shari Egan that make their work possible.
“I just love helping people,” Egan said. “It's just very nice to know that people do appreciate the things that I do.”
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