Brian was worried about the tent he’d left behind at an Ontario homeless camp as he tucked into a warming shelter.
The weather forecast called for up to a half a foot of snow.
The last time there was any snow, Brian’s borrowed camp tent collapsed. He considered heading back to shore it up.
Instead, he sipped coffee at Girvin Hall on the Malheur County Fairgrounds as the temperature outside on Wednesday, Feb. 12, remained well below freezing.
“I have a tent but no heat,” he said, and it was a borrowed tent at that.
An army of volunteers and social workers rallied last week to do what they could for people like Brian.
They did so as a medical professor warned that during single-digit temperatures, people exposed to the elements could die.
Initially short of volunteers, Lt. Rich Harriman of Malheur County Emergency Management on Monday, Feb. 10, had called off plans to open the warming shelter at the fairgrounds. He had no one to coordinate volunteers – and only five people on the list to run the overnight shelter. Meantime, weather forecasters were predicting days of subfreezing temperatures, a forecast fulfilled on two nights when the Ontario temperature ranged below zero.
As word spread in the community of the volunteer shortage, Harriman’s phone lit up with messages from people volunteering. With a fresh corps of help, Harriman arranged to open the shelter, which offered clean cots, blankets and meals as the coldest weather settled in on Tuesday, Feb. 11.
But only four homeless individuals showed up that night.
The following day, people at a city-owned campsite on the south side of Ontario explained why they endured rather than head for the shelter.
One woman said she had three dogs and, while the shelter allowed pets, one was too aggressive to be indoors.
A man, his face masked by a scarf and his body sheathed in two coats, said he feared losing what little he owned if he left his camp unattended.
And a third man said he and some friends managed to make it through the night by huddling around a small wood-burning camp stove set atop a folding table.
“We kept it going all night,” he said.
He was one of the camp tenants happy to see a team arrive from Community in Action, the Ontario nonprofit.
Priscilla Garcia and Sara Herbert on Wednesday afternoon brought out bins filled with cold-weather gear.
“Do you want some gloves?” Herbert asked a woman.
“Sure.”
“How about some hand warmers?”
“I’ll take those,” said the woman, clutching her new goods as she walked back to her tent.
The team handed out tarps and sleeping bags. Socks went fast.
Those receiving the gifts were thankful.
“I’m so glad you’re here,” said one man.
Satisfied that all those at the camp had a chance to be served, the team packed up. They headed now for a cluster of dilapidated motor homes and trailers in an area in northwest Ontario known as “The Flats.”
Within moments of pulling to a stop on the road alongside the camp, residents emerged, picking their way through debris piles and around feral cats to reach the truck.
One woman with a coat but no hat accepted a sleeping bag wordlessly, then shuffled back to her unheated trailer. A banner hung on the side: “Trump 2024.”
A man reached for warm gloves. He had stayed warm the night before by using a portable propane heater.
“I’m putting in a wood stove so I can save my propane for cooking,” he said.
Garcia explained that some people at the camp are eligible to get state vouchers to get propane at an Ontario service station. Others who might be eligible couldn’t meet basic paperwork requirements – they don’t have formal identification.
One man walked up with a milk jug of frozen water. Did they have any water, he asked? Herbert promised they would fetch some and return later.
On Wednesday night, traffic picked up at the warming shelter from the night before. The temperature measured at the Ontario Municipal Airport would drop to minus 4 degrees by morning.
Cots were arrayed in neat rows, each stocked with a packaged clean blanket.
Volunteers checked in guests, who then helped themselves to a cot. That night, they could also get a pre-made microwaveable meal prepared by Snake River Correctional Institution’s crews. They could also opt for a sack lunch.
Three men sitting at a table shared friendly banter. They seemed in good spirits.
Adele Schaffeld was among the overnight volunteers. By day, she is Malheur County’s building official.
She said a woman came in, volunteering to clean toilets at the shelter. She had used the shelter the year before.
“She said that saved her life,” Schaffeld said.
One man, James, told how he made it through the previous night by using large rounds of cottonwood for both a fire and for shelter. He had no tent.
JB said he resorted to a tent camp because a travel trailer had been vandalized while he was serving a short jail sentence. He’s saving money from monthly disability checks to start over with another trailer. He said he didn’t want to be a burden to the public.
But he and others described local services they used – and appreciated. At Eastern Oregon Center of Independent Living, across the street from Saint Alphonsus Medical Center-Ontario, people like JB and Brian could get a shower. At Oasis House, they find warmth and food during the day.
“Oasis has been doing great,” JB said.
Social workers reported that at least two homeless people were hospitalized for treatment of frostbite.
Harriman said he checked spots he knows that homeless people gather around Ontario.
He said a man living in his car declined the shelter offer, explaining he’d made it through the subzero night fine.
“I’m good,” he told Harriman.
The Girvin Hall shelter closed after three nights, on Friday, Feb. 14, as daytime temperatures climbed above freezing for the first time in days.
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