With shelters in Springfield hitting capacity and a cold spell on its way, the city says a new emergency overflow shelter is coming online, thanks to a collaboration that quickly came together.
Local organizations, clergy and others gathered at the Wesley United Methodist Church Tuesday as officials announced more shelter beds are being added in the city, coming online as most seven-day forecasts show temps dropping into the single digits.
“It's going to be very cold this week, it's going to be very cold for the next week to come,” said Ed Van Zant of Catholic Charities. “We hope to be open tomorrow evening, we hope to have 25 beds available for the homeless population.”
Van Zant spoke at a press conference announcing the creation of “Warming Partners,” a new effort underway at the Methodist church in Mason Square off State Street, consisting of an emergency overflow shelter set up in its lower-level, community space.
With much of Springfield’s existing shelters already full this winter, officials say various community leaders had been looking to offer more shelter to those in need.
The result: Warming Partners, an effort that includes city ARPA funds, organizations like Catholic Charities and the United Way of Pioneer Valley, and the church itself, including its pastor, Reverend Catharine Cummings.
“When you invest in your churches, your cities, your community - then partnerships come about in a grand way,” Cummings said amid before beginning a prayer to start the press conference.
During the event, organizers spoke of how the effort came together quickly - 11th Hampden State Representative Bud Williams describing hearing about the proposal one week, only to here it was in working order a short time later.
“This happened so fast - I got a call and they said they're getting ready to have a warming place, like a week ago,” Williams said from the altar. “And then, they said it's going to be open tomorrow. What, are you serious? To all those involved: thank you.”
Gerry McCafferty, director of Springfield’s Office of Housing, tells WAMC that last November, when state funds for overflow shelters were up for grabs, Catholic Charities applied, but ended up being passed over as the organization and city tried to identify a potential site.
With winter’s arrival and roughly 200 individual shelter beds in the city filling up quickly, a collaboration involving faith-based groups emerged – with Catholic Charities and Mission Church Ministries’s Bishop Robert M. Jones playing significant roles.
“Joan [Paris] began the work of talking to lots of folks, had the idea that churches might be a good place to do this,” she explained. “We had some phone calls that brought people together … saying, ‘Let's brainstorm together - we know we don't have enough shelter, let's brainstorm together,’ and Bishop Jones actually said ‘Let me talk to some of the churches in my network,’ and that was the connection to this church and to Reverend Cummings.”
Joan Paris, interim executive director for Catholic Charities in Springfield, tells WAMC about $80,000 in ARPA funds from the city helped make the shelter happen – supported further by donations and assistance from United Way and other groups.
“I'm hopeful this won't be the only one, because on those nights when those shelters are full, these people really are desperate and alone,” she told reporters. “And, as we said, they need to be warm, but they need to be hugged, they need to be spoken to, they need to be held, they need to be guided. Sometimes, they just need to be with one another in a good space.”
Paris says for now, the shelter is set to operate for at least 15 days this winter, with hopes of securing more resources to continue functioning for as long as possible.
According to Mayor Domenic Sarno, the shelter will open up at 6 p.m. when the city announces a winter weather emergency, with guests staying until 8 a.m. the following morning.
Speaking of other efforts in the city, Sarno described how Springfield’s Department of Health & Human Services sends out an “evening outreach response team,” looking to connect the unsheltered with facilities.
“We also have a new component in this. Sometimes, the most vulnerable, especially our seniors - something happens with their housing, the furnace goes, the heating system goes, they're in frigid temperatures. We've also made partnerships [with] a couple hotels, if, temporarily, we had to move a senior or somebody very vulnerable, because it's going to take a while do that repair,” Sarno mentioned. “We have areas for them to be safe and sound and warm, and I think that's very, very important.”
At this time last year, a Springfield-Hampden County Continuum of Care “Homeless Point-in-Time Count” found 2,901 people were experiencing homelessness in the Springfield area. The mayor’s office said 2,346 of those surveyed in 2024 were in family shelters, up 12 percent from the year before.
Fast forward to 2025, and the need only seems to be growing, Paris told reporters.
Touring the shelter after a press conference, Representative Williams, whose district includes the church, told WAMC collaborations like Warming Partners are a testament to Springfield and its faith-based communities.
In the face of growing need and the future of federal funds being up in the air, he says more initiatives like the one announced Tuesday will be needed.
“Nowadays, we're going to need a lot more of these initiatives, because – [from] what I'm hearing - funding is very limited,” he said. “[It’s] going to be very dicey coming from the federal government. So, we have to put these coalitions and initiatives together to make things happen.”
The city is also taking donations for the unsheltered – requesting new blankets, hats and gloves among other amenities.
From Monday to Friday, between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., individuals can drop off items at the Ray Jordan Senior Center at 1476 Roosevelt Ave, the Department of Health and Human Services at 311 State Street or Room 001 at Springfield City Hall at 36 Court Street.
