Arctic cold pushes Denver Rescue Mission beyond capacity
A blast of artic cold is set to drop temperatures into the single digits and below zero range. The Denver Rescue Mission has a long history of serving people experiencing homelessness in our community. The Rescue Mission is gearing up to protect people from these dangerous temperatures.
"Those that we serve that are on the streets, our intent is to get them indoors because as you can imagine this cold does not work well on the human body," said Josh Geppelt, Vice President of Programs for the Denver Rescue Mission.
The Denver Rescue Mission provides shelter in Denver at the Lawrence Street Shelter, the 48th Avenue Center, and the Crossing. Over the weekend they'll be adding beds to all those facilities to make sure people can come inside out of the cold.
"Across all of our locations here in town, we're at capacity, and so when we have events like this and we have cold weather, that means we're having to go beyond capacity, and so that means extra staff hours, extra meals served, extra things to give out to people in need," Geppelt explained.
CBS Colorado has teamed up with Denver Rescue Mission for our annual Spread the Warmth campaign. We want to make sure that the Rescue Mission has everything it needs to do its life saving work.
"Our intent with this campaign is to really come back out to the community, after all the holidays, and say, 'Hey, this is still a need in our community. This is the coldest time of year, and we can't do this work without your assistance,'" Geppelt told CBS Colorado.
The number of people experiencing homelessness across the community has increased due to evictions, wages not keeping up with the cost of living, and struggles with addiction. The Rescue Mission serves people of all ages through its programs.
"The hard thing about people who are experiencing homelessness is that is a reality that does not discriminate, so people from all walks of life. And so, our intent is if you show up at our front door, we're going to attempt to help you and if we can't help you, our goal is to ensure that we can get you elsewhere," Geppelt said.
LINK: Spread the Warmth
Spread the Warmth is a collection initiative designed to help those who need it the most during the winter months. The Rescue Mission can also use money donations to pay for increased need for food and shelter among those experiencing homelessness.
