An emergency overnight shelter for homeless people in Wichita will open its doors Sunday for the winter season. As KMUW’s Deborah Shaar tells us, the building at Inter-Faith Ministries’ campus on Market Street underwent renovations this past year.
Inter-Faith Ministries’ “Warming Souls Winter Shelter” received a new furnace and had masonry work completed on the 106-year-old building.
The organization’s marketing director Carolyn Kell says the emergency shelter can house about 140 homeless men a night during the next five months. Kell says they’d like to be able to offer this space year-round, but they don’t have the resources.
"We pick the five coldest months of the year for the winter shelter for both men and women so that there is a warm place for everybody to sleep when they really need it," she explains.
Kell says a winter shelter for women is available at the Safe Haven shelter on Broadway. Last year, more than 600 homeless men and women used the Inter-Faith Ministries winter shelters. Kell says entry tickets for the Warming Souls Winter Shelter are handed out at 6 p.m. each night. She says a line often forms by 2 p.m.
The shelter is located at 841 N. Market Street in downtown Wichita. It will be open November 1 through March 31, 2016. The women’s Warming Souls Winter Shelter is at 841 N. Broadway in downtown Wichita.
