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November 13, 2001
By Gail Binkly With just $1,000 left in its bank account, the Christian Emergency Shelter seems to be facing a bleak winter. But its organizers are going ahead with their mission — providing a warm bed and a meal for street alcoholics, the homeless or anyone else that might be left out in the cold in Cortez. "We’re down to nothing right now," said Fred Thomas, president of the shelter’s board of directors, on Monday. "We definitely need money." Thomas is hoping the city of Cortez will come through with some funding, as it has in past years. The city provided $8,000 last year, and the county gave $500 to the shelter one year. "We’d like to get more," Thomas said. The shelter, which is housed in the old Chapel building south of Cortez, operates throughout the winter months. After the sun sets, workers drive around town picking up men who are out on the streets and need a place to spend the night. The shelter provides them with food, a bed, and clean clothes if they need them. Women who need a bed are provided with a motel room. The shelter began its annual effort on Monday of last week, Thomas said. Now that the county’s new, larger jail is open, it can accommodate some of the drunks that are picked up late at night, he said. "We’re working really closely with law enforcement. We’re picking up everybody the first round, at 6 or 7 o’clock, and everybody past that point, the jail will pick them up and put them in the drunk tank. That saves us a lot of running into town." The shelter’s annual budget is around $20,000, Thomas said, not counting in-kind contributions such as food and volunteer labor. The budget pays for one full-time employee and such items as utilities and gasoline. It also supports the volunteer efforts at Thomas Engineering, which serves as a contact point for day laborers since the local unemployment office won’t allow them to go there. Money goes to pay for phones, utilities, coffee and other necessities associated with that program, he said. This is the fourth year of operation for the shelter, Thomas said, "and it also will be our last year." That’s because, once the old jail is remodeled, it will include a detox facility. Thomas hopes the shelter will be able to change its mission and offer long-term support after that. "We want to go to more like a rehab situation where we can get away from the revolving-door thing and house guys that really want to stay sober, help them get jobs and so on," Thomas said. "We get a lot of criticism because we’re supposedly enabling people," he said. "That’s the last thing we want to do, but as it is we can’t really help them other than put them to bed and feed the guys and give them a shower. "But we’re saving lives. No one has frozen to death since we started, thank God. "When we first started, that was our main concern. The Christian community decided this was something we should do, and we’ve accomplished our mission." The shelter sees some of the same clientele year after year, Thomas said, but there is also a large turnover. "There’s about four we’ve had from the very get-go, but a lot of the guys we had the first year are no longer on the street. "We’ve had some good turnover and I think that’s good. The first year, we had 2,000 visitor contacts. The second year there was half that. Last year there were 1,200 to 1,500, but nothing like the first year." The shelter will operate through March and also needs male volunteers to work nights picking up the clients and helping them get settled in bed. Ideally, there would be two persons available every night, Thomas said, and more volunteers are definitely needed. "We’re un-covered on a couple nights so far," he said. "Plus there’s always attrition. There’s heavy burnout. "By the time we get through January it’s really hard to find enough staffing for the shelter." Anyone interested in being a volunteer or donating to the shelter should contact Thomas at Thomas Engineering, 432 N. Broadway, 565-4496. |
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