February 18, 2025 • 59 mins
In this episode, Barry Feaker and La Manda Cunningham along with Christian Stringfellow, Deputy Director of Shelter Services, and Marcus Molinar, Deputy Director of Facilities & Security, explore the critical role of warming centers in our community.
What exactly is a warming center, and why are they essential? How do we decide when and where to open them? We discuss the challenges of operating these spaces, the difference between low-barrier and no-barrier shelters, and the life-changing impact these centers have on those who walk through their doors.
Our guests share the struggles of balancing team needs while ensuring these centers function effectively. We highlight the importance of a strong continuum of care, the invaluable support from community partners, and the need for increased involvement from governmental leadership who have the power to make both negative and positive decisions that impact those we serve.
Join us for a deep dive into the realities of warming centers and the fight to make sure everyone has access to the right resources at the right time.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you, lord, for your
blessings, your provisions, andwe thank you for another day to
record another podcast.
Lord, thank you for ourlisteners.
We pray your blessing over themand, lord, just your blessing
over this conversation, lord,that you would guide and lead it
and the things that need to besaid would be said.
Lord, we just love you and wepraise your name.
Amen.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Hello everybody listening to our community, our
mission, a podcast of the TopekaRescue Mission.
This is your host today, BarryFeeker, here on a Tuesday
instead of a Wednesday, Februarythe 18th of 2025.
This is episode number 256.
We're pushing out this episodea little bit early this week
because of the severe weatherthat is occurring in this part
(00:43):
of the state, maybe this part ofthe state, maybe this part of
the country and especially herein the Topeka Kansas area.
I'm going to talk about warmingcenters.
I'm going to really take a deepdive here today, so stay tuned
with this.
We have LaManda Cunningham,Executive Director of the Topeka
Rescue Mission, here thismorning.
Christian Stringfellow, DeputyDirector of Supportive excuse me
Deputy Director of ShelterServices You're not Miriam and
(01:06):
so Marcus Molinaire, who isDeputy Director of Security and
Facilities, here today.
So you all have not got a wholelot of sleep here recently.
I can see it, and so I've beentold that my voice puts people
to sleep, so if people hearsnoring, it's just because they
need a little rest.
So, Amanda, thank you, andChristian, Marcus, thank you for
(01:29):
being here today, and you hadto pull away from some very,
very important duties because,on this particular day, a
warming center is at theChildren's Palace.
There are a number of peoplehere off the streets palace.
There are a number of peoplehere off the streets, a number
of people in shelter at the HopeCenter and the main facility
(01:51):
and doing this too.
So, LaManda, give us yourthoughts in general.
We're going to get into somedetails here, but give us your
thoughts in general.
What is a warming center andwhy?
Speaker 4 (01:59):
Sure.
So warming centers in anutshell, sure.
So warming centers, in anutshell, are additional
temporary shelters that we openup for the community, made
possible by the community.
And the warming centers opennot just based on one factor.
So it's not just if it'ssnowing we're going to open a
(02:21):
warming center.
It's not just if we have onlylow temperatures we're going to
open a warming center in awarming center.
It's not just if we have onlylow temperatures we're going to
open a warming center.
When we're looking at thepurpose and the focus of the
warming centers, it really islife preservation and or looking
at what is extremely hazardous,that's going to prevent our
outreach teams from being ableto check on people and keep
people safe.
That's what constitutes warmingcenters.
(02:43):
So when we decide to open them,we are looking at everything
from has a state of emergencybeen declared?
We're looking at what are thetemperatures.
We're looking at what are thewindshields going to be.
We're looking at precipitation,what type, how much, when is it
coming?
Because it does make adifference if our neighbors get
(03:04):
wet first.
So we're looking at all ofthose factors, in collaboration
with emergency personnel andNational Weather Service, to
really decide.
Okay, when we're looking atwhat options we currently have
to help keep people warm.
If that's going to be maxed outand we've got to open
additional safe refuge places,then we've got to do that, and
that's what constitutes awarming center.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
So this is designed predominantly for people who
live outdoors, or in a car ormaybe in a structure of some
kind that has no way to keepwarm Right.
So what other criteria would beinvolved in people showing up
at the door or getting a ride toa warming center?
Speaker 4 (03:48):
Those are pretty much it.
I mean, we're really trying totarget anybody who is prevented,
for whatever reason, of havingsafe, warm places to stay.
That's really our focus.
So in addition to that thoughwhat started this was a focus of
our unsheltered neighbors onthe streets we recognize that
(04:09):
there's just a plethora ofreasons why people are on the
streets without structures andshelters, and realizing that
warming centers can do one oftwo things it can be an
immediate place to provide basicneeds and keep people from life
or death.
But in addition to that, thereare some people who take the
(04:34):
first step of coming to awarming center and saying, man,
that wasn't as scary, thatwasn't as bad.
And we see that because of thewarming centers, they're ready
to take next steps.
And we see that because of thewarming centers, they're ready
to take next steps.
And so you know, eligibility isreally one of those things that
if we just know people arehurting and they don't have
warmth and they don't have anyplace to be safe, then we take
(04:55):
them in at the warming centers.
Now, eligibility inside thewarming centers we try to keep
as straightforward as we can.
They do operate as a low barrier.
That does not mean that thereare no expectations.
So what is low barrier?
Yeah, so in regards to ourcommunity warming centers, low
(05:17):
barrier are no weapons, noactive drug use, and so people
cannot use while they arestaying in the shelters.
They cannot bring drugs intothe warming centers.
But we don't expect for peopleto not be under the influence,
(05:40):
truly taking some pretty massivesteps in their healing journey
to be clean, to stay clean, toget into programs, to work on
job applications, those kinds ofthings.
But our shelters, although anincredible blessing to the
community, it's not the nextstep for everyone, and so that's
why we run these low barrierwarming centers that just have a
(06:03):
little bit less of anexpectation coming in.
But the main focus is still thesame at the warming center and
the shelters and that safety.
So even if somebody is stillunder the influence of something
, if their conduct is not safeto themselves or others, that
would prevent them from cominginto a warming center.
And so that's when we work onwelfare checks and we go to plan
(06:27):
B and C and D.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
So not everybody who's outdoors is necessarily
going to come even to a warmingcenter even though they could be
intoxicated they could be highon drugs coming in.
As long as their behavior isokay, they won't come in.
Because maybe they won't comein because they're fearful, or
or number of reasons.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Yeah, I think there's a number of reasons.
I would say the main reason whywe see people still say no when
we get past the behaviors.
So we could have somebody thatsays no to us on the streets,
and it could look like they'reself-sufficient in their
structure.
It could look as though theydon't need anybody.
(07:09):
It could look as though they'rechoosing right to stay out
there.
What we're blessed to be,though, with the rescue mission,
is we know those individuals,and they're not the majority,
it's the minority of individualswho are choosing to remain on
the streets and not access thewarming centers.
What we see, though, is we areblessed to know their stories,
(07:30):
and so you know I'm thinking ofa couple of men right now that
if we just looked at behaviors,it would look as though they're
just choosing to be out thereand they don't want to take any
help.
We, however, know that there issevere amounts of PTSD, and so
a couple of those men beingaround depending on what warming
(07:52):
center they're at 15, 20 to 30other men.
It's not doable, and so what wesee is kind of this gruffness
of no, I'm not going to come in,I'll be fine, all of that, but
I know it's really fear, it'sPTSD.
There are trust issues becauseof what people have endured.
(08:12):
And then there is this otherside of that.
We do know drug use and we doknow alcoholism and especially
if it's street drugs, right, wedo see where that really harms
people's brains and it impactsnegatively thinking process from
(08:32):
being able to be logical and tobe able to operate in that safe
part of our brain.
And so we do see some peoplethat it doesn't matter what we
say because of some of thedamage that they're still in the
midst of because of the drugand alcohol.
They can't see their worth.
(08:54):
They can't see that it makes somuch sense for them to take
that next step.
They can't see it yet and so Idon't know how much we want to
dive in.
But that's why our outreachteams do multiple what we call
sweeps.
When we do those sweeps, we dothat because you might have
somebody at an 8 am outreach ona day in their thinking right In
(09:18):
this hey, no, I can't go, no,I'm not going to go, whatever.
But when our teams which Icouldn't, I can't even sing
enough praises for our outreachteams willing to do all this,
but when our outreach teams thengo and launch out at five or
six o'clock at night.
You're not sure what all haschanged with that individual and
that person that may have saidno because of either the trust
(09:40):
issues, the PTSD, maybe drug use, maybe alcoholism you don't
know what's just transpired six,seven, eight hours later and a
lot of times those no's turninto yeses.
And that's why it's importantfor us to as much as possible
get to know these individualsand their stories and to never
give up, because we see it everytime we do a warming center.
(10:05):
We see it every year, with justoutreaches in general.
Every time we do a warmingcenter, we see it every year,
with just outreaches in general.
People do change and we seethat, and that's why we are so
tired, if I can just bevulnerable, because these
outreaches are occurring firstthing in the morning, they're
occurring in the afternoons,they're occurring in the
evenings.
We have outreaches sometimes atmidnight.
(10:26):
If we have the volunteers to dothem, it just takes a lot.
It takes a lot of physicalmanpower, but brainpower,
especially when we don't want togive up on the people that
appear to be no's to accessingthis.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
I think there's a general positive shift in the
community that's going on inregards to who these people are
and it's different than justseeing them outdoors but
beginning to understand thatthere's some complexities in
their lives that aren't justthis or that.
It helps to identify, maybe,the why that they don't just
(11:05):
immediately come in to any kindof a service.
Kristen, I'm going to ask youin a minute about how many
people are staying in theshelters, but last Thursday
evening I was in a two-hourmeeting indoors where there was
nice food and there was heat andprobably about 150 to 200
(11:26):
people there, and there was acouple of folks who are
unsheltered homeless who hadbeen invited to the dinner.
Nice guys, they both volunteerat MAP, the Mobile Access
Partnership, every week, everytime it's open to help out, but
they live outdoors and I beganto talk to them a little bit in
regards to warming center andwhy they're not coming in.
(11:49):
And one of the individuals didhave housing and he lost his
housing and so he's backoutdoors again and they have
dogs and so on and so forth.
But through the two hourprocess one of the gentlemen you
could detect how anxiety riddenhe was.
It was to the point of me justfeeling terrible for him and
(12:11):
learning a little bit more story.
He's been in and out of Vallejotreatment numerous times.
He is currently free frommethamphetamines, but the
biochemical challenges going onin his body are off the charts.
Nicest guy in the world, have agood conversation with him, but
when he's confined to thatgroup of people that they're for
(12:31):
a very, very long time, it justabout kills him.
And it's so uncomfortablewatching him and being around
him.
All that was on Thursday night.
All through the weekend andtonight I've been wondering
about him.
I started asking where can wefind him?
How can we get him some help?
That's just one.
That's just one, and that's.
I think what you're describingis your outreach teams and the
(12:54):
warming center folks they'reencountering right now with
people who are so, so brokenChristian.
You're over shelter servicesand the outreach teams and
that's a pretty big job, and soyou know a lot of people say
well, you've got a rescuemission, you've got these
shelters, you've got a men'sshelter, you've got a women and
family shelter.
Why don't people just come in?
How many people are in thereright now?
Speaker 5 (13:14):
Yeah, so overall, I'll just talk about where our
capacity is and talk about howmany people we have within that
capacity.
So in our men's shelter we haveabout 120 beds 60 upper, 60
(13:36):
lower bunks.
