Emergency warming shelter open in Columbus

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – The city of Columbus has opened a shelter for residents needing a warm place to stay.

Mayor Robert Smith said an emergency warming shelter has been opened at the Columbus Police Department. The GTR Homeless Coalition and the City of Columbus have partnered up to open the shelter.

The shelter will stay open 24-hours a day until Friday, November 15.

Those needing shelter are asked to come to the side entrance of the department to be let into the building.

Columbus city leaders are opening the shelter to make sure all residents are safe during the cold.

“Every citizen matters to us, and we don’t want, first off, we don’t want any people without homes. Secondly, we want everybody to be safe and warm tonight and as long as the weather is the way that it is right now,” said community outreach director Glenda Buckhalter-Richardson.

“We do have homeless that are unseen and that’s kind of true for every community. So, it’s hard to get a hard count of exactly how many people out there are homeless,” said co-president of the GTR Homeless Coalition Marth Kirkley.

The Salvation Army is donating cots for anyone that would like to stay the night at the warming station.

Churches and businesses are donating food and drinks.