CONWAY — Wendy Stufflebean was living in her SUV a year ago in January when the temperature dropped below freezing.
“I said there’s got to be some kind of answer,” she said.
The 42-year-old’s internet search found the Conway Ministry Center’s winter warming station.
“They were such a blessing,” Stufflebean said of the warming-center staff.
Not only did the shelter provide a warm place to sleep, she said, but the staff helped her find permanent housing.
The winter warming station opened Wednesday in the Conway Sports Center in the Don Owen Recreation Complex, at
10 Lower Ridge Road. People may enter at 6 p.m. and stay until 8 a.m. daily when the nighttime temperature drops below 40 degrees. Breakfast and supper are served, and hot showers are available.
Spring Hunter, executive director of the Conway Ministry Center, said it was a challenge to find a location this year, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, and she was getting worried.
The organization’s former building sold, and the center hasn’t received a rezoning for its new building. The ministry explored churches and warehouses but had “run out of options,” she said.
“There was a huge concern about not having a warming station during the middle of a pandemic,” she said. “This all came together in two weeks.”
Shelley Mehl, a City Council member, was involved for months trying to find a new home for the warming station. As executive director of the Faulkner County affiliate of the Arkansas Community Foundation, she worked with Hunter and the Faulkner County Homeless Coalition.
“It finally came down to, ‘All right, we’re stuck,’” Mehl said.
Mehl met with Mayor Bart Castleberry and others to discuss how the city could help, and the Conway Sports Center seemed to be the best solution because of its space and location.
“Through all this, Bart and the city’s position was always, we’re not going to let these people be out in the cold,” Mehl said.
In November, Conway City Council members agreed to allow the Conway Ministry Center to use the Conway Sports Center from Dec. 16 to Feb. 28. It will be closed to the public until then.
Hunter said that last year, 233 unique individuals were served from December through March. That number included 17 families with 23 children who stayed over the winter.
In 2019, the annual homeless count identified 964 homeless people in Faulkner County, including 588 school-age kids, “whether that’s staying at a friend’s house or staying in a garage,” Hunter said in a previous interview.
She said indications are that the number of Faulkner County’s homeless, officially counted in January, will be up this year.
“We feel like we’ve seen an increase in the homeless population. We’ve had more calls about evictions, families with young children,” she said.
In addition, the pandemic closed some public areas, such as the library, that helped homeless individuals survive inclement weather.
She said 75 people can be housed on the floor of the sports center — divided into separate areas for men, women and women with children. Sex offenders are not allowed, and warrant checks are run on residents.
The staff and volunteers have transformed three basketball courts by covering the floors and creating a grid with 10-by-10-foot sections, each with a cot and a chair. “The recommendations for homeless shelters are far, far more lenient than what we’re doing here,” she said.
In the past, cots were 24 inches apart in the warming station.
“We were packed in there pretty tightly,” she said of the former facility. “We needed to spread out to prevent a COVID-19 outbreak.”
Hunter said the winter warming station’s COVID-19 plan is “really solid.”
Masks will be provided and “heavily encouraged,” Hunter said. Two spaces have been identified as quarantine rooms, “if a person comes in sick or develops a fever overnight.”
Hunter said if anyone has COVID-19 symptoms, shelter staff will contact the Arkansas Department of Health, “who will pick them up and take them to a location to privately quarantine. They bring them back to us healthy — the end.”
The city will fog the facility each Monday with disinfectant.
She said staff members have been vetted and asked to enter a “covenant agreement of what it looks like to be safe. I told them, ‘I expect you to practice these excellent standards of care for the weeks you are working at the winter warming station,’” she said. “We can’t keep this virus from walking in the door, but we’ve done whatever we can to prevent it.”
In the past, between 300 and 400 church volunteers brought in the food, and Hunter praised their contributions. Churches are still 100 percent responsible for all the meals, Hunter said, but the effort will be coordinated by Judi Lively, executive director of Bethlehem House, a transitional homeless shelter in Conway. All meals must be in single-serving containers.
The change is “a little bit of a heartbreak for us,” Hunter said. “We’ve always had paid staff but always really utilized churches for volunteer staff.”
For example, volunteers who brought meals often stayed to visit or play cards with people in the shelter.
“But here in the middle of COVID-19, we are really having to seriously limit the people who have access to our overnight guests,” she said. “We are fully staffing it with paid staff this year. Our staffing costs have more than doubled.”
Four staff members a day will be paid instead of two, and there is a short list of people who will come in to volunteer, she said.
The organization has a fundraiser on its Facebook page, or donations can be made through its website, www.conwayministrycenter.org.
The goal is $25,000, and as of Thursday morning, almost $15,000 had been raised.
“I would also love to have gift cards to give our guests on Christmas morning,” Hunter said.
The Conway Ministry Center operates the warming station with support from partners in the Faulkner County Homeless Coalition — Bethlehem House, The Salvation Army, City of Hope Outreach and the Community Action Program for Central Arkansas. The center also receives support from the United Way of Central Arkansas.
“All partners from the Homeless Coalition have really, really jumped in and rallied around this project and taken significant responsibility for meal planning and laundry service. … They’ve said, ‘What can we do?’”
Hunter said her “secret goal is not just to provide beds at night, but I have case managers who work with them the whole time they’re here to get them rehoused.”
She said 20 percent of the people who stayed last year found permanent housing.
“We work on a plan,” she said. “We can’t rehouse them all, but we try.”
Hunter said the Conway Ministry Center also has a program for rental and utility deposits.
Stufflebean said she was homeless for about 10 months after losing her apartment lease, and she stayed at the warming station from January until it closed in March. She said the evening meal that was provided saved her money, and a case manager “helped me figure out how much rent I could pay.”
She was in her vehicle one night last week, driving to her job. She said the winter warming station is a safe place for anyone who needs it.
She’s thankful it was available for her, but she’ll be warm in her own bed tonight.