Homeless shelters need volunteers

With Yakima's extreme weather shelters slated to open Saturday night, organizers are still seeking volunteers to help run them.

About 250 people are needed. But so far, only about 35 people are trained.

"It's really urgent that we get more people," says Dave Hanson, an assistant pastor at Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Yakima. He organizes the shelter program. "We can't open the shelters if we don't have the people to run them."

The next training is tonight, and Hanson is optimistic: "Our community will come through."

The biggest need is for overnight volunteers. Other helpers include shelter directors, food and transportation coordinators, and those willing to serve dinners.

The shelters offer homeless men, women and children a place to sleep during extreme weather -- 32 degrees or colder. This is the third year of the program. And Hanson expects to serve more people -- "maybe as many as 300" -- than the past two winters.

"My sincerest hope is that we can get through a year when we don't have to turn people away," he says.

Last season, about 250 people were served, and only a few were turned away because shelters were full, he says. The first year, nearly 170 people used the shelters, but many were turned away.

With the tanking economy, "everything indicates that there are going to be more homeless people in the foreseeable future," says the Rev. Dave Roberts, pastor of Yakima's First Baptist Church.

First Baptist has 16 beds for men. The Vineyard has 12 beds for women and children. And the capacity could increase; three more churches are considering getting involved, says Hanson, the executive director of Sunrise Outreach. The Vineyard-based ministry contracts with the Homeless Network of Yakima County to run the shelters. The network represents about two dozen organizations that advocate for the homeless.

According to a 2008 survey, more than 1,000 people in Yakima County are homeless. But many advocates say the actual number is likely three times that amount.

At the shelters, it's first-come, first-served, and there are no in-and-out privileges; people hunker down for about 12 hours, beginning about 6 p.m. In the past, they were turned back out into the cold, sometimes in single-digit temperatures, around 6:30 a.m. This year, they'll have another option: using the computers at the new Green PC Academy on South First Street from 6:30 to 9:30 a.m.

A Bible study is planned for those who opt to stick around another hour. Paul Coffman, one of the directors of the new nonprofit community computer lab, is also hoping to start an afternoon bread-and-soup outreach.

"It's already been below 32," Roberts says, "but we're getting our act together as fast as we can."

If you go ...

What: Training for volunteers at extreme weather shelter

When: 6:30 to 8 p.m. tonight

Where: Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Yakima, 221 E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

Also needed: Donations to cover the cost of hot dinners and sack lunches.

Call: 453-2343