In our women's shelter we haveabout 28 family rooms and then
space for about 50 single women.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
And so overall, like I have to count, you know the
Hope Center a little bitdifferently because I'm catering
toward families.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
Families could come in with one child or five, or 12
.
12.
Yeah, we had that before.
Yeah, so you know there'sfamilies.
Don't come in uniform sizes orunits, but so overall, you know,
between the 120 on the men'sside and the 28 family rooms and
50 single beds in the HopeCenter, the Hope Center comes
out to about 135 to 140 maxcapacity on average.
(14:09):
So overall we're looking atabout 250 total beds If
everything just fits right.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
If everything just fits right and you talk about
upper bunks, half of your men'sshelter beds.
Are you got to get up in a bunk, and not everybody?
Speaker 5 (14:23):
can do that, can they ?
No, no, so you have.
You have some mobility issues.
Those lower bunks are a hotcommodity, they fill up pretty
quickly and then I've actuallyseen, I think, an increase in
the level of needs ofindividuals who are coming to
our shelters.
Physical challenges Physicalchallenges it might be related
to age as well.
(14:44):
I think you've talked aboutthis before in the podcast, but
the graying homeless phenomenais something Growing and growing
.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Yeah, people 50, 55, 60 plus years old.
You've had individuals thathave stayed in shelter and on
the streets who are 80 plusyears old.
Speaker 5 (15:01):
Yes, yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Yeah, so that speaks to a number of challenges they
have.
Yeah, so you got these beds.
And then, of course, noteverybody fits in all, but how
many approximately stayed lastnight?
Speaker 5 (15:11):
So last night I think it was about 244, about the
maximum of 245, 250.
So you're pretty well atmaximum.
Yeah, we're pretty much there.
I think we had about three bedsthat were available on the
men's side, and then there's,you know, some part of that is,
you know we have, whenever a bedbecomes open, we go ahead and
(15:34):
we treat those beds for insectsor other things.
This is kind of a preventativemaintenance, but that slows down
some of the process of turningbeds over.
So there's some of that goingon.
And then, really, you know thenumber that is kind of
heartbreaking for me, and theone that I look at every day, is
the number of children that arestaying in the shelter, and so
(15:57):
that's 46.
46 kids, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
So these are people that may be here one night.
They may be here for multiplenights you never know.
For multiple nights, you neverknow.
And each one of theseindividuals to.
What LaManda was talking aboutis that they're more geared
towards being in a particularsystem or a program to help them
move forward towardsstabilization, help, housing.
That's really what the goal isthere, and so there's also not
(16:25):
just shelter, but there's a lotof things that are wrapped
around that to help individualsto get the kind of tools that
they need to go in the community.
So it's pretty intense, prettyintense.
So we've got a full shelter andit's been full and I think here
not too long ago it was kickingup around 290 or something like
that.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
So we went up to 306.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
306.
Okay, yeah, you about broke therecord.
Speaker 5 (16:46):
And so no, no, barry, I was here long enough to know
the record was much higher thanthat.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Okay, so it was about 325.
Speaker 5 (16:54):
I mean, this was under the previous executive
director.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
That's right.
He has to claim that the onethat didn't develop his no
button until later.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
I think there were numbers pushing up around 400.
Speaker 5 (17:04):
I don't remember that 350.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
Total, I'll probably go to jail for that.
Speaker 5 (17:10):
I remember the Hope Center, so they went to 100 kids
over there one time it waslegal, I mean it was approved,
right.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Nobody else wanted them on the streets.
We have a growing unshelteredhomeless population in our
community.
We have a predominantly fullrescue mission.
Be safe.
When we had those highernumbers in, it was too packed,
it was just two packs.
So what you've done, lamanda,in your watch and with your team
, is you've spread it out towhere we're having warming
centers.
We used to bring people in inthe wintertime, put them in what
was the former chapel and thosekind of things, and it was.
(17:36):
It was.
It was chaotic at best, so it'sbetter organized now.
This isn't the first warmingcenter this year or this season.
This isn't the first one, sothis is the second round.
This isn't the first one, sothis is the second round.
This is the third.
Third round, third round, okay,so all right.
So the first time.
Speaker 4 (17:55):
That's why we're so tired, Barry.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
I must be pretty tired too.
I was number two, so this isthe third one that you've done.
You just haven't done it allwinter long.
You haven't started?
In December, when it startedgetting cold and all winter long
, and you already addressed this.
A lot of factors are involvedin that.
So when do you decide and we'rekind of jumping ahead here but
when do you decide to say, okay,we've done everything that we
need to do?
At this point, we're going toclose it down, like, I believe,
you did last Friday.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
Mm-hmm.
So those same factors that welook at that I mentioned earlier
the wind chills, thetemperatures, can we get
outreach teams out or not?
Is there a state of emergencyAll of those things we then
consider when we're closing aswell.
I think we're starting to seeso many more people speak out on
(18:48):
the injustices that are done inregards to homelessness right
now, and I hope that decisionmakers are hearing that there is
a cry and an expectation of ourcommunity to take care of our
neighbors and to do it well,that yes, there are frustrations
(19:09):
with people experiencinghomelessness and some of the
challenges that come across it,but there is a very strong
opinion right now from thepeople in Topeka that we're not
just saying get rid of peopleexperiencing homelessness, we're
saying let's get the rightresources to help them have a
continuation of care.
So, that being said, I do wantto address how we close this,
because these same incredible,passionate people that are
(19:32):
wanting good stuff done can thenalso get really extremely
passionate when I close warmingcenters.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
In other words, they don't think it's a good idea,
correct?
Speaker 4 (19:41):
And I understand, and so I kind of want to unfold
that a little bit.
Because, yes, do warmingcenters sometimes close and it's
still in the 20s or 30s?
Yes, but when we look at thatagain, we're looking at all of
those factors.
So if the wind chills haveimproved, if the temperatures
have improved, if we havesunshine, if there is an
(20:04):
increase in our outreach team'sability to get out and to do
more checks and all of thosekinds of things, then we cannot
just keep warming centers open.
I mean, warming centers trulyare an extreme effort when
everything is extreme.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Some of the reasons why you can't just say, okay,
we're in wintertime, we don'tknow what's going to happen in a
few days, let's just keep itopen all the time you keep your
shelters open all the time.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
Why not the warming centers?
Yeah, so on our shelter side wehave shelter guests In addition
to that.
You know, anywhere between 240to 275 right now is kind of our
average.
In addition to that, we stillhave the cold weather exceptions
that we operate out of the mainshelter, Meaning if someone is
unsheltered, we open up a wholedifferent level of options If it
(20:55):
gets below 40, and if it getsbelow 30 or 32, and if it gets
below 20, we have threedifferent options.
That's been in existence sincewhat?
91, I think you said.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Long time.
Speaker 4 (21:04):
Yeah, so I've been joking with him and told him
that I was four no-transcriptadditional that we do at these
(21:38):
warming centers are totallydependent on staff and
volunteers.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
And not extra staff, not extra staff.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
I'm still operating within right now, 69 staff
members that are still operating24-hour shelters, 24-7 shelters
and the distribution center.
We've got food pantries goingon right now.
All of this stuff stillcontinues.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
And these are new temporary locations and shelters
and resources needed and awhole lot more volunteers.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
Yes.
So just in the first warmingcenter we did this year, okay,
that really posed an issue forvolunteers to be able to get out
.
We had so many people thatwanted to say yes and help, but
we got the ice first and peopleweren't able to get out of their
driveways.
So to your question, when yousay, well, why can't you just
keep them open?
Or you know those kinds ofthings, it is a manpower issue.
(22:30):
Um, so those I can't evenremember.
I think it was six days.
Don't quote me.
Guess how much that cost trmjust in overtime.
How much five thousand fifty twohundred dollars in six days.
I can't.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
In overtime that's just overtime shift and then
coming in and by law they'remandated as well.
I don't staff volunteer by lawdepartment labor.
They're not allowed to uhwithout compensation.
Speaker 4 (22:56):
And none of that includes um, any leadership that
worked um because we're nothourly and S, and that doesn't
include the staff that just cameto us and said look, I really
just want to volunteer.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
So why Christian and Marcus's eyes are closed, right?
Speaker 4 (23:15):
now.
Yes, that's why we're all threeof us right now have radio
faces.
Let's just say that.
So if we want to talk afinancial piece that is why
simply TRM cannot fit the bill.
If we do that and we did, andthat was just for six days
$5,000 additional.
Do the math on that we cannotdo that as a nonprofit.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Limited resources.
You need that resource comingin in addition to what's already
coming, because you still haveto lay out the finances for it.
And you have all thesevolunteers that there's a
certain limit to their abilitiestoo, correct.
And you'd mentioned the firstround with the ice.
There was one volunteer, lovelylady, who was in a car wreck
(23:59):
going home because of the ice,was stuck in the ice for quite
some time in the snow drift andher car got totaled out of this
whole thing in the snow driftand her car got totaled out of
this whole thing.
Yes, and you know there was.
There's the practicality.
You can't expect everybody justto be there, marcus, I want to
come back to you in a minute.
Marcus, during that first round, your team in regards to
(24:22):
facility security,transportation, those kind of
you actually were rescuing anambulance.
Yeah, talk about ambulance.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
Talk about that.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Yeah, so AMR was on call by one of my staff members'
complexes and he just spent allday helping people and
transporting staff, and all thatbecause it was so bad.
He was still buzzing fromhelping people, so he's still
(24:51):
awake yeah, he's seen them stuck.
He had his chain and his toestraps and um hooked up to him
and they pulled him.
I don't know how many feet hepulled him out of there, but it
was drifting, so much it was.
They were stuck, stuck, andwhen they seen it on I forgot
which news program broadcastedthat, but he got-.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Somebody had a doorbell camera that caught that
or something like that, and ofcourse it went out on the news,
not like you were looking for.
Hey, look at what we're doing,right, just doing your job,
right.
But the serious nature of itkind of goes back to.
You can't just expect, evenwhen AMR gets stuck or police
cars get stuck or plows getstuck, you can't expect
volunteers necessarily to comeand be a part of this because
(25:37):
practically they can't get hereor can't get back home.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
Right, well, and you know, our maintenance team has
what seven.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
We got six.
Six, yeah, has what?
Speaker 4 (25:48):
seven.
We got six, six okay, so seven.
Um, in addition to taking careof six buildings 60 something
staff members because we allhave needs um, they also do all
of the snow maintenance andsafety stuff for Noto.
(26:09):
So, like this morning, um, Iwas driving in and one of our
staff members was so bundledoperating a snow, a hand snow
plow thing, um, that I couldn'teven tell who he was.
But I knew who he was because Iknow the staff.
I couldn't even tell who he was, but I knew who he was because
I know the staff and I justwished that I could have, like
(26:32):
taken a snapshot of him, becausehe's all bundled up.
He's doing this physical laborand doing it for our friends in
Noto.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
I want to say something on that.
If you're driving around todayor the next couple of days, I
want you to look at the no-toesidewalks.
I want you to look at the othersidewalks in this community
around retail.
You're going to see no-toescleared because Topeka Rescue
Mission is serving its neighbors.
You may go into some otherplaces that are pretty prominent
(27:08):
places and unless that operatorout of that particular business
is out there shoveling snow,you're going to have a hard time
getting that business right now, and that's the way it has been
.
That is a rescue ministryserving not just the homeless
but its neighboring businesses.
It's huge.
I was driving down here thismorning.
I saw the guys out there and Ilooked at the sidewalks I go,
man, they look great.
And so I was driving down herethis morning.
(27:30):
I saw the guys out there and Ilooked at the sidewalks I go man
they look great, and so I wasgoing to ask you, is TRM still
doing that?
