ARKANSAS, USA — Can you imagine staying outside in this weather overnight? It’s not something any of us want to do, yet some of our neighbors are left without a choice.
Because of this, 5NEWS checked in with a few local homeless shelters in hopes of finding warming centers. While there aren’t a ton of centers, there are a few in our area.
Northwest Arkansas
7hills Day Center in Fayetteville is open from 8:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. every day and during that time they provide hot meals, free winter clothes, and help with other resources.
Once it closes for the day, people can head over to the Salvation Army for a place to stay overnight, once the windchill feels like 15 degrees. Genesis Church partners with Salvation Army and 7hills to open its doors and provide more overnight beds.
River Valley
In the River Valley, the Salvation Army is a warming center along with River Hope campus when it drops below 32 degrees.
Mike Williams with 7Hills said that with the drop in temps, they’ve seen many more people come through their doors.
“I hope everyone understands and appreciates those are our neighbors, people who it can be easy to look at their situation [and think] maybe they’re a product of poor decisions or substance abuse. And some of those things may be true, but at the end of the day, they are people who need food and shelter and are trying to survive and I think we can all agree we don’t want anyone to die because they didn’t have access to help,” Williams said.
7hills is in need of more sleeping bags and winter clothes, so if you have any you’d like to donate you can drop them off at 7hills.
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