Amid the impending arrival of the season's coldest temperatures, two Dallas organizations dedicated to helping the homeless, Our Calling and Austin Street Center are joining forces to protect the thousands of vulnerable individuals facing potentially life-threatening conditions.
Pastor Wayne Walker, CEO of Our Calling, is helping to lead an initiative to provide emergency shelter and assistance to the increasing number of homeless individuals in Dallas.
"Our numbers keep growing every year. We're meeting about 70 new people that just experienced homelessness for the first time every week, and it's continuing to grow," Walker says.
In collaboration with Austin Street Center and other partners, the organization has established a large-scale emergency shelter at Fair Park, with the capacity to accommodate up to 1,000 individuals during the upcoming Arctic blast.
"We've created room for just about a thousand folks. And so we plan this all year long, and then we deploy in a moment's notice to be able to set it up," says Walker. "We've got some very particular parameters. It's got to hit below freezing at night for three hours or more. We're planning on through Wednesday, but it may be even later. We'll make those calls day by day."
Beyond providing a refuge from the cold, the shelter also serves as a hub for critical services.
"We've got the Texas Baptist Men who are going to be helping us serve meals, Austin Street Center, and some of our partners from Housing Forward will be doing intake," Walker explained.
In addition to the emergency shelter, Our Calling actively engages with the homeless population throughout the city.
"Our Calling street outreach teams are out right now, all over the city, trying to convince people to come in. We'll start intake today (Friday) at about 3 PM, and we're expecting a pretty large crowd because this weather is going to last through the week," Walker emphasized.
Walker called upon the community to join efforts in providing support.
"We need you to use the Our Calling app. Just download that and report where you see people experiencing homelessness so our teams can go out there and partner with other agencies (to help).
"On our website at ourcalling.org/cold, we have some opportunities for people that want to give to support this, that want to volunteer, and even those who want to donate resources."
Walker says top needs are financial, granola bars, coats and blankets. You can donate money online, or take items to the Our Calling headquarters at 1702 S. Cesar Chavez in Dallas.
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