About the Shelter

The emergency Winter Warming Shelter at AmeriCorps St. Louis opened its doors in 2009 at the urgent request of the St. Louis City Department of Human Services due to a shortage of shelters in the city. When disasters arise nationally, AmeriCorps St. Louis is highly regarded for its skills setting up Emergency Operations Centers, organizing and engaging spontaneous volunteers, and managing donations. The organization had the skills to open an emergency Winter Warming Shelter based on this experience.

The next winter, AmeriCorps St. Louis teamed up with St. Louis Winter Outreach and two local churches to continue the mission of providing safe housing to those in need during the cold winter months. Before this collaboration, Winter Outreach could only provide blankets or hot drinks and snacks to people staying outside. As a network of shelters began to form, they could ensure that people also had a safe place to sleep. In past years, the network has included up to 12 different shelters, however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, that number has been reduced.

How our Shelter Operates

As an Emergency Shelter, we follow these guidelines, developed in partnership with St. Louis Winter Outreach.

Months of Operation: December 1st - mid March
Days of Operation: Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays
Temperature Threshold: 20 degrees, or 25 with precipitation. How do we decide whether or not to activate? Our Winter Outreach coordinators check this NOAA forecast.
Capacity: Our shelter typically has room for 40 beds
Population: Our shelter accepts people of all backgrounds and identities: men, women, nonbinary, children, families & couples, LGBTQ+ identifying - no discrimination! We even accept pets (service or emotional support animals), and our facility is ADA accessible.