Martinsville’s warming center plans to relocate to Soul Winners International Ministries on Church Street for the upcoming season that begins on Nov. 1, after receiving city approval on Wednesday, its director said Wednesday.
The warming center has been located at the Salvation Army on Memorial Boulevard but began looking at new facilities after concerns about increased rent prices, said Ariel Johnson, the center’s director. The Salvation Army sent a facility use agreement to Johnson on Sept. 19 with a monthly rent of $5,000, which is a $2,000 increase from last year, she said. The rent at Soul Winners will be $2,800, Johnson said.
The warming center shelters about 25 people every night throughout the winter and is a project of the West Piedmont Better Housing Coalition — a nonprofit dedicated to addressing homelessness in Martinsville and surrounding counties. The warming center announced the new location on Facebook after receiving approval from the city for a building code modification request Wednesday morning.
The warming center now needs to sign the church’s facility use agreement, which is already written, she said. The agreement process was “very collaborative,” Johnson said, in comparison to the landlord-tenant relationship at the Salvation Army.
The center will need to move supplies into the building and get insurance, Johnson said. Insurance is typically a 30-day turnaround, so Johnson is hoping it will be set before their Nov. 1 start date.
Salvation Army representatives said last month that they were still trying to work with the center on an agreement. Those representatives did not immediately return a message left for them on Wednesday.
With a new location, Johnson said she has reached out to fire, EMS, law enforcement and local leaders to build a planning group to ensure they are proactive in addressing any potential risks.
“I come into a space, doomsdaying everything, thinking about worst-case scenarios so we can avoid those worst-case scenarios from happening,” Johnson said.
The space at Soul Winners is a “perfect facility,” Johnson said. The building has a kitchen, foundations for showers and laundry, and at least five bathrooms — in comparison to two at the Salvation Army.
“There’s just lots of opportunity, so really, and the pastor’s really eager and willing to help with whatever,” Johnson said. The warming center will fundraise to build out the showers and laundry at Soul Winners.
It will also have access to a fellowship hall, Johnson said. People could come in, eat and then transition downstairs when it’s time to sleep. At the Salvation Army, they didn’t have access to a kitchen, Johnson said.
“If we didn’t have a volunteer for a meal, we were kind of screwed,” Johnson said. “There was little to no way for us to make a meal like that.”
Now, Johnson said she can buy frozen food or soup to prepare a meal in the building.
“It’s going to save us a lot of money, because the amount of times we had to order pizzas and all that stuff last minute, that costs a lot,” Johnson said.
The church has a large downstairs area with separate rooms that could be used for older people, families, those sleeping and those awake.
“If we have somebody that’s not going to be able to sleep at night and they’re going to be pacing, we’ll have an area where folks can kind of just chill, escape the cold,” Johnson said. “Because at the end of the day, I want people alive.”
