How Out of the Cold’s new shelter will provide stability, support network for homeless

Halie Kines
·4 min read

With the purchase of a building as its new permanent home, Out of the Cold: Centre County is one step closer to providing stable shelter each and every night for those who need it in the community.

OOTC3 has been located at The Meetinghouse at Atherton, 318 S. Atherton St., for about two years, but were only able to use it as a day shelter. At night, guests stay at local churches, which rotate about every two weeks.

The host sites serve a hot meal and provide a cot, warm blankets and a place to sleep, according to OOTC3’s website. Breakfast is served in the morning and before leaving, guests can register to return that evening. During the 2020-21 season, 17 congregations helped to provide overnight shelter for 175 people, the website states.

But having a permanent night shelter that doesn’t require the guests to move to different locations will provide more stability for their guests.

“We’ll be able to have our guests stay overnight and we will no longer be utilizing the churches in our community. Instead, the churches will be hosting people here and coming here,” Sarah Potter, program manager for OOTC3, said. “Our guests will have some permanence in this time of instability in their lives, which is really important.”

OOTC3 raised $200,000 to purchase the new shelter through a capital campaign. The switch from churches hosting the night shelter was debated by the board, Potter said, because the church community loves hosting the guests.

“It’ll be a shift for them to have to come to our facility. But for everything that it will provide to the guests, we could only see that this was the right way to move forward,” Potter said. “Having to move every two weeks is — it’s already hard to be homeless. It’s harder to then pack up every two weeks.”

During its open house Thursday, volunteers and community members got a tour of the shelter and learned about its renovation plans, while celebrating the purchase.

The house is expected to provide shelter to about 30 people by turning some of the current rooms into bunk rooms. Potter said they plan to build all the bunk beds themselves.

“We’re actually going to probably build the bunks ourselves and build them so that they have storage bins underneath, and that they have partitions between them,” Potter said. “There’s actually lots of cool bunk beds out there in hostels in Europe because so many people travel. I’ve been looking at cool hostel designs and trying to come up with something that’s going to be a little bit more ... homey and give them some more privacy.”

Out of the Cold program director Sarah Potter talks about the renovations and changes at their location at 318 S. Atherton St., which will become the day and night shelter. Several rooms will have bunk beds for guests.
Out of the Cold program director Sarah Potter talks about the renovations and changes at their location at 318 S. Atherton St., which will become the day and night shelter. Several rooms will have bunk beds for guests.

While the guests stayed at the churches, they had to sleep on cots and usually had little privacy. The bunk beds will be a welcomed upgrade, Potter said. It’s a low-barrier shelter, she said, and while they don’t have luxury accommodations, they’re still always trying to think of ways to improve the experiences of the guests.

Other renovations include a new ventilation system and making the building ADA accessible. The shelter will have wellness and quiet rooms for guests to have down time or work on homework or job applications. There is a full-time caseworker at OOTC3 that is available for the guests to work with. They can help with job applications, attaining identification cards, setting them up with medical insurance and food stamps, if needed, and provide them with resources on housing. If they need a caseworker for things such as mental health or addiction, that can be set up as well.

“We’re kind of like the connectors. We try to create a support network for them so that when they leave here, they are well established and ... they’re going to feel like they have a foundation that they can work from,” Potter said.

There is no concrete timeline of when renovations will be done, but Potter hopes it will be done by spring or summer 2022. The COVID-19 pandemic has continued to make things difficult, as construction costs are up and there is a backlog of construction workers, Potter said.

Community support helped OOTC3 purchase the new shelter, and Potter hopes that support will continue. They’re always looking for people to support their mission, whether that be through monetary donations, volunteering at the day shelter, volunteering at the evening shelter, providing meals or helping with maintenance around the property.

Out of the Cold: Centre County is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization. For a list of needed items, visit http://www.ootc3.org/donations-and-wish-list.html. Financial donations can be made to Out of the Cold by sending a check to PO BOX 784, State College, PA 16804. Online donations can be made from its website.

To see the shelter, view the renovation plans or to learn more, a second open house will be held from noon-3 p.m. Sunday at 318 South Atherton Street, State College.