- Welcome House and NorthKey Community Care are partnering to provide shelter, healthcare, and behavioral health services to unhoused individuals during extreme cold in Boone County.
- The Boone County Cold Shelter is currently serving more than 100 people, including seven children, through hotel-based shelter and essential support services.
- Leaders from both organizations emphasized the importance of collaboration to reduce barriers, maintain dignity, and connect people to long-term housing solutions.
As temperatures have dropped to as low as zero degrees Fahrenheit over the past month, two Northern Kentucky-based nonprofits have partnered to aid the homeless population in Boone County.
A 2025 analysis of 24 studies published in Public Health, an English journal published by the Royal Society of Public Health, found that people experiencing homelessness were at a higher risk of mortality from hypothermia and hypothermic injury due to cold exposure than the general population.
With that in mind, the Boone County Cold Shelter has opened its doors to provide unhoused individuals with a place to escape the frigid temperatures. The Boone County Cold Shelter is a partnership between the Boone County Fiscal Court and Welcome House, Northern Kentucky’s largest nonprofit providing homeless services.
Welcome House operates a cold-weather shelter program funded by the Boone County Fiscal Court, which provides hotel-based shelter, meals, hygiene items, and supplies for adults and children.
To bolster services, Welcome House has partnered with NorthKey Community Care to bring on-site mental health, substance use, behavioral health, and primary care services directly to shelter participants. NorthKey offers case management, therapy sessions, medication support, and transportation to appointments—services that are especially vital during snowy weather.
“I think this allows us to really meet the people where they are, so we’re sending staff to some of the rooms where, if there are such dire health conditions, we can go in and meet with them so they’re not facing those barriers every single day,” said Danielle Hubbard, lead manager of community support services at NorthKey.
Jenna Gurren, Welcome House’s director of homeless solutions, told LINK nky that the partnership with NorthKey allows the organization to expand its service offerings rather than work in silos.
“But a lot of time that path involves connecting with other local community partners and nonprofits who are doing different work and are experts in their field as well,” she said.
Currently, Welcome House’s cold shelter is serving over 100 people throughout the recent weather events, including seven children.
“Folks are coming in with a very limited amount of resources,” Gurren said. “We are serving seven kids physically here right now, so we want to make sure that they have diapers and wipes. It’s a lot of coordination to make sure that we’re stockpiled of the things that we need, because it’s going to be tough to get out, just like everybody else does in the area when you’re going to be quote-unquote snowed in.”
Gurren and Hubbard both highlighted the significance of collaboration, which helps the organization stabilize individuals during crises, maintain their dignity, and guide them toward long-term housing solutions.
“I think the general message that we want to get across is how important it is to not work in silos, to have more intentional coordination,” Gurren said. “It’s dignifying for folks when you not only allow them to have shelter, but to get access to services and reduce barriers.