Speaker 4 (27:35):
And the answer is yes , that's awesome.
And then Pedro, you know theexecutive director of NODO, he
was out and he was bundled up.
And so just this level ofteamwork right of being able to
do that, do that, and so, seeingwhat all our team already does
for our community in so manydifferent ways, it's a balance
(28:05):
for me, as the CEO here, to knowwhen to keep walking out in
faith and saying yes, becauseGod provides, and also when to
be a wise steward of us as aleader, to say we need to pause.
And so, in looking at when toclose these, in addition to the
financial factor, in addition tothe manpower, in addition to
(28:28):
what we're expecting forvolunteers, there's also just
the overall safetiness, ifthat's a word, of being able to
do the logistics this team thatis pulling ambulances out of
ditches and clearing offsidewalks.
My shelter teams who are takingadditional guests on when
they're already at capacity.
(28:48):
My leaders who already, on anormal work week, put anywhere
between 50 to 65 hours a week.
On top of all of that, then,when we go to close these
warming centers, it's thelogistics of deep cleaning, it's
the logistics of gettingeverything back in order,
reusing those rooms for classes.
So classes resume, and then itis a.
(29:11):
Our bodies can only take so much, and so that's not us not
walking in faith, it's not usdying to ourselves and not
believing in the Lord and all ofthat.
There is a physicalness to it,too, that when I look at my
staff, that's my first flock andthey need a reset, whether it's
immune systems, whether it'sneeding to be with their own
(29:34):
families, all of those kinds ofthings that should be the first
ministries in all of their lives.
I cannot continue doingadditional things this community
needs at the expenses of that,and so that's why we try to find
the balance of.
When there are extremes, all ofus are going full throttle,
depending on the Lord and doingit.
(29:55):
But as soon as there'sopportunities for a lot less
safety hazards and opportunitiesfor everyone to reset and
refocus, and all of that to goback to all of our additional
duties, right of running thisministry, we have to do that
(30:30):
values and recognizes life andrecognizes that you're the
Topeka Rescue Mission, loveswhat we get to do and that
there's nothing bigger that Godcan't do.
But I do think that we are in aextreme cold.
(31:11):
We should be talking extremeheat, these things now and we're
only focused on well, therescue mission shouldn't have
closed down warming centers.
My challenge to everyone issaying what if we just had the
(31:31):
right things in the right placesall year long?
Speaker 3 (31:35):
Resourced.
Speaker 4 (31:36):
And that we were doing right by people all the
time and that those were beingdone by the right decision
makers.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
One of the things that we wanted to do today is
talk about kind of the nittygritty and the complexities of
the warming centers, and we'vebeen doing some of that.
Just if you're listening tothis and you're thinking, well,
this is a feel sorry for TopekaRescue Mission podcast.
That's not what it's about.
It's about a willingness of anorganization to step up and do
more than it has done or doesevery single day, because if it
(32:09):
doesn't and we want to talkabout some of the other partners
here in a second doing warmingcenters as well if it doesn't
happen, people may die,literally may die, and if they
don't die, they may be injuredpermanently for the rest of
their lives to where they aredisabled because of the injuries
that they suffered.
Let me talk just briefly.
It's not just a peak rescuemission, but TRM, under your
(32:32):
leadership and your team, arehelping direct the bigger
picture here on coordinatedeffort here.
Who are some of the otherpartners that are opening up
their facilities?
Speaker 4 (32:43):
Yeah, and just forgive me in case I forget
somebody, but I always pray likeLord.
Please don't let me make thatmistake.
But when we're looking atwarming centers we have
Fellowship Highcrest, who Ithink they've done three out of
the four with us besides thefirst one who have just rallied
around us and said we get it,our neighbors deserve it, and
(33:08):
what can we say yes to?
And they have opened every timewe open.
And so great communication,great example of them operating
within parameters of what we'vekind of realized works, but then
them making it their ownwarming center too and us just
partnering with what our yeseslook like when we put them
together.
(33:29):
Previously we had let's help.
We were so thankful for them.
They opened up temporarily butdid what they could do and that
alleviated a big need for thattime.
They are still heavily involved.
Pat, I know their executivedirector has worked and
volunteered at the warmingcenters even though let's Help
isn't open.
(33:49):
So we're thankful for thatcontinued support.
Currently we have a facilityhappening or a warming center
happening at Ripley CommunityCenter that is under the
guidance and direction ofRichard Martinez and his main
man, sean, with Street TeamMinistry, who open up and-.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
And what a champion those guys are to do what they
can.
I think it's public, because itwas out on Facebook that
Richard Martinez, from ahospital bed, trying to stay
alive himself, is givingdirection to try to get that
thing going.
Speaker 4 (34:23):
So well, and I was yes, and not only do they open
as warming centers, but ifthere's not a need for a warming
center yet to open, like whenwe first start these, they help
us do the transportation.
So I was just checking onRichard I had been while he was
in the hospital, sending him atext at the end of last week,
and I said, hey, just wanted youto know, I'm still praying for
you, all that and he said, yeah,well, I'm at the Children's
(34:44):
Palace going to do transport.
I said, excuse me, you know,but anyways, thankful for that,
Another one that is doing greatwork.
They don't necessarily need topartner with us, though, because
they run this, these kind ofwarming centers and cooling
centers and just weekly meals.
(35:05):
All of that is Central ParkChristian Church.
Uh, we're incredibly thankfulfor, uh, Chaplain Mary Flynn and
John Cantrell and his beautifulwife Taylor.
Uh, their new pastor, uh,Pastor Fleming and his wife
Michelle.
They do a lot of stuff for thatcentral community all year long
, and so this is not somethingnew for them.
(35:28):
And they do operate completelydifferent, really, because of
just how they do ongoing mealsand showers and all of that, but
you see them doing good stufffor their neighbors and to know
that hey, this is worth it.
And they see the change happenand so we're thankful for that.
In the past we had Vallejo onetime help us with the warming
(35:51):
center.
We were thankful for that.
So I mean it just, we see,whether it's churches or
individuals come together to saytheir yes.
In the past we had True Vine.
That church opened up and theyjust kept making more space and
more space and more space.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
And so it's a coordinated effort to say OK,
how many you have over there?
How many beds do you have left?
What about animals?
We have the Street DogCoalition who stepped up into
this and are boarding animalsduring this time, dr Alison
Crowe and her team.
It's quite a effort.
Anything else you want to sayabout that?
(36:32):
And I want to bring upsomething a little controversial
.
Speaker 4 (36:34):
Yeah, so we have a war board.
We have a home base hub here atthe Children's Palace and then
we have a war board.
One side of the war board haswho our outreach teams are, what
vehicles that are, in what areathey're going to, who's home
base, all of those kinds ofthings.
Who's running the hotline phone.
The other side of it is everywarming center that's occurring,
(36:54):
the number of bed spaces theyhave, animals, what we're
operating from, shelter wise andall of that.
So like if I picked up thephone right now and called
Miriam, miriam could tell meexactly how many people are at
Fellowship Highcrest, how manyare at Ripley Community Center,
how many is on ours and how manyis doing the cold weather
exceptions at our shelter.
(37:14):
So we have all of that goingand while, like Miriam as an
example, while Miriam is alsoclosing out the month and doing
the books and and and right.
But the last thing I wanted tosay on this, this partnership,
we've got Dr Crow, who is aveterinarian in our community
(37:45):
and I'm totally biased becauseshe's my personal one I think
she's great.
Speaker 3 (37:49):
But mine too.
That's actually my dogs.
Speaker 4 (37:52):
So she's incredible.
But in addition to her workingright, she's also then juggling
all of this street dogcoordination.
But then you've got Kelly withVallejo and you've got Matt with
the Breakthrough House, whowere also doing their quote
unquote normal jobs.
And then in the midst of itthey're also doing outreach for
(38:14):
us, and then they're also thecoordinators of Street Dog
Coalition.
So when we have animals thatneed love, right and care and
their pet owner is on the streetsaying, nope, I'm not
separating with them, many timesa human life is saved and
brought to safety because wehave an option to care for their
(38:35):
fur baby, whether it's a cat ora dog.
And so the last warming centerwe sheltered 31.
I'm not sure what our numbersare for this one 31 animals.
But you've got Matt and Kellythat are helping our outreach
teams going out and doing stuff.
Then they come back here to thechildren's palace when an
unsheltered neighbor gets herewith their animal.
(38:55):
So then my volunteers aretaking care of the unsheltered
neighbor.
They then take care of theanimal, transport it to wherever
it needs to go.
And it's just like this.
I don't even know thisorganized chaos system of
everybody just doing what theycan.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
It's a beautiful mess it really is, and people's
lives are being saved to peoplewho aren't really sure about the
animal piece.
People may be living in a car,maybe living living in a tent,
may be living in some makeshiftthing and they've got their only
family member and it's a furryfour-legger and they're not
going to leave that littleanimal to freeze to death out
there, because they love theirpet.
(39:37):
Their pet is their family andso by having this service thank
you, volunteers, street DogCoalition, and all this to be
able to help that individualmake a wise decision to come out
of the cold and bring theiranimal with them is huge in this
whole effort Okay, I'm thinkingcounting numbers of people that
are helping keep people alive.
It's hundreds of people ofdifferent entities, time the
(40:01):
resources that people aredonating.
I looked in the chapel hereearlier this morning and it's
full of food and blankets anddifferent things that people
have dropped off to be able tosupport.
So it's hundreds of peopleinvolved.
I know that we have a greatrelationship with the behavioral
health unit of the TopekaPolice Department, with Sergeant
Matt Rose, who is just anall-star, and his team that
(40:23):
helps out on this.
You mentioned a lot ofdifferent organizations.
But where's the city in this?
The city of Topeka is veryinvested in the homeless issue.
But from the city council levelof passing ordinances to clear
homeless camps of where peopleare, we get that it's not cool
to have people sleeping outdoorsin tents or trash around and
(40:46):
those kind of things.
But with their efforts thatstarted some years ago but
really kicked into high gear ayear ago this month of clearing
homeless camps, they're investedin that level.
But are they invested inhelping people find shelter?
Are they invested in creatingshelter?
Are they invested in creatingshelter?
Are they invested in warmingcenters?
I know that's controversial,but people are talking about it.
(41:08):
This is our community, ourmission podcast.
We're going to put the cards onthe table.
Is the city LaManda?
I may not know about it.
Is the city stepped up andsaying what can we do to help?
Outside of Topeka PoliceDepartment.
Speaker 4 (41:22):
No, we have a lot of opportunity there to grow that
partnership and to grow anunderstanding.
There is lots that need to beimproved on just the overall
involvement, understanding,support, whatever word we want
(41:45):
to call it from the city ofTopeka and quite honestly I'm
not even sure where to take thatand how.
We have tried relentlessly tocontinue to involve certain
positions from the city in this,to communicate, to be on board,
(42:08):
and there continues to be avery surface level and I say
surface level in the fact of letus know if you need help and
then we do, and it's either noresponse or a no.
There is no publicacknowledgement, particularly
(42:33):
from the governing body, of theefforts that are done with these
kinds of things, and not thatanybody, particularly our
volunteers or staff or agencies,nobody is looking for accolades
but opportunities such aswarming centers and the
incredible work that's done whenpeople come together and say
yes, that should absolutely beacknowledged by the governing
(42:57):
body, who has the power to makedecisions, the power to make
decisions, the financialstewardship and all of that,
versus either not addressing itor addressing it because of
their own personal opinions thatreally have very limited
factual merit behind it, and Ithink that it is definitely an
opportunity for whether we'retalking leadership within the
(43:20):
city who are paid, whether it'sthe governing body of council,
or for the city andcommissioners for the county, to
really say this is anopportunity where we see the
people that we talk about allthe time, we see them being
served.
