KANSAS CITY, Mo. — With temperatures expected to drop overnight and remain near freezing with brisk winds in the coming days, the Garrison Community Center is being transformed into a warming center.
The community center, operated by KC Parks and Recreation located near East 5th Street and Troost Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri, will be open overnight to anyone who needs a warm place to stay.
As many as 100 people can be inside with social-distancing guidelines in place and food will be provided.
“This is about saving lives,” Cheryl Ferguson, who is helping with the initiative, said.
Two men experiencing homelessness have died from exposure already this year in KCMO, prompting calls from community activists to address a growing need.
Scott Eicke died on Jan. 2, when the temperatures in the region were below freezing. Friends who knew Eicke told 41 Action News he died of hypothermia.
The warming center at the Garrison Community Center is in his honor.
“We’re going to continue to fill in the gap, because we should never let people just fall through the cracks, because we have the comfortability of turning on the light and never questioning,” Ferguson said.
