With temperatures rising, the Salvation Army is brainstorming new ways to help the homeless community battle the heat.
Whenever the heat reaches triple-digits, they open up their dining hall as a “cooling station.” Now, they plan to take an old storage room in one of their buildings, and transform it into a permanent place to cool off.
“I mean we see it every year, heat exhaustion and dehydration,” Social Services Manager Erica Hitt said. ‘”There are those individuals that are out on the streets and they are elderly, not able to get around and they are having to sit on the streets until they come and eat dinner with us.”
It will be called the Empowerment Center, offering shade, bottled water, and charging stations for devices.
Hitt said they are just in “phase one” of the center, and they have big dreams for the project. They envision it as a place where they could offer many of their social services and maybe even build showers for people to utilize.
She said, it’s just another door for the Salvation Army to leave open to the people who need it.
“Let them know to come to the Salvation army to get out of the heat,” Hitt said.