Let's go, let's go view it,let's go look at it, let's see
what should we be doing.
(43:40):
Are we making the rightdecisions?
And I see none of that.
That's very that's.
Go look at it, let's see whatshould we be doing.
Are we making the rightdecisions?
And I see none of that.
Speaker 3 (43:45):
That's very unfortunate.
Other cities around the countrythat are fairly close to us, in
proximity, their cityleadership, county leadership
have stepped up to the plate,working with nonprofits, working
with churches to help resourcesome of this, but we're not
seeing that here in Topeka.
Now, that is not saying thatcity employees are bad people.
(44:06):
We have a lot of greatrelationships in addition to the
housing department, with thecity of Topeka, code enforcement
, different folks that arereally doing a great job.
But there have been policydecisions that have been made
from our governing body that hasmade it more difficult for the
people who are experiencinghomelessness, and I understand
(44:30):
that is part of what they aretasked to do.
But they're also tasked to takecare of vulnerable people and
to protect our citizens allcitizens and if that's not being
done, something's missing here.
Citizens, all citizens, and ifthat's not being done,
something's missing here.
Thankfully, we have TopekaRescue Mission, these other
organizations that werementioned, a whole lot of great
(44:50):
people who care in thiscommunity, a staff who is saying
okay, we're going to sacrificesleep all winter if we have to
to be able to do this to takecare of our neighbors.
I mentioned a couple of guys Isat down with last Thursday in
the safety of this church dinnerthat we had talking to them,
getting to know them a littlebit better, and one gentleman
(45:12):
having high anxiety andpreferring to go back to his
tent because he couldn't bearound people.
And so I said have you beenrelocated your camps?
And they said once I said, doyou feel safe where you are now?
They said no.
Now, keep in mind these arebroken individuals who don't do
(45:36):
well around crowds, who havestruggling with.
The other gentleman hasrecently recovered from a
removal of a brain tumor Throughsurgery.
They thought he was going todie.
He had less than 15% chance ofliving.
He is still alive today becausepeople wrapped around him.
Thank you to Mobile AccessPartnership and Stormont Vale
and others that wrapped aroundhim.
So here's two, really broken,just two.
(45:57):
And I said so how secure do youfeel where you are?
And have you heard about yourarea that you're sleeping in
right now?
Is it going to be clean?
And they said yeah, we've beentold that it's going to be.
I said what are you going to do?
We don't know.
I said have you heard about anyplans?
And they said yeah, we heardthat they're going to move us
outside of the county, outsideof Shawnee County.
(46:19):
I said, where?
Well, they kind of told me thearea and I don't want to start
anything here, but this is therumor that's out there, where
they heard it from, I don't know.
I said how do you expect you'regoing to get services?
And they said we have no idea,we're scared.
And so they're living moment bymoment in fear in the winter,
with physical disability, withmental health challenges, with
(46:43):
struggling not to be usingmethamphetamines or something to
soothe their pain, andthankfully there are a group of
people in the community who aresaying we're here for you, come
on in, we're going to take careof you.
But the people who are makingdecisions at the government
level in Topeka, kansas, aremaking it harder for these
individuals and thus harder forthose that are trying to help
(47:03):
them.
I want you to hear this, folks.
I've been in this business along time, so to speak, and I've
never seen anything quite likethis at the governing level of
our city.
It's been much better than whatwe see today and I hope, if
you're listening, that you pickup the phone.
This is not an activistpolitical platform, but it is a
humanitarian, god-consciouspodcast.
(47:26):
To be able to say this is thefacts, here's what we are doing.
But LaManda said it earlier itcan't not be maintained going
forward with the kind of needsthat there are, just by one
organization and others steppingup to help alongside.
So I wanted to share that.
That is what it is.
Thankfully, things are beingdone very well.
(47:47):
We said we want to kind ofunpack warming centers and what
we're doing Before we close offtoday, christian Marcus,
anything that you guys wouldlike to share?
Speaker 5 (47:56):
I got one thing Now that I say that, and then, barry
, you're looking like oh shoot.
Speaker 3 (48:05):
Christian is a pastor also, so you know.
Speaker 5 (48:08):
Well, what I was wanting to say is you know, when
warming centers start, orreally when cold weather hits,
things don't slow down.
So, especially in a shelterenvironment, actually things
escalate.
You have a bunch of people thatdon't want to go outside, and
so they end up being stuckinside with a bunch of people
that don't really want to bearound.
So you see an escalation inbehaviors and you see those
(48:31):
kinds of things in warmingcenters as well.
But really you take somethingthat is probably more difficult
in this time of year and thenyou stack probably 20% more
stress on top of that with thesame people and volunteers.
And that is kind of what ourteams are operating at right now
(48:53):
is that we're already managinga pretty high level.
You know, I can imagine thatmany of our listeners right now
stay pretty busy.
Speaker 3 (49:01):
I used to work in mental health in a state
hospital and they closed thoseyeah so similar behaviors end up
coming to homeless shelters andjails.
Speaker 5 (49:12):
So we deal with mental health, we deal with
behaviors, we deal with crime,we deal with addiction All those
different things but the thingis, nothing slows down, it just
escalates, and we have the samepeople doing both of those
things.
But one thing I want to just putout, a call to our listeners is
(49:33):
I know many of you guys arebusy.
You guys have some importantjobs, you guys do important jobs
in the community, and one we'rereally grateful that you spend
your time listening to us onhere, but I want to invite those
who are listening if you havethe capability, you have an
opportunity to come and lookbehind the curtain.
(49:55):
There's a lot of people thathave ideas and have thoughts
about homelessness, that havethoughts about mental health or
addiction or all these differentthings that we talk about on
this podcast, but not manypeople are really willing to
look behind the curtain and seethe pain where it really is, and
so I just want to let you know,with these warming centers, we
(50:15):
have an opportunity to becomeinvolved, not just with
supporting, but to get yourhands dirty, to roll up your
sleeves and get into the middleof it, and really I think one of
the most important things wecan do is at least on my end.
Every time I've had an idea,I've wanted to get involved in
(50:36):
it and then see how thingsactually operate.
So you can hear us talkingabout this on here and some of
it might make sense, but untilyou're actually in the context
of it it might not make a wholelot of sense.
That's true, and so I justwanted to put that invitation
out there.
You guys are welcome to look upthe needs for volunteers and
(50:58):
then with that, you know, to getsome skin in the game.
Speaker 3 (51:02):
It's easy to get on a social media post and tell you
what you think without knowingwhat you're talking about and a
lot of people doing that today,unfortunately.
But this is a good way to sayOK, I really have been there,
I've seen that and I know whatI'm talking about.
Thank you, christian Marcus.
You've been here, you've beenon the streets, you've faced a
(51:23):
lot of things that people arefacing today.
You're a deputy director,topeka Rescue Mission with a big
responsibility, with a greatteam doing great things.
Speaker 2 (51:35):
So what do you say about all this?
First of all, I want to saythank you for all the help that
you have given me.
You've given me the examplesand all that.
I want to thank volunteers inthe community for coming and
helping with our warming centers.
What I really need, and wetruly need, is the city to step
(51:58):
up and learn the word help.
Sadie just stepped up andlearned the word help H-E-L-P.
It is an acronym His Example ofLoving People.
So if they could just learnthat, I think we'd be all right.
That's good.
Speaker 3 (52:12):
Good, that's great, thank you.
Speaker 4 (52:17):
Amanda, final word.
Today I think we have a lot ofgratitude to give out to so many
people who are making this hugeeffort possible, from partners
(52:43):
to donors, to prayer warriors,staff all of that.
There is so much to be thankfulfor.
When we know we have to makethese decisions of what's needed
, because we see the faces, wehave the convictions that it
needs to be done, it's easier tostep up and say we're going to
(53:03):
say yes and we're going to dothis because we know we've got
so many in our community thatare willing to support the
efforts, because we seeourselves in these people.
We see our own struggles.
That might look different andthe root reasons might be
different, but there's a lot ofsimilarities and the root
(53:23):
reasons might be different, butthere's a lot of similarities.
And then I would say, as thesame way as I express the
(53:58):
gratitude, I think I also justwant to grapple and plead for
people to just recognize that wedon't have the ability to look
at individuals experiencinghomelessness who are either
talking to themselves or who aredirty and smell bad or are
gruff around the edges andcussing and seem to be
mean-spirited.
We don't have the ability topause their life film right.
We don't have the ability topause and just rewind to where
(54:20):
they were pure, to rewind wheretheir hurt started.
We don't.
But I do plead that we learn todesire to do that, to desire to
(54:50):
do that, and I just amdesperately anticipating for the
people in our community wholove the people and who are
doing the good work and arepassionate about additional
resources and opportunities toopen up for people experiencing
homelessness.
I hope that somehow thosepeople in our community, that
(55:13):
those voices start being heard,because it's not just me and my
team that care about this, it'snot just Fellowship Highcrest,
it's not just certain groups ofpeople care about this, it's not
just Fellowship Highcrest, it'snot just certain groups of
people.
There are a lot of constituentsin Topeka who are truly
passionate about gettingadditional options for people
experiencing homelessness andthey understand and for some
(55:33):
reason I'm going to trust theLord until it changes.
But for some reason that is notthe narrative that is said, it's
not the narrative that's beingblasted, it's not the narrative
that is influencing decisionmakers, and I don't understand
that.
(55:54):
And so I just plead that thepeople who care about people and
the cause continue to care thepeople who care about people and
the cause.
Continue to care, continue toadvocate kindly, and I just
anticipate the day that decisionmakers are convicted about
(56:17):
things that are truly damagingpeople right now and we see it
every day.
And so, while my heart, as youknow, trm CEO, is so full from
(56:37):
what we get to do and everybodywho makes it possible, my heart
also is so broken for the factthat it seems as though, short
of a miracle from the Lord, itseems as though there is no
relief coming for the peoplewe're serving and that the
people that have the powercontinually listen to squeaky
(57:00):
wheels or maybe that's themthemselves, and that is
difficult, but it's worth it andour team stands firm in doing
what we feel is right, even whenit might not be the popular
opinion, and I anticipate theday we taking care of people and
(57:25):
leaders, being bold to do thatis actually the popular thing to
do.
Speaker 3 (57:31):
Well said.
Lamanda, christian, marcus,thank you today for taking time
out to join us.
When they're just down the hallthere's a lot of needy people
and across the street there'seven more needy people who are
surviving today and thrivingbecause of you guys and a whole
incredible team.
Amanda, thank you for leadingthis effort.
(57:54):
Thank you for sharing yourheart today.
Thank you for all of you whohave participated in helping to
love our neighbors.
Marcus said it well his exampleloving people, h-e-l-p.
Help.
If we do that well and love ourneighbors as ourself, as the
(58:14):
greatest, second greatestcommandment, then we will be a
city who can shine that we'vetalked about.
We will be a city who can bethere to help people just like
you and just like me, to have anopportunity that, if somebody
wasn't there in our life, wewould not be where we are today.
Thank you for being a part ofour community, our mission.
Thank you for listening.
(58:34):
Today we took a deep dive intosomething that is really awesome
that's going on in ourcommunity these warming centers
and the ongoing efforts ofTopeka Rescue Mission.
We didn't make it look prettyand shiny today, sorry if that
wasn't what you were hoping for.
It's not pretty shiny, it'sjust good and the best thing to
do is keep a good thing good andlet's do it even better.
