Warming Center
LAST WINTER THE GREATER GALLATIN HOMLESS ACTION COALITION RESPONDED TO THE ISSUE OF HOMELESSNESS BY HELPING TO CREATE THE WARMING CENTER. SPONSORED BY THE NON-PROFIT HRDC AND OTHER COMMUNITY PARTNERS, THE WARMING CENTER OFFERS ANY PERSON OR FAMILY A SAFE, WARM PLACE TO SLEEP. THIS VITAL WINTER SERVICE IS AVAILABLE FROM THANKSGIVING THROUGH MARCH AT THE GALLATIN COUNTRY FAIRGROUNDS, FROM 7 PM TO 7 AM, 7 DAYS A WEEK.
Click here for a map of the fairgrounds to locate the Warming Center facility.
KBZK News Feature on the Warming Center
See Us Featured On HomelessShelterDirectory.org
The second season for the Warming Center is made possible by all of our GGHAC partners and to a crew of special people who labored evenings and weekends to get the facilty up and running, adding running water, bunk beds, air flow, and much, much more! A very grateful thank you to:
Simkins-Hallin
Kyle Terrio
Les Gebhart
Cotton Sarjahani
Ron Brey
Kim Wattam
George Morales
David Jones
Gallatin County Fairgrounds Staff and Maintenance Crew
Matt Orrantia
Want to help? The Warming Center is in need of volunteers to assist staff during operating hours, groups to assist staff in cleaning and maintaining the facility on a weekly basis, laundry services and more…click here for the volunteer application or here for the volunteer registration site (see instructions below).
1. Open up hotmail website
2. Log-on information windows live ID: or user email: warmingcenter@hotmail.com
3. Password: V0lunteer click sign in.
4. Open up calendar (its under hotmail highlights)
5. Double click on day or the evening you want to volunteer
6. An add event box will appear
7. What: name and time you are volunteering : Stephanie 7pm-7am, or Stephanie 7pm-1am, or Stephanie 1am-7am
8. Where: add a phone number where you can be reminded of your shift: 123-4567
9. Calendar: Volunteer
10. Check the All Day box
11. Click the save button
12. Make sure it showed up on the calendar.
1st Annual ‘Flying Signs’ Fundraiser
The Warming Center Committee Members and Volunteers raised over $2,300 ‘Flying Signs’ on the street corners of Bozeman to raise funds for this year’s Warming Center operations. Thank you to all who donated and volunteered thier time!
Warming Center – Background Information
The Greater Gallatin Homeless Action Coalition (GGHAC) was formed to network and create a community strategic plan to address homelessness within our community. The Coalition was formed under the ‘Continuum of Care’ model, existing across the country.
Emergency Shelter exists within our community in very limited fashions: Haven, for female victims of domestic violence (and their children); Hope House, for individuals suffering severe mental health crises, capped at a 5 day stay; Family Promise, for employable families, capped at 3 families (maximum 15 participants) for a duration of 90 days; and formerly Amos House, for homeless males over age 18, capped at a 7 day stay. HRDC operates programs that assist families in obtaining permanent housing, and has recently been awarded new grant funds to provide further transitional housing opportunities within the community, yet is still unable to immediately serve someone experiencing homelessness. Housing workshops are offered twice weekly in Bozeman and once weekly in Livingston to provide resources and case management services for those who are currently experiencing homelessness or at risk of becoming homeless (current eviction notice).
Further, HRDC has provided homeless placement services (security deposit, rental assistance, case management services, housing search assistance) to more than 240 households within the last fiscal year. Each of these households was without housing at the time they reached out to HRDC for assistance. They were each ineligible for existing shelter services available within the community.
GGHAC’s mission is to prevent any loss of life within our community due to the elements by providing a facility with heat and plumbing available to all populations. GGHAC’s mission is also to document the need and utilization of a warming center facility, combined with specific demographics of those who participate in order to effectively advise the community of how to best focus its resources to serve the ‘homeless’ population regardless of age or circumstance.
Thus, during a 2010 fall GGHAC meeting, a committee was established to look at a short-term, immediate response to the need for ‘a warm place’ for someone to seek shelter. The committee was responsible for all operations of the Warming Center facility last year and recommended to GGHAC that the Warming Center be re-opened during the 2011-2012 winter season.
Space for the Warming Center continues to be a challenge, and we are grateful for the Gallatin County Fairgrounds and their willingness to partner with the Warming Center for its second season. The Warming Center will open this year the weekend of Thanksgiving and offer a safe, warm place to sleep through the end of March, 2012.
