As snow fell and a biting cold settled over Wilkes-Barre this week, Pastor Sam Garnett opened the doors of Calvary Bible Church to anyone needing a warm place to sleep.
“Not everyone knows this is taking place yet,” the pastor said on Wednesday afternoon, after the church’s first night as a Code Blue emergency shelter.
Both Wilkes-Barre and Scranton have found alternative partners for the Code Blue program that was previously organized by Keystone Mission in both cities.
A Code Blue is issued on especially cold or snowy nights to establish an emergency shelter for people experiencing homelessness.
Scranton’s Code Blue shelter remains at the gym at Weston Field, but this year it is being run by Catholic Social Services rather than Keystone Mission.
In Wilkes-Barre, Mayor George Brown and the city’s unsheltered task force needed to find a new location after Keystone Mission closed its Wilkes-Barre Innovation Center over the summer.
“Everybody got together and just volunteered their services, their time, their energy, and that's how this was put together, with a lot of good teamwork,” he said.
Calvary Church provides overnight shelter in Wilkes-Barre
Brown said the church on South River Street had been used as an emergency shelter in the past, so looking at it for Code Blue nights was a “no-brainer.”
“The pastor there, Pastor Sam Garnett, was very helpful and very accommodating,” Brown said. “So we did secure enough cots to be able to put 70 people in the facility if needed.”
The cots Keystone Mission had used at the Innovation Center belonged to the city, so providing beds was not a problem. One thing they did need at the church was a washer and dryer in order to clean bedding. Brown said a volunteer offered to purchase one in time for the shelter to be used.
“This week was the first time,” Brown said.
Wilkes-Barre and Scranton open their Code Blue shelters when the National Weather Service predicts windchill temperatures of 20 degrees or colder or there is an expected snowfall of 10 inches or more. In Wilkes-Barre, a blue light on Public Square signals that the shelter is open for anyone who does not catch media reports or online posts.
Tuesday night was the first time the Code Blue shelter has been open at Calvary Bible Church this year. Garnett said they had five men in the shelter on the first night.
Wilkes-Barre issued the Code Blue until Saturday. Brown said the shelter will be open from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. on any Code Blue night except for Wednesdays, when Calvary Bible Church will operate the shelter from 9 p.m. until 7 a.m.
Volunteers staff the shelter each night it is open. They provide cots, bedding, snacks and water to any overnight guests.
Now that they are through the first Code Blue nights of the season, Brown said the city and the church will discuss how to “enhance” the experience as winter continues.
“They have a warm environment for them to be in and a place to sleep,” Brown said. “It is a safe place because there are people there that volunteer to be on site.”
In Scranton, Catholic Social Services fills void left by Keystone Mission
When Keystone Mission downsized its operations over the summer, the organization closed its Scranton Innovation Center. While Keystone Mission still operates its Transformation Center in Wilkes-Barre, the organization no longer has any presence in Scranton.
While Keystone Mission did not operate a shelter in Scranton, they staffed and managed Weston Field during Code Blue nights.
Mayor Paige Cognetti said her city also worked with an unsheltered task force to find an alternative.
“We've been meeting for years now, and when Keystone Mission was no longer able to provide the service, we had a built-in group of people that were ready to think about next steps,” she said. “And happily, Catholic Social Services has stepped up.”
Cognetti said Keystone Mission used to provide cots for the Weston Field shelter. The city used economic development funds to purchase cots for this year.
“It’s been a years-long effort where the city has stepped in to make sure there’s a place to host Code Blue, but we, the city, are not able to provide the full wraparound service,” she said. “We rely on a nonprofit for that and we’re really, really grateful to the Catholic Diocese and Social Services team to be able to step in.”
Cognetti said Catholic Social Services will staff and run the shelter while St. Francis of Assisi Kitchen will provide a hot meal each night it is in use. Catholic Social Services also operates a year-round shelter at St. Anthony’s Haven on Olive Street.
Eric Deabill, communications secretary for the Diocese of Scranton, said on Friday that the Weston Field shelter opened on Thursday night as temperatures dipped into the single digits.
He said 10 people stayed at Weston Field on its first night, and 22 people stayed at St. Anthony’s Haven. Both facilities will be open on any future Code Blue nights. St. Anthony’s Haven is open nightly from 7 p.m. until 8 a.m. while Weston Field will be open during a Code Blue from 7:30 p.m. to 8 a.m.