(58:55):
If you'd like more informationabout Topeka Rescue Mission, you
can go to trmonlineorg.
That's trmonlineorg.
You can actually help out byvolunteering, you can help out
by donating right there on thewebsite and, as Christian said,
come on down, we'd love to seeyou.
Thanks for listening.
Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you, lord, for your
blessings, your provisions, andwe thank you for another day to
record another podcast.
Lord, thank you for ourlisteners.
We pray your blessing over themand, lord, just your blessing
over this conversation, lord,that you would guide and lead it
and the things that need to besaid would be said.
Lord, we just love you and wepraise your name.
Amen.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Hello everybody listening to our community, our
mission, a podcast of the TopekaRescue Mission.
This is your host today, BarryFeeker, here on a Tuesday
instead of a Wednesday, Februarythe 18th of 2025.
This is episode number 256.
We're pushing out this episodea little bit early this week
because of the severe weatherthat is occurring in this part
(00:43):
of the state, maybe this part ofthe state, maybe this part of
the country and especially herein the Topeka Kansas area.
I'm going to talk about warmingcenters.
I'm going to really take a deepdive here today, so stay tuned
with this.
We have LaManda Cunningham,Executive Director of the Topeka
Rescue Mission, here thismorning.
Christian Stringfellow, DeputyDirector of Supportive excuse me
Deputy Director of ShelterServices You're not Miriam and
(01:06):
so Marcus Molinaire, who isDeputy Director of Security and
Facilities, here today.
So you all have not got a wholelot of sleep here recently.
I can see it, and so I've beentold that my voice puts people
to sleep, so if people hearsnoring, it's just because they
need a little rest.
So, Amanda, thank you, andChristian, Marcus, thank you for
(01:29):
being here today, and you hadto pull away from some very,
very important duties because,on this particular day, a
warming center is at theChildren's Palace.
There are a number of peoplehere off the streets palace.
There are a number of peoplehere off the streets, a number
of people in shelter at the HopeCenter and the main facility
(01:51):
and doing this too.
So, LaManda, give us yourthoughts in general.
We're going to get into somedetails here, but give us your
thoughts in general.
What is a warming center andwhy?
Speaker 4 (01:59):
Sure.
So warming centers in anutshell, sure.
So warming centers, in anutshell, are additional
temporary shelters that we openup for the community, made
possible by the community.
And the warming centers opennot just based on one factor.
So it's not just if it'ssnowing we're going to open a
(02:21):
warming center.
It's not just if we have onlylow temperatures we're going to
open a warming center in awarming center.
It's not just if we have onlylow temperatures we're going to
open a warming center.
When we're looking at thepurpose and the focus of the
warming centers, it really islife preservation and or looking
at what is extremely hazardous,that's going to prevent our
outreach teams from being ableto check on people and keep
people safe.
That's what constitutes warmingcenters.
(02:43):
So when we decide to open them,we are looking at everything
from has a state of emergencybeen declared?
We're looking at what are thetemperatures.
We're looking at what are thewindshields going to be.
We're looking at precipitation,what type, how much, when is it
coming?
Because it does make adifference if our neighbors get
(03:04):
wet first.
So we're looking at all ofthose factors, in collaboration
with emergency personnel andNational Weather Service, to
really decide.
Okay, when we're looking atwhat options we currently have
to help keep people warm.
If that's going to be maxed outand we've got to open
additional safe refuge places,then we've got to do that, and
that's what constitutes awarming center.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
So this is designed predominantly for people who
live outdoors, or in a car ormaybe in a structure of some
kind that has no way to keepwarm Right.
So what other criteria would beinvolved in people showing up
at the door or getting a ride toa warming center?
Speaker 4 (03:48):
Those are pretty much it.
I mean, we're really trying totarget anybody who is prevented,
for whatever reason, of havingsafe, warm places to stay.
That's really our focus.
So in addition to that thoughwhat started this was a focus of
our unsheltered neighbors onthe streets we recognize that
(04:09):
there's just a plethora ofreasons why people are on the
streets without structures andshelters, and realizing that
warming centers can do one oftwo things it can be an
immediate place to provide basicneeds and keep people from life
or death.
But in addition to that, thereare some people who take the
(04:34):
first step of coming to awarming center and saying, man,
that wasn't as scary, thatwasn't as bad.
And we see that because of thewarming centers, they're ready
to take next steps.
And we see that because of thewarming centers, they're ready
to take next steps.
And so you know, eligibility isreally one of those things that
if we just know people arehurting and they don't have
warmth and they don't have anyplace to be safe, then we take
(04:55):
them in at the warming centers.
Now, eligibility inside thewarming centers we try to keep
as straightforward as we can.
They do operate as a low barrier.
That does not mean that thereare no expectations.
So what is low barrier?
Yeah, so in regards to ourcommunity warming centers, low
(05:17):
barrier are no weapons, noactive drug use, and so people
cannot use while they arestaying in the shelters.
They cannot bring drugs intothe warming centers.
But we don't expect for peopleto not be under the influence,
(05:40):
truly taking some pretty massivesteps in their healing journey
to be clean, to stay clean, toget into programs, to work on
job applications, those kinds ofthings.
But our shelters, although anincredible blessing to the
community, it's not the nextstep for everyone, and so that's
why we run these low barrierwarming centers that just have a
(06:03):
little bit less of anexpectation coming in.
But the main focus is still thesame at the warming center and
the shelters and that safety.
So even if somebody is stillunder the influence of something
, if their conduct is not safeto themselves or others, that
would prevent them from cominginto a warming center.
And so that's when we work onwelfare checks and we go to plan
(06:27):
B and C and D.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
So not everybody who's outdoors is necessarily
going to come even to a warmingcenter even though they could be
intoxicated they could be highon drugs coming in.
As long as their behavior isokay, they won't come in.
Because maybe they won't comein because they're fearful, or
or number of reasons.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Yeah, I think there's a number of reasons.
I would say the main reason whywe see people still say no when
we get past the behaviors.
So we could have somebody thatsays no to us on the streets,
and it could look like they'reself-sufficient in their
structure.
It could look as though theydon't need anybody.
(07:09):
It could look as though they'rechoosing right to stay out
there.
What we're blessed to be,though, with the rescue mission,
is we know those individuals,and they're not the majority,
it's the minority of individualswho are choosing to remain on
the streets and not access thewarming centers.
What we see, though, is we areblessed to know their stories,
(07:30):
and so you know I'm thinking ofa couple of men right now that
if we just looked at behaviors,it would look as though they're
just choosing to be out thereand they don't want to take any
help.
We, however, know that there issevere amounts of PTSD, and so
a couple of those men beingaround depending on what warming
(07:52):
center they're at 15, 20 to 30other men.
It's not doable, and so what wesee is kind of this gruffness
of no, I'm not going to come in,I'll be fine, all of that, but
I know it's really fear, it'sPTSD.
There are trust issues becauseof what people have endured.
(08:12):
And then there is this otherside of that.
We do know drug use and we doknow alcoholism and especially
if it's street drugs, right, wedo see where that really harms
people's brains and it impactsnegatively thinking process from
(08:32):
being able to be logical and tobe able to operate in that safe
part of our brain.
And so we do see some peoplethat it doesn't matter what we
say because of some of thedamage that they're still in the
midst of because of the drugand alcohol.
They can't see their worth.
(08:54):
They can't see that it makes somuch sense for them to take
that next step.
They can't see it yet and so Idon't know how much we want to
dive in.
But that's why our outreachteams do multiple what we call
sweeps.
When we do those sweeps, we dothat because you might have
somebody at an 8 am outreach ona day in their thinking right In
(09:18):
this hey, no, I can't go, no,I'm not going to go, whatever.
But when our teams which Icouldn't, I can't even sing
enough praises for our outreachteams willing to do all this,
but when our outreach teams thengo and launch out at five or
six o'clock at night.
You're not sure what all haschanged with that individual and
that person that may have saidno because of either the trust
(09:40):
issues, the PTSD, maybe drug use, maybe alcoholism you don't
know what's just transpired six,seven, eight hours later and a
lot of times those no's turninto yeses.
And that's why it's importantfor us to as much as possible
get to know these individualsand their stories and to never
give up, because we see it everytime we do a warming center.
(10:05):
We see it every year, with justoutreaches in general.
Every time we do a warmingcenter, we see it every year,
with just outreaches in general.
People do change and we seethat, and that's why we are so
tired, if I can just bevulnerable, because these
outreaches are occurring firstthing in the morning, they're
occurring in the afternoons,they're occurring in the
evenings.
We have outreaches sometimes atmidnight.
(10:26):
If we have the volunteers to dothem, it just takes a lot.
It takes a lot of physicalmanpower, but brainpower,
especially when we don't want togive up on the people that
appear to be no's to accessingthis.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
I think there's a general positive shift in the
community that's going on inregards to who these people are
and it's different than justseeing them outdoors but
beginning to understand thatthere's some complexities in
their lives that aren't justthis or that.
It helps to identify, maybe,the why that they don't just
(11:05):
immediately come in to any kindof a service.
Kristen, I'm going to ask youin a minute about how many
people are staying in theshelters, but last Thursday
evening I was in a two-hourmeeting indoors where there was
nice food and there was heat andprobably about 150 to 200
(11:26):
people there, and there was acouple of folks who are
unsheltered homeless who hadbeen invited to the dinner.
Nice guys, they both volunteerat MAP, the Mobile Access
Partnership, every week, everytime it's open to help out, but
they live outdoors and I beganto talk to them a little bit in
regards to warming center andwhy they're not coming in.
(11:49):
And one of the individuals didhave housing and he lost his
housing and so he's backoutdoors again and they have
dogs and so on and so forth.
But through the two hourprocess one of the gentlemen you
could detect how anxiety riddenhe was.
It was to the point of me justfeeling terrible for him and
(12:11):
learning a little bit more story.
He's been in and out of Vallejotreatment numerous times.
He is currently free frommethamphetamines, but the
biochemical challenges going onin his body are off the charts.
Nicest guy in the world, have agood conversation with him, but
when he's confined to thatgroup of people that they're for
(12:31):
a very, very long time, it justabout kills him.
And it's so uncomfortablewatching him and being around
him.
All that was on Thursday night.
All through the weekend andtonight I've been wondering
about him.
I started asking where can wefind him?
How can we get him some help?
That's just one.
That's just one, and that's.
I think what you're describingis your outreach teams and the
(12:54):
warming center folks they'reencountering right now with
people who are so, so brokenChristian.
You're over shelter servicesand the outreach teams and
that's a pretty big job, and soyou know a lot of people say
well, you've got a rescuemission, you've got these
shelters, you've got a men'sshelter, you've got a women and
family shelter.
Why don't people just come in?
How many people are in thereright now?
Speaker 5 (13:14):
Yeah, so overall, I'll just talk about where our
capacity is and talk about howmany people we have within that
capacity.
So in our men's shelter we haveabout 120 beds 60 upper, 60
(13:36):
lower bunks.
In our women's shelter we haveabout 28 family rooms and then
space for about 50 single women.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
And so overall, like I have to count, you know the
Hope Center a little bitdifferently because I'm catering
toward families.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
Families could come in with one child or five, or 12
.
12.
Yeah, we had that before.
Yeah, so you know there'sfamilies.
Don't come in uniform sizes orunits, but so overall, you know,
between the 120 on the men'sside and the 28 family rooms and
50 single beds in the HopeCenter, the Hope Center comes
out to about 135 to 140 maxcapacity on average.
