UPDATE: 6 p.m. Monday – Malheur County’s emergency manager announced Monday afternoon that a warming shelter would open in Ontario on Tuesday at 7 p.m. and also will be open Wednesday and Thursday nights.
ONTARIO – As dangerously freezing weather hits the region, a shortage of volunteers is leaving Malheur County with no overnight shelter for those struggling with homelessness who face life-threatening conditions with tents or unheated recreation vehicles.
The National Weather Service forecasts temperatures in the evening on Monday, Feb. 10, to plummet to a low of 6 degrees in Ontario and 1 the following night. The weather service issued a cold weather advisory early Sunday for the county, running through 10 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 13.
One social service agency is seeking donations of cold weather supplies to help the hundreds of homeless in the area cope with the conditions. Some are living in vehicles, unheated RVs or tents.
“With nowhere to stay except the streets, people experiencing homelessness have a much higher risk than the general population of developing exposure-related conditions such as hypothermia and frostbite,” according to the National Coalition for the Homeless. “These conditions can be immediately life threatening and may also increase the risk of dying from unrelated conditions in the future.”
Malheur County had been set to provide a warming center and overnight shelter at the county fairgrounds when high temperatures dip below 30 degrees for three consecutive days.
Lt. Rich Harriman, the emergency manager with the Malheur County Sheriff’s Office, said in a Monday, Feb. 10 email that due to a lack of volunteers, the shelter in Girvin Hall at the county fairgrounds in Ontario would not open.
Harriman said the Eastern Oregon Center for Independent Living, a nonprofit that advocates for people with disabilities, had been helping coordinate volunteers. The two people who had been helping recruit volunteers stepped down, according to Harriman.
So far, only five volunteers were on the list to help staff the shelter this year, according to Harriman.
Last year, Harriman said, the overnight shelter had a pool of 76 volunteers who worked different shifts over the six nights it was open. At its peak, Harriman said the shelter housed nearly 40 people in a single night. The shelter also served meals around the clock, according to Harriman.
He said the immediate need is for two volunteer coordinators before officials can begin lining up volunteers to staff the warming shelter.
Harriman said last year that the emergency management office put out a “volunteer blitz” less than a day before a major cold snap.
This year, Harriman said the Local Emergency Planning Committee, which includes a collective of local agencies and nonprofits, called on volunteers to be ready to help in late December should temperatures fall below a 30-degree high threshold for three straight days.
When he emailed those on the committee Monday morning, Harriman said he’d hoped someone would have “stepped up” to coordinate the volunteer effort.
Harriman said, “when it comes down to it,” the committee will likely be able to find volunteer coordinators.
Harriman said regardless of how one feels about the unhoused in Malheur County the idea of having a shelter is to keep people from dying.
“It’s not a handout,” he said. “We’re trying to save lives. We don’t want someone to expire because of the cold, because they’re living outside.”
Priscilla Garcia, housing programs manager for Community in Action, said the nonprofit dispatched outreach workers to check on area homeless camps and provide what supplies they could, from hand warmers to sleeping bags.
“Without a shelter, there’s not a lot we can do, which is unfortunate,” Garcia said.
She said Community in Action could use donations of hand and foot warmers, caps, winter coats and food such as trail mix that doesn’t have to be cooked. She said donations could be dropped off at the nonprofit’s Ontario office, 915 S.W. 3rd Ave., from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.
News tip? Send your information to Steven Mitchell at [email protected].
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