How St. Cloud shelters are helping people experiencing homelessness, and how to help

ST. CLOUD — Area shelters are serving more people in the St. Cloud area as winter sets in.

"There's a whole lot more people coming out of the woodwork," Homeless Helping Homeless Executive Director Harry Fleegel said earlier this month.

Salvation Army Program Coordinator Karla Rolfzen said it's typical for their shelter to be close to full all year. This year the shelter's capacity was at 70% or above each month. But Salvation Army is also sheltering fewer people because the organization reduced the number of beds in each room in an effort to keep people safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.

When they don't have beds, people will spend the night in the warming center to avoid spending a freezing night outside, Rolfzen said.

However, use of the Salvation Army food shelf declined this year, Rolfzen said. She attributed that to increased government assistance, and people being able to access help from more sources.

According to Rolfzen, the number of people coming to the Salvation Army shelter increased while Place of Hope and its church of the week program, which rotates between churches who open their spaces for overnight sleeping, was closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and people experiencing homelessness had fewer places to go.

Place of Hope founder and director Pastor Carol Jean Smith said Place of Hope reopened earlier this month. Smith said she's seen more people experiencing homelessness this past year. 

But Place of Hope is leasing more space in a building on the west side of St. Cloud Smith said was sitting unused. Access to the building has increased Place of Hope's capacity by between 40% and 60%, Smith estimated.

People staying in the additional building have their own rooms and restrooms, which is good not just to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and reduce friction, Smith said, but also in providing the service of shelter with more humanity.

"We have found this is 1,000 times better," Smith said.

Place of Hope is raising money with hopes of purchasing the building.

St. Cloud's organizations serving those experiencing homelessness work together and will call around to see if there are openings somewhere else if one place is filling up, Fleegel and Rolfzen said.

Fleegel said there was a time in November when they couldn't find a place for some people to sleep locally, at Lincoln Center (run by Homeless Helping Homeless) or elsewhere. In those instances, Lincoln Center will provide gas cards to individuals with cars so they can keep their car running and warm. Fleegel has also sent some people to the Twin Cities when Lincoln Center didn't have room. 

Lincoln Center has also provided propane to people who have heaters in their tents. Fleegel said these heaters are helpful with the "more mild" winter weather, but wind chill makes it much tougher. 

During a serious cold snap earlier this season, Fleegel said they were turning away about 15 people a night, who ended up in cars or tents.

"The community needs to make some real serious plans for the winter, because this was just a little introduction that we got the last couple weeks, and we need to have places for people to go," Fleegel said.

He said the COVID-19 pandemic has gotten in the way of plans and efforts to help individuals experiencing homelessness.

"COVID messed us all up," Fleegel said. "We were pretty well prepared for the year — except that COVID got in the way."

Smith said individuals experiencing homelessness are often marginalized. She wants others to recognize them as part of the community.

"These are human beings," Fleegel said. "We need to treat everybody with dignity. Everybody has a right to be warm. Nobody deserves to get frostbite or to die from hypothermia or the cold."

Fleegel and Smith both thanked their volunteers and the community for the support their organizations receive.

What can you do?

Each organization is accepting donations. Here's how you can contribute:

Place of Hope

• Money donations to upgrade the phone system and to buy another building for use as a shelter.
• Money donations to upgrade and add computers (used to serve more people experiencing homelessness).

Salvation Army Shelter: The Salvation Army is at 400 Highway 10 S.

• Money donations to the Red Kettle Campaign, which supports the Salvation Army. So far, the local campaign is about $19,000 behind where it was at this time last year.
• socks
• towels
• razors
• other hygiene products

Lincoln Center: Donations of money and gas cards should be mailed to Homeless Helping Homeless, Box 475, St. Cloud, MN 56302. Other donations can be dropped off at 630 Lincoln Ave. SE

• gloves
• gas cards in $10 denominations
• juice
• granola bars
• handwarmer packets
• men's pants
• heavy winter coats
• paper products (toilet paper, paper plates, paper bowls, cups)
• money donations

Sarah Kocher is the business reporter for the St. Cloud Times. Reach her at 320-255-8799 or skocher@stcloudtimes.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahAKocher.

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