Even though Kent is the county’s most populous city — the U.S. Census estimates 27,601 people, about 25% of whom live in poverty — Kent does not have an overnight warming center.
“There’s so many rules about taking property to create a warming center that we haven’t been able to pull that off,” Council Member Roger Sidoti said. “Warming centers need to meet certain requirements. It’s complex.”
Sidestepping the complications, Kent City Council last November set aside $8,000 for PARTA and rideshares to transport those in need to Shepherd’s House, a homeless shelter that doubles as a 24/7 warming center when the mercury drops below 20 degrees Fahrenheit.
The shelter is located on state Route 59 between Kent and Ravenna, roughly across the highway from the Walmart shopping complex.
“All any homeless person in Kent has to do is say, ‘Please take me to the shelter,’ and there’s no fee. PARTA will take them to the shelter and Anne Marie will house them for the night,” City Manager Dave Ruller said.
Anne Marie is Anne Marie Noble, executive director of Shepherd’s House. She said the warming center served over a dozen people a night during the recent arctic plunge, most of them from Kent. Kent police have brought a couple of people in during the wee hours of the morning, she added.
Noble said she is negotiating with Kent city officials to use some of the funds to offset costs of housing warming center guests who come from the Kent area.
In lieu of Kent establishing its own warming center, the $8,000 will have to suffice, Council Member Chris Hook said, noting that the sum is more an effort not to duplicate services than a stopgap measure.
Years ago, the county nonprofit agency then known as Family & Community Services of Portage County operated warming centers at Kent Social Services and Center of Hope. Combined, the centers usually served two or three people a night, sometimes peaking to seven or eight, said Axess Family Services Executive Director Mark Frisone.
(F&CS merged with AxessPointe Community Health Centers on Jan. 1, 2024, and adopted the name Axess Family Services.)
Lacking numbers to justify the shelters staying open, F&CS closed them about five years ago, Frisone said. Now, perhaps churches, with parishioners willing to step up on a moment’s notice, may be a viable solution, he suggested.
Some already may be.
“There are churches that have reached to me over the years that quietly just go about doing this business as an outreach of the church. They’re not looking for notoriety, publicity or anything else. They’re just doing it as an extension of their ministries,” Frisone said.
The unhoused community runs its own communications network and knows where to go, he said.
How Shepherd’s House manages is an exercise in creativity.
Noble told The Portager she is Shepherd House’s only full-time paid employee. She oversees all operations, including eight part-time staff members who work 20-30 hours a week. Rounding out the workforce is a small army of individual volunteers and groups from churches and civic organizations.
When the temperature drops to the point where the warming center must open, the paid overnight employees are already there, and Shepherd’s House issues an S.O.S. for volunteers to step up, Noble said.
The building itself is owned by Portage Community Chapel, which leases it to the nonprofit organization for $1 a year, she said. Though Shepherd’s House may one day be able to cover the mortgage, for now the church does, she added.
For Ruller, Shepherd’s House may be enough.
“It’s easy to get concerned when we don’t know the systems that are in place, but we are accommodating the folks that want to be accommodated. It’s not hard to get accommodations,” he said.
During the recent cold snap, other organizations announced they’d set up temporary 24/7 warming centers. Among them were Serenity House on Lovers Lane in Ravenna and Atwater Township Hall.
Editor’s note: This article was updated with additional information provided by Bridget Susel
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.