(14:09):
So overall we're looking atabout 250 total beds If
everything just fits right.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
If everything just fits right and you talk about
upper bunks, half of your men'sshelter beds.
Are you got to get up in a bunk, and not everybody?
Speaker 5 (14:23):
can do that, can they ?
No, no, so you have.
You have some mobility issues.
Those lower bunks are a hotcommodity, they fill up pretty
quickly and then I've actuallyseen, I think, an increase in
the level of needs ofindividuals who are coming to
our shelters.
Physical challenges Physicalchallenges it might be related
to age as well.
(14:44):
I think you've talked aboutthis before in the podcast, but
the graying homeless phenomenais something Growing and growing
.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
Yeah, people 50, 55, 60 plus years old.
You've had individuals thathave stayed in shelter and on
the streets who are 80 plusyears old.
Speaker 5 (15:01):
Yes, yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Yeah, so that speaks to a number of challenges they
have.
Yeah, so you got these beds.
And then, of course, noteverybody fits in all, but how
many approximately stayed lastnight?
Speaker 5 (15:11):
So last night I think it was about 244, about the
maximum of 245, 250.
So you're pretty well atmaximum.
Yeah, we're pretty much there.
I think we had about three bedsthat were available on the
men's side, and then there's,you know, some part of that is,
you know we have, whenever a bedbecomes open, we go ahead and
(15:34):
we treat those beds for insectsor other things.
This is kind of a preventativemaintenance, but that slows down
some of the process of turningbeds over.
So there's some of that goingon.
And then, really, you know thenumber that is kind of
heartbreaking for me, and theone that I look at every day, is
the number of children that arestaying in the shelter, and so
(15:57):
that's 46.
46 kids, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:01):
So these are people that may be here one night.
They may be here for multiplenights you never know.
For multiple nights, you neverknow.
And each one of theseindividuals to.
What LaManda was talking aboutis that they're more geared
towards being in a particularsystem or a program to help them
move forward towardsstabilization, help, housing.
That's really what the goal isthere, and so there's also not
(16:25):
just shelter, but there's a lotof things that are wrapped
around that to help individualsto get the kind of tools that
they need to go in the community.
So it's pretty intense, prettyintense.
So we've got a full shelter andit's been full and I think here
not too long ago it was kickingup around 290 or something like
that.
Speaker 4 (16:40):
So we went up to 306.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
306.
Okay, yeah, you about broke therecord.
Speaker 5 (16:46):
And so no, no, barry, I was here long enough to know
the record was much higher thanthat.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Okay, so it was about 325.
Speaker 5 (16:54):
I mean, this was under the previous executive
director.
Speaker 4 (16:56):
That's right.
He has to claim that the onethat didn't develop his no
button until later.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
I think there were numbers pushing up around 400.
Speaker 5 (17:04):
I don't remember that 350.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
Total, I'll probably go to jail for that.
Speaker 5 (17:10):
I remember the Hope Center, so they went to 100 kids
over there one time it waslegal, I mean it was approved,
right.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Nobody else wanted them on the streets.
We have a growing unshelteredhomeless population in our
community.
We have a predominantly fullrescue mission.
Be safe.
When we had those highernumbers in, it was too packed,
it was just two packs.
So what you've done, lamanda,in your watch and with your team
, is you've spread it out towhere we're having warming
centers.
We used to bring people in inthe wintertime, put them in what
was the former chapel and thosekind of things, and it was.
(17:36):
It was.
It was chaotic at best, so it'sbetter organized now.
This isn't the first warmingcenter this year or this season.
This isn't the first one, sothis is the second round.
This isn't the first one, sothis is the second round.
This is the third.
Third round, third round, okay,so all right.
So the first time.
Speaker 4 (17:55):
That's why we're so tired, Barry.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
I must be pretty tired too.
I was number two, so this isthe third one that you've done.
You just haven't done it allwinter long.
You haven't started?
In December, when it startedgetting cold and all winter long
, and you already addressed this.
A lot of factors are involvedin that.
So when do you decide and we'rekind of jumping ahead here but
when do you decide to say, okay,we've done everything that we
need to do?
At this point, we're going toclose it down, like, I believe,
you did last Friday.
Speaker 4 (18:21):
Mm-hmm.
So those same factors that welook at that I mentioned earlier
the wind chills, thetemperatures, can we get
outreach teams out or not?
Is there a state of emergencyAll of those things we then
consider when we're closing aswell.
I think we're starting to seeso many more people speak out on
(18:48):
the injustices that are done inregards to homelessness right
now, and I hope that decisionmakers are hearing that there is
a cry and an expectation of ourcommunity to take care of our
neighbors and to do it well,that yes, there are frustrations
(19:09):
with people experiencinghomelessness and some of the
challenges that come across it,but there is a very strong
opinion right now from thepeople in Topeka that we're not
just saying get rid of peopleexperiencing homelessness, we're
saying let's get the rightresources to help them have a
continuation of care.
So, that being said, I do wantto address how we close this,
because these same incredible,passionate people that are
(19:32):
wanting good stuff done can thenalso get really extremely
passionate when I close warmingcenters.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
In other words, they don't think it's a good idea,
correct?
Speaker 4 (19:41):
And I understand, and so I kind of want to unfold
that a little bit.
Because, yes, do warmingcenters sometimes close and it's
still in the 20s or 30s?
Yes, but when we look at thatagain, we're looking at all of
those factors.
So if the wind chills haveimproved, if the temperatures
have improved, if we havesunshine, if there is an
(20:04):
increase in our outreach team'sability to get out and to do
more checks and all of thosekinds of things, then we cannot
just keep warming centers open.
I mean, warming centers trulyare an extreme effort when
everything is extreme.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Some of the reasons why you can't just say, okay,
we're in wintertime, we don'tknow what's going to happen in a
few days, let's just keep itopen all the time you keep your
shelters open all the time.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
Why not the warming centers?
Yeah, so on our shelter side wehave shelter guests In addition
to that.
You know, anywhere between 240to 275 right now is kind of our
average.
In addition to that, we stillhave the cold weather exceptions
that we operate out of the mainshelter, Meaning if someone is
unsheltered, we open up a wholedifferent level of options If it
(20:55):
gets below 40, and if it getsbelow 30 or 32, and if it gets
below 20, we have threedifferent options.
That's been in existence sincewhat?
91, I think you said.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Long time.
Speaker 4 (21:04):
Yeah, so I've been joking with him and told him
that I was four no-transcriptadditional that we do at these
(21:38):
warming centers are totallydependent on staff and
volunteers.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
And not extra staff, not extra staff.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
I'm still operating within right now, 69 staff
members that are still operating24-hour shelters, 24-7 shelters
and the distribution center.
We've got food pantries goingon right now.
All of this stuff stillcontinues.
Speaker 3 (22:01):
And these are new temporary locations and shelters
and resources needed and awhole lot more volunteers.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
Yes.
So just in the first warmingcenter we did this year, okay,
that really posed an issue forvolunteers to be able to get out
.
We had so many people thatwanted to say yes and help, but
we got the ice first and peopleweren't able to get out of their
driveways.
So to your question, when yousay, well, why can't you just
keep them open?
Or you know those kinds ofthings, it is a manpower issue.
(22:30):
Um, so those I can't evenremember.
I think it was six days.
Don't quote me.
Guess how much that cost trmjust in overtime.
How much five thousand fifty twohundred dollars in six days.
I can't.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
In overtime that's just overtime shift and then
coming in and by law they'remandated as well.
I don't staff volunteer by lawdepartment labor.
They're not allowed to uhwithout compensation.
Speaker 4 (22:56):
And none of that includes um, any leadership that
worked um because we're nothourly and S, and that doesn't
include the staff that just cameto us and said look, I really
just want to volunteer.
Speaker 3 (23:13):
So why Christian and Marcus's eyes are closed, right?
Speaker 4 (23:15):
now.
Yes, that's why we're all threeof us right now have radio
faces.
Let's just say that.
So if we want to talk afinancial piece that is why
simply TRM cannot fit the bill.
If we do that and we did, andthat was just for six days
$5,000 additional.
Do the math on that we cannotdo that as a nonprofit.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Limited resources.
You need that resource comingin in addition to what's already
coming, because you still haveto lay out the finances for it.
And you have all thesevolunteers that there's a
certain limit to their abilitiestoo, correct.
And you'd mentioned the firstround with the ice.
There was one volunteer, lovelylady, who was in a car wreck
(23:59):
going home because of the ice,was stuck in the ice for quite
some time in the snow drift andher car got totaled out of this
whole thing in the snow driftand her car got totaled out of
this whole thing.
Yes, and you know there was.
There's the practicality.
You can't expect everybody justto be there, marcus, I want to
come back to you in a minute.
Marcus, during that first round, your team in regards to
(24:22):
facility security,transportation, those kind of
you actually were rescuing anambulance.
Yeah, talk about ambulance.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
Talk about that.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
Yeah, so AMR was on call by one of my staff members'
complexes and he just spent allday helping people and
transporting staff, and all thatbecause it was so bad.
He was still buzzing fromhelping people, so he's still
(24:51):
awake yeah, he's seen them stuck.
He had his chain and his toestraps and um hooked up to him
and they pulled him.
I don't know how many feet hepulled him out of there, but it
was drifting, so much it was.
They were stuck, stuck, andwhen they seen it on I forgot
which news program broadcastedthat, but he got-.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
Somebody had a doorbell camera that caught that
or something like that, and ofcourse it went out on the news,
not like you were looking for.
Hey, look at what we're doing,right, just doing your job,
right.
But the serious nature of itkind of goes back to.
You can't just expect, evenwhen AMR gets stuck or police
cars get stuck or plows getstuck, you can't expect
volunteers necessarily to comeand be a part of this because
(25:37):
practically they can't get hereor can't get back home.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
Right, well, and you know, our maintenance team has
what seven.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
We got six.
Six, yeah, has what?
Speaker 4 (25:48):
seven.
We got six, six okay, so seven.
Um, in addition to taking careof six buildings 60 something
staff members because we allhave needs um, they also do all
of the snow maintenance andsafety stuff for Noto.
(26:09):
So, like this morning, um, Iwas driving in and one of our
staff members was so bundledoperating a snow, a hand snow
plow thing, um, that I couldn'teven tell who he was.
But I knew who he was because Iknow the staff.
I couldn't even tell who he was, but I knew who he was because
I know the staff and I justwished that I could have, like
(26:32):
taken a snapshot of him, becausehe's all bundled up.
He's doing this physical laborand doing it for our friends in
Noto.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
I want to say something on that.
If you're driving around todayor the next couple of days, I
want you to look at the no-toesidewalks.
I want you to look at the othersidewalks in this community
around retail.
You're going to see no-toescleared because Topeka Rescue
Mission is serving its neighbors.
You may go into some otherplaces that are pretty prominent
(27:08):
places and unless that operatorout of that particular business
is out there shoveling snow,you're going to have a hard time
getting that business right now, and that's the way it has been
.
That is a rescue ministryserving not just the homeless
but its neighboring businesses.
It's huge.
I was driving down here thismorning.
I saw the guys out there and Ilooked at the sidewalks I go,
man, they look great.
And so I was driving down herethis morning.
(27:30):
I saw the guys out there and Ilooked at the sidewalks I go man
they look great, and so I wasgoing to ask you, is TRM still
doing that?
Speaker 4 (27:35):
And the answer is yes , that's awesome.
And then Pedro, you know theexecutive director of NODO, he
was out and he was bundled up.
