Warming center opens at Fall River Government Center

By Bianca Buono

bbuono@abc6.com

@BBuonoABC6

Warming centers opened up across Southern New England Saturday in an effort to help keep people out of the bitter cold.

"I was so happy when I found out it was going to be open because we’re all scared of being out in the cold,” said Karen Harper, a homeless woman from Fall River.

Harper has been fighting through the cold winter months but admits it’s taking a toll on her.

"I’ve been going to the doctors. I’ve got a chest infection. I’m on antibiotics,” Harper said.

When city officials heard that temperatures were dropping into the negatives, they realized something needed to be done. So they opened up the doors at Government Center and transformed the first floor into a warming center.

"We want to make sure that the members of our community are safe in such frigid temperatures…When I talked to the shelter operators and volunteers there was really a demand to make sure we had something open this weekend,” said Chris Parayno, Fall River Mayor Jasiel Correia’s Chief of Staff.

As one volunteer who is also a pastor explains, typically Harper and dozens of others have no place to go during the day.

"They get out of the shelter at 7 o’clock in the morning and they walk the streets all day until we open up again at 5. And it breaks your heart,” said Brian Weeks.

And when Weeks heard the news, he took it a step further.

"I called and said would you mind if I organized and brought some food and he said you can go for it."

He put the word out and the response was much more than he expected. Restaurants and volunteers brought enough food to last the entire weekend.

"We’ll have enough to hand it out at the overflow homeless shelter that we work at,” said Weeks.

"It’s very nice of them to help us out like this,” Harper said.

The warming center in Fall River closed at 5 p.m. Saturday but will serve as a shelter overnight if the other shelters in the area fill up.

© WLNE-TV 2016