Written by Haley Parnell, LINK nky reporter
The cold winter months are upon us, and the Emergency Shelter of NKY is giving its all to provide people with a warm place to sleep. Due to Covid restrictions, only 24 beds are available right now.
Once the organization occupies its new facility, which Executive Director Kim Webb expects to happen within the next three weeks, it can host 68 beds.
The shelter is Northern Kentucky’s only immediate, cold-weather shelter for adults and operates as a low barrier, immediate entrance shelter, removing as many obstacles as possible to get people in the door and out of the cold.Â
The shelter began its operations back in 2008 in a building located on Scott Blvd. in Covington that was not designed to operate as a shelter; nevertheless, they have made the space work for the past 14 years.
People line up outside the door at 5:45 p.m. to secure a bed. Webb said the beds would fill in a matter of minutes. Anyone left over after the 24-bed cutoff gets sent to the Mother of God Church, where they can sleep on air mattresses on the floor.
“On Jan. 4, looking ahead, we had a serious cold snap that we were looking at, and staff started asking, ‘Can we do anything?’ The guests are like, ‘where else can we go?’ I called Father Mike and said, ‘Father Mike, I know we’ve done it here in the past. Is there any way you guys will let us use the undercroft?’ And without hesitation, he said ‘sure,'” Webb said.
Webb said their current location was supposed to be temporary, and the process to get a new facility was a challenge because of zoning laws. They secured their new facility when St. Elizabeth bought the Steffen’s Tool Crib building at 436 West 13th St. in Covington and donated it to Kenton County for a cold-weather shelter.
The shelter entered a 30-year lease and began construction in December 2020. The new building is 10,000 square feet, giving it an additional 5,000 square feet of room to work with than it previously had.
Due to the tall ceilings and brand-new ventilation systems at the new facility, Webb said the health department is allowing them to use both the upper and lower bunks on the bunk beds. They will have 16 women’s beds in the winter months and then 52 men’s beds.
“We will also go back to doing our housing work program beds because we are more than just an emergency shelter,” Webb said. “We provide supportive housing and temporary housing for employed men who just need a place to save money. And then we help them find housing or connect them to services.”
The new location will also have Northern Kentucky’s first daytime navigation and engagement center, which the old site lacked. The engagement center will have three computers and cell phone charging lockers.
There will be two community partner rooms onsite for shelter partners to use. The partners include churches, AA meetings, and volunteers and donors who want to go in and play games with guests.
The facility will have a certified kitchen for volunteers to help prepare meals onsite, showers, a guest laundry area, and an enclosed courtyard area.
“It’s just incredible,” Webb said. “This has been a huge journey for us as an organization and for our community. And I’m really proud of the work that everybody has put into this to make this a reality.”
Webb said the original timeframe to move to the new shelter was November 2021, but supply chain issues for their furnishings set them back.
The shelter is always looking for help through volunteers. Right now, Webb said the shelter needs help doing laundry as they currently have laundry going at both facilities.
“Our mission is to be life-saving, life-changing, and we talk a lot about that here,” Webb said. “That is for everybody that walks through our doors. So that is our volunteers too.”
If you want to help the shelter keep their doors open, Webb said $30 could give someone a bed to sleep in for the night.
“This has really been centered around doing the right thing,” Webb said. “This is about investing in individuals that often just need some hope, someone to hold their hope for them for a while and give them a space to regroup and then take the next steps.”
Photo: Emergency Shelter of NKY (provided by Emergency Shelter of NKY)