And so just this level ofteamwork right of being able to
do that, do that, and so, seeingwhat all our team already does
for our community in so manydifferent ways, it's a balance
(28:05):
for me, as the CEO here, to knowwhen to keep walking out in
faith and saying yes, becauseGod provides, and also when to
be a wise steward of us as aleader, to say we need to pause.
And so, in looking at when toclose these, in addition to the
financial factor, in addition tothe manpower, in addition to
(28:28):
what we're expecting forvolunteers, there's also just
the overall safetiness, ifthat's a word, of being able to
do the logistics this team thatis pulling ambulances out of
ditches and clearing offsidewalks.
My shelter teams who are takingadditional guests on when
they're already at capacity.
(28:48):
My leaders who already, on anormal work week, put anywhere
between 50 to 65 hours a week.
On top of all of that, then,when we go to close these
warming centers, it's thelogistics of deep cleaning, it's
the logistics of gettingeverything back in order,
reusing those rooms for classes.
So classes resume, and then itis a.
(29:11):
Our bodies can only take so much, and so that's not us not
walking in faith, it's not usdying to ourselves and not
believing in the Lord and all ofthat.
There is a physicalness to it,too, that when I look at my
staff, that's my first flock andthey need a reset, whether it's
immune systems, whether it'sneeding to be with their own
(29:34):
families, all of those kinds ofthings that should be the first
ministries in all of their lives.
I cannot continue doingadditional things this community
needs at the expenses of that,and so that's why we try to find
the balance of.
When there are extremes, all ofus are going full throttle,
depending on the Lord and doingit.
(29:55):
But as soon as there'sopportunities for a lot less
safety hazards and opportunitiesfor everyone to reset and
refocus, and all of that to goback to all of our additional
duties, right of running thisministry, we have to do that
(30:30):
values and recognizes life andrecognizes that you're the
Topeka Rescue Mission, loveswhat we get to do and that
there's nothing bigger that Godcan't do.
But I do think that we are in aextreme cold.
(31:11):
We should be talking extremeheat, these things now and we're
only focused on well, therescue mission shouldn't have
closed down warming centers.
My challenge to everyone issaying what if we just had the
(31:31):
right things in the right placesall year long?
Speaker 3 (31:35):
Resourced.
Speaker 4 (31:36):
And that we were doing right by people all the
time and that those were beingdone by the right decision
makers.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
One of the things that we wanted to do today is
talk about kind of the nittygritty and the complexities of
the warming centers, and we'vebeen doing some of that.
Just if you're listening tothis and you're thinking, well,
this is a feel sorry for TopekaRescue Mission podcast.
That's not what it's about.
It's about a willingness of anorganization to step up and do
more than it has done or doesevery single day, because if it
(32:09):
doesn't and we want to talkabout some of the other partners
here in a second doing warmingcenters as well if it doesn't
happen, people may die,literally may die, and if they
don't die, they may be injuredpermanently for the rest of
their lives to where they aredisabled because of the injuries
that they suffered.
Let me talk just briefly.
It's not just a peak rescuemission, but TRM, under your
(32:32):
leadership and your team, arehelping direct the bigger
picture here on coordinatedeffort here.
Who are some of the otherpartners that are opening up
their facilities?
Speaker 4 (32:43):
Yeah, and just forgive me in case I forget
somebody, but I always pray likeLord.
Please don't let me make thatmistake.
But when we're looking atwarming centers we have
Fellowship Highcrest, who Ithink they've done three out of
the four with us besides thefirst one who have just rallied
around us and said we get it,our neighbors deserve it, and
(33:08):
what can we say yes to?
And they have opened every timewe open.
And so great communication,great example of them operating
within parameters of what we'vekind of realized works, but then
them making it their ownwarming center too and us just
partnering with what our yeseslook like when we put them
together.
(33:29):
Previously we had let's help.
We were so thankful for them.
They opened up temporarily butdid what they could do and that
alleviated a big need for thattime.
They are still heavily involved.
Pat, I know their executivedirector has worked and
volunteered at the warmingcenters even though let's Help
isn't open.
(33:49):
So we're thankful for thatcontinued support.
Currently we have a facilityhappening or a warming center
happening at Ripley CommunityCenter that is under the
guidance and direction ofRichard Martinez and his main
man, sean, with Street TeamMinistry, who open up and-.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
And what a champion those guys are to do what they
can.
I think it's public, because itwas out on Facebook that
Richard Martinez, from ahospital bed, trying to stay
alive himself, is givingdirection to try to get that
thing going.
Speaker 4 (34:23):
So well, and I was yes, and not only do they open
as warming centers, but ifthere's not a need for a warming
center yet to open, like whenwe first start these, they help
us do the transportation.
So I was just checking onRichard I had been while he was
in the hospital, sending him atext at the end of last week,
and I said, hey, just wanted youto know, I'm still praying for
you, all that and he said, yeah,well, I'm at the Children's
(34:44):
Palace going to do transport.
I said, excuse me, you know,but anyways, thankful for that,
Another one that is doing greatwork.
They don't necessarily need topartner with us, though, because
they run this, these kind ofwarming centers and cooling
centers and just weekly meals.
(35:05):
All of that is Central ParkChristian Church.
Uh, we're incredibly thankfulfor, uh, Chaplain Mary Flynn and
John Cantrell and his beautifulwife Taylor.
Uh, their new pastor, uh,Pastor Fleming and his wife
Michelle.
They do a lot of stuff for thatcentral community all year long
, and so this is not somethingnew for them.
(35:28):
And they do operate completelydifferent, really, because of
just how they do ongoing mealsand showers and all of that, but
you see them doing good stufffor their neighbors and to know
that hey, this is worth it.
And they see the change happenand so we're thankful for that.
In the past we had Vallejo onetime help us with the warming
(35:51):
center.
We were thankful for that.
So I mean it just, we see,whether it's churches or
individuals come together to saytheir yes.
In the past we had True Vine.
That church opened up and theyjust kept making more space and
more space and more space.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
And so it's a coordinated effort to say OK,
how many you have over there?
How many beds do you have left?
What about animals?
We have the Street DogCoalition who stepped up into
this and are boarding animalsduring this time, dr Alison
Crowe and her team.
It's quite a effort.
Anything else you want to sayabout that?
(36:32):
And I want to bring upsomething a little controversial
.
Speaker 4 (36:34):
Yeah, so we have a war board.
We have a home base hub here atthe Children's Palace and then
we have a war board.
One side of the war board haswho our outreach teams are, what
vehicles that are, in what areathey're going to, who's home
base, all of those kinds ofthings.
Who's running the hotline phone.
The other side of it is everywarming center that's occurring,
(36:54):
the number of bed spaces theyhave, animals, what we're
operating from, shelter wise andall of that.
So like if I picked up thephone right now and called
Miriam, miriam could tell meexactly how many people are at
Fellowship Highcrest, how manyare at Ripley Community Center,
how many is on ours and how manyis doing the cold weather
exceptions at our shelter.
(37:14):
So we have all of that goingand while, like Miriam as an
example, while Miriam is alsoclosing out the month and doing
the books and and and right.
But the last thing I wanted tosay on this, this partnership,
we've got Dr Crow, who is aveterinarian in our community
(37:45):
and I'm totally biased becauseshe's my personal one I think
she's great.
Speaker 3 (37:49):
But mine too.
That's actually my dogs.
Speaker 4 (37:52):
So she's incredible.
But in addition to her workingright, she's also then juggling
all of this street dogcoordination.
But then you've got Kelly withVallejo and you've got Matt with
the Breakthrough House, whowere also doing their quote
unquote normal jobs.
And then in the midst of itthey're also doing outreach for
(38:14):
us, and then they're also thecoordinators of Street Dog
Coalition.
So when we have animals thatneed love, right and care and
their pet owner is on the streetsaying, nope, I'm not
separating with them, many timesa human life is saved and
brought to safety because wehave an option to care for their
(38:35):
fur baby, whether it's a cat ora dog.
And so the last warming centerwe sheltered 31.
I'm not sure what our numbersare for this one 31 animals.
But you've got Matt and Kellythat are helping our outreach
teams going out and doing stuff.
Then they come back here to thechildren's palace when an
unsheltered neighbor gets herewith their animal.
(38:55):
So then my volunteers aretaking care of the unsheltered
neighbor.
They then take care of theanimal, transport it to wherever
it needs to go.
And it's just like this.
I don't even know thisorganized chaos system of
everybody just doing what theycan.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
It's a beautiful mess it really is, and people's
lives are being saved to peoplewho aren't really sure about the
animal piece.
People may be living in a car,maybe living living in a tent,
may be living in some makeshiftthing and they've got their only
family member and it's a furryfour-legger and they're not
going to leave that littleanimal to freeze to death out
there, because they love theirpet.
(39:37):
Their pet is their family andso by having this service thank
you, volunteers, street DogCoalition, and all this to be
able to help that individualmake a wise decision to come out
of the cold and bring theiranimal with them is huge in this
whole effort Okay, I'm thinkingcounting numbers of people that
are helping keep people alive.
It's hundreds of people ofdifferent entities, time the
(40:01):
resources that people aredonating.
I looked in the chapel hereearlier this morning and it's
full of food and blankets anddifferent things that people
have dropped off to be able tosupport.
So it's hundreds of peopleinvolved.
I know that we have a greatrelationship with the behavioral
health unit of the TopekaPolice Department, with Sergeant
Matt Rose, who is just anall-star, and his team that
(40:23):
helps out on this.
You mentioned a lot ofdifferent organizations.
But where's the city in this?
The city of Topeka is veryinvested in the homeless issue.
But from the city council levelof passing ordinances to clear
homeless camps of where peopleare, we get that it's not cool
to have people sleeping outdoorsin tents or trash around and
(40:46):
those kind of things.
But with their efforts thatstarted some years ago but
really kicked into high gear ayear ago this month of clearing
homeless camps, they're investedin that level.
But are they invested inhelping people find shelter?
Are they invested in creatingshelter?
Are they invested in creatingshelter?
Are they invested in warmingcenters?
I know that's controversial,but people are talking about it.
(41:08):
This is our community, ourmission podcast.
We're going to put the cards onthe table.
Is the city LaManda?
I may not know about it.
Is the city stepped up andsaying what can we do to help?
Outside of Topeka PoliceDepartment.
Speaker 4 (41:22):
No, we have a lot of opportunity there to grow that
partnership and to grow anunderstanding.
There is lots that need to beimproved on just the overall
involvement, understanding,support, whatever word we want
(41:45):
to call it from the city ofTopeka and quite honestly I'm
not even sure where to take thatand how.
We have tried relentlessly tocontinue to involve certain
positions from the city in this,to communicate, to be on board,
(42:08):
and there continues to be avery surface level and I say
surface level in the fact of letus know if you need help and
then we do, and it's either noresponse or a no.
There is no publicacknowledgement, particularly
(42:33):
from the governing body, of theefforts that are done with these
kinds of things, and not thatanybody, particularly our
volunteers or staff or agencies,nobody is looking for accolades
but opportunities such aswarming centers and the
incredible work that's done whenpeople come together and say
yes, that should absolutely beacknowledged by the governing
(42:57):
body, who has the power to makedecisions, the power to make
decisions, the financialstewardship and all of that,
versus either not addressing itor addressing it because of
their own personal opinions thatreally have very limited
factual merit behind it, and Ithink that it is definitely an
opportunity for whether we'retalking leadership within the
(43:20):
city who are paid, whether it'sthe governing body of council,
or for the city andcommissioners for the county, to
really say this is anopportunity where we see the
people that we talk about allthe time, we see them being
served.
Let's go, let's go view it,let's go look at it, let's see
what should we be doing.
(43:40):
Are we making the rightdecisions?
And I see none of that.
That's very that's.
Go look at it, let's see whatshould we be doing.
Are we making the rightdecisions?
And I see none of that.
Speaker 3 (43:45):
That's very unfortunate.
Other cities around the countrythat are fairly close to us, in
proximity, their cityleadership, county leadership
have stepped up to the plate,working with nonprofits, working
with churches to help resourcesome of this, but we're not
seeing that here in Topeka.
Now, that is not saying thatcity employees are bad people.
(44:06):
We have a lot of greatrelationships in addition to the
housing department, with thecity of Topeka, code enforcement
, different folks that arereally doing a great job.
But there have been policydecisions that have been made
from our governing body that hasmade it more difficult for the
people who are experiencinghomelessness, and I understand
(44:30):
that is part of what they aretasked to do.
But they're also tasked to takecare of vulnerable people and
to protect our citizens allcitizens and if that's not being
done, something's missing here.
Citizens, all citizens, and ifthat's not being done,
something's missing here.
Thankfully, we have TopekaRescue Mission, these other
organizations that werementioned, a whole lot of great
(44:50):
people who care in thiscommunity, a staff who is saying
okay, we're going to sacrificesleep all winter if we have to
to be able to do this to takecare of our neighbors.
I mentioned a couple of guys Isat down with last Thursday in
the safety of this church dinnerthat we had talking to them,
getting to know them a littlebit better, and one gentleman
(45:12):
having high anxiety andpreferring to go back to his
tent because he couldn't bearound people.
And so I said have you beenrelocated your camps?
And they said once I said, doyou feel safe where you are now?
They said no.
Now, keep in mind these arebroken individuals who don't do
(45:36):
well around crowds, who havestruggling with.
The other gentleman hasrecently recovered from a
removal of a brain tumor Throughsurgery.
They thought he was going todie.
He had less than 15% chance ofliving.
He is still alive today becausepeople wrapped around him.
Thank you to Mobile AccessPartnership and Stormont Vale
and others that wrapped aroundhim.
So here's two, really broken,just two.
(45:57):
And I said so how secure do youfeel where you are?
And have you heard about yourarea that you're sleeping in
right now?
Is it going to be clean?
And they said yeah, we've beentold that it's going to be.
I said what are you going to do?
We don't know.
I said have you heard about anyplans?
And they said yeah, we heardthat they're going to move us
outside of the county, outsideof Shawnee County.
(46:19):
I said, where?
Well, they kind of told me thearea and I don't want to start
anything here, but this is therumor that's out there, where
they heard it from, I don't know.
I said how do you expect you'regoing to get services?
And they said we have no idea,we're scared.
And so they're living moment bymoment in fear in the winter,
with physical disability, withmental health challenges, with
(46:43):
struggling not to be usingmethamphetamines or something to
soothe their pain, andthankfully there are a group of
people in the community who aresaying we're here for you, come
on in, we're going to take careof you.
But the people who are makingdecisions at the government
level in Topeka, kansas, aremaking it harder for these
individuals and thus harder forthose that are trying to help
(47:03):
them.
I want you to hear this, folks.
I've been in this business along time, so to speak, and I've
never seen anything quite likethis at the governing level of
our city.
It's been much better than whatwe see today and I hope, if
you're listening, that you pickup the phone.
This is not an activistpolitical platform, but it is a
humanitarian, god-consciouspodcast.
(47:26):
To be able to say this is thefacts, here's what we are doing.
But LaManda said it earlier itcan't not be maintained going
forward with the kind of needsthat there are, just by one
organization and others steppingup to help alongside.
So I wanted to share that.
That is what it is.
Thankfully, things are beingdone very well.
(47:47):
We said we want to kind ofunpack warming centers and what
we're doing Before we close offtoday, christian Marcus,
anything that you guys wouldlike to share?
Speaker 5 (47:56):
I got one thing Now that I say that, and then, barry
, you're looking like oh shoot.
Speaker 3 (48:05):
Christian is a pastor also, so you know.
Speaker 5 (48:08):
Well, what I was wanting to say is you know, when
warming centers start, orreally when cold weather hits,
things don't slow down.
So, especially in a shelterenvironment, actually things
escalate.
You have a bunch of people thatdon't want to go outside, and
so they end up being stuckinside with a bunch of people
that don't really want to bearound.
So you see an escalation inbehaviors and you see those
(48:31):
kinds of things in warmingcenters as well.
But really you take somethingthat is probably more difficult
in this time of year and thenyou stack probably 20% more
stress on top of that with thesame people and volunteers.
And that is kind of what ourteams are operating at right now
(48:53):
is that we're already managinga pretty high level.
You know, I can imagine thatmany of our listeners right now
stay pretty busy.
Speaker 3 (49:01):
I used to work in mental health in a state
hospital and they closed thoseyeah so similar behaviors end up
coming to homeless shelters andjails.
Speaker 5 (49:12):
So we deal with mental health, we deal with
behaviors, we deal with crime,we deal with addiction All those
different things but the thingis, nothing slows down, it just
escalates, and we have the samepeople doing both of those
things.
But one thing I want to just putout, a call to our listeners is
(49:33):
I know many of you guys arebusy.
You guys have some importantjobs, you guys do important jobs
in the community, and one we'rereally grateful that you spend
your time listening to us onhere, but I want to invite those
who are listening if you havethe capability, you have an
opportunity to come and lookbehind the curtain.
(49:55):
There's a lot of people thathave ideas and have thoughts
about homelessness, that havethoughts about mental health or
addiction or all these differentthings that we talk about on
this podcast, but not manypeople are really willing to
look behind the curtain and seethe pain where it really is, and
so I just want to let you know,with these warming centers, we
(50:15):
have an opportunity to becomeinvolved, not just with
supporting, but to get yourhands dirty, to roll up your
sleeves and get into the middleof it, and really I think one of
the most important things wecan do is at least on my end.
Every time I've had an idea,I've wanted to get involved in
(50:36):
it and then see how thingsactually operate.
So you can hear us talkingabout this on here and some of
it might make sense, but untilyou're actually in the context
of it it might not make a wholelot of sense.
That's true, and so I justwanted to put that invitation
out there.
You guys are welcome to look upthe needs for volunteers and
(50:58):
then with that, you know, to getsome skin in the game.
Speaker 3 (51:02):
It's easy to get on a social media post and tell you
what you think without knowingwhat you're talking about and a
lot of people doing that today,unfortunately.
But this is a good way to sayOK, I really have been there,
I've seen that and I know whatI'm talking about.
Thank you, christian Marcus.
You've been here, you've beenon the streets, you've faced a
(51:23):
lot of things that people arefacing today.
You're a deputy director,topeka Rescue Mission with a big
responsibility, with a greatteam doing great things.
Speaker 2 (51:35):
So what do you say about all this?
First of all, I want to saythank you for all the help that
you have given me.
You've given me the examplesand all that.
I want to thank volunteers inthe community for coming and
helping with our warming centers.
What I really need, and wetruly need, is the city to step
(51:58):
up and learn the word help.
Sadie just stepped up andlearned the word help H-E-L-P.
It is an acronym His Example ofLoving People.
So if they could just learnthat, I think we'd be all right.
That's good.
Speaker 3 (52:12):
Good, that's great, thank you.
Speaker 4 (52:17):
Amanda, final word.
Today I think we have a lot ofgratitude to give out to so many
people who are making this hugeeffort possible, from partners
(52:43):
to donors, to prayer warriors,staff all of that.
There is so much to be thankfulfor.
When we know we have to makethese decisions of what's needed
, because we see the faces, wehave the convictions that it
needs to be done, it's easier tostep up and say we're going to
(53:03):
say yes and we're going to dothis because we know we've got
so many in our community thatare willing to support the
efforts, because we seeourselves in these people.
We see our own struggles.
That might look different andthe root reasons might be
different, but there's a lot ofsimilarities and the root
(53:23):
reasons might be different, butthere's a lot of similarities.
And then I would say, as thesame way as I express the
(53:58):
gratitude, I think I also justwant to grapple and plead for
people to just recognize that wedon't have the ability to look
at individuals experiencinghomelessness who are either
talking to themselves or who aredirty and smell bad or are
gruff around the edges andcussing and seem to be
mean-spirited.
We don't have the ability topause their life film right.
We don't have the ability topause and just rewind to where
(54:20):
they were pure, to rewind wheretheir hurt started.
We don't.
But I do plead that we learn todesire to do that, to desire to
(54:50):
do that, and I just amdesperately anticipating for the
people in our community wholove the people and who are
doing the good work and arepassionate about additional
resources and opportunities toopen up for people experiencing
homelessness.
I hope that somehow thosepeople in our community, that
(55:13):
those voices start being heard,because it's not just me and my
team that care about this, it'snot just Fellowship Highcrest,
it's not just certain groups ofpeople care about this, it's not
just Fellowship Highcrest, it'snot just certain groups of
people.
There are a lot of constituentsin Topeka who are truly
passionate about gettingadditional options for people
experiencing homelessness andthey understand and for some
(55:33):
reason I'm going to trust theLord until it changes.
But for some reason that is notthe narrative that is said, it's
not the narrative that's beingblasted, it's not the narrative
that is influencing decisionmakers, and I don't understand
that.
(55:54):
And so I just plead that thepeople who care about people and
the cause continue to care thepeople who care about people and
the cause.
Continue to care, continue toadvocate kindly, and I just
anticipate the day that decisionmakers are convicted about
(56:17):
things that are truly damagingpeople right now and we see it
every day.
And so, while my heart, as youknow, trm CEO, is so full from
(56:37):
what we get to do and everybodywho makes it possible, my heart
also is so broken for the factthat it seems as though, short
of a miracle from the Lord, itseems as though there is no
relief coming for the peoplewe're serving and that the
people that have the powercontinually listen to squeaky
(57:00):
wheels or maybe that's themthemselves, and that is
difficult, but it's worth it andour team stands firm in doing
what we feel is right, even whenit might not be the popular
opinion, and I anticipate theday we taking care of people and
(57:25):
leaders, being bold to do thatis actually the popular thing to
do.
Speaker 3 (57:31):
Well said.
Lamanda, christian, marcus,thank you today for taking time
out to join us.
When they're just down the hallthere's a lot of needy people
and across the street there'seven more needy people who are
surviving today and thrivingbecause of you guys and a whole
incredible team.
Amanda, thank you for leadingthis effort.
(57:54):
Thank you for sharing yourheart today.
Thank you for all of you whohave participated in helping to
love our neighbors.
Marcus said it well his exampleloving people, h-e-l-p.
Help.
If we do that well and love ourneighbors as ourself, as the
(58:14):
greatest, second greatestcommandment, then we will be a
city who can shine that we'vetalked about.
We will be a city who can bethere to help people just like
you and just like me, to have anopportunity that, if somebody
wasn't there in our life, wewould not be where we are today.
Thank you for being a part ofour community, our mission.
Thank you for listening.
(58:34):
Today we took a deep dive intosomething that is really awesome
that's going on in ourcommunity these warming centers
and the ongoing efforts ofTopeka Rescue Mission.
We didn't make it look prettyand shiny today, sorry if that
wasn't what you were hoping for.
It's not pretty shiny, it'sjust good and the best thing to
do is keep a good thing good andlet's do it even better.
(58:55):
If you'd like more informationabout Topeka Rescue Mission, you
can go to trmonlineorg.
That's trmonlineorg.
You can actually help out byvolunteering, you can help out
by donating right there on thewebsite and, as Christian said,
come on down, we'd love to seeyou.
Thanks for listening.
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