St. Paul's Cathedral opens doors to unsheltered as Oklahoma faces freezing temps

A prominent downtown Oklahoma City church has become a refuge for individuals experiencing homelessness as temperatures dip below freezing.

St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral, 127 NW 7, is an emergency shelter, working in partnership with other community groups, the Rev. Katie Churchwell, dean of St. Paul's, said Monday.

"It's been a beautiful blessing," she said. "In the Church, we deal a lot with life and death but not always in instances like this, so to open our doors like this, it was an easy 'yes.'"

Sleet and freezing rain moved into central Oklahoma on Monday morning, with ice accumulating on city roads and worsening travel conditions during the first wave of a winter storm expected to drastically drop temperatures throughout the state this week.

More: Check for the latest weather news and school closures

Meteorologists with the National Weather Service were monitoring sleet showers, freezing drizzle and a wintry mix of sleet and freezing rain throughout the state. Heavy wind worsened conditions and slickened roadways throughout the Oklahoma City metro area.

A second round of severe winter weather was forecast for Tuesday, with freezing rain, sleet and possible snow in northern Oklahoma, meteorologists said.

A third wave is expected Wednesday, with freezing rain likely to transition to average rain during the afternoon in much of the state.

Connecting unsheltered to much-needed resources

Churchwell said the emergency shelter at St. Paul's was opened on Sunday in Dean Wiley Hall in St. Paul's administration building, which is adjacent to the main church building.

The current round of freezing temperatures marks the second time that St. Paul's has become an emergency haven in the last several months. Churchwell said the church initially housed 67 people from Dec. 21 through Christmas.

Then and now, the church was connected to community resources through OK End Homelessness, the Rev. Sarah Smith, an associate priest at St. Paul's, said.

Smith said the nonprofit's founder Felicia Brooks-Veazey and her team are running the emergency shelter at St. Paul's, doing case management with the unsheltered who show up so that they might be connected to much-needed resources beyond emergency shelter. Mattresses were available for people to sleep on in Dean Wiley Hall while tables and chairs were set up for dining nearby.

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Smith said community organizations have been helping in a variety of ways. She said representatives of Church Under the Bridge ministry brought food on Sunday night and one ministry leader played his guitar and sang several inspirational songs. Bikers 4 Christ has also provided resources and a Kiwanis club was scheduled to being food on Monday evening, Smith said.

Brooks-Veazey said her organization OK End Homelessness leases a building on the Exchange Avenue Baptist Church property near the Stockyards. She said she's been coordinating "pop-up" emergency shelters for a few years and she has been trying to get local churches involved.

"My heart is to create a church component," she said of her work with individuals experiencing homelessness.

Brooks-Veazey said OK End Homelessness was providing shelter for vulnerable people who couldn't be housed at St. Paul's because the church's elevator was broken. She said these included some older adults and people who were wheelchair-bound or had injuries that kept them from taking stairs to the church's emergency shelter area.

She said her team worked with St. Paul's during the Christmas season, as well as an organization called Grace Urban Ministries, which operated an emergency shelter at Eastside Church of Christ at that time.

Brooks-Veazey said there are many people and groups who want to help during times of extreme weather conditions, but there has been a need for places for the unsheltered to stay and for these groups to coordinate their efforts.

"What I'm doing is help empower churches with a heart to serve," she said.

Churchwell noticed that one of the first things people did when they arrived at St. Paul's was to lie down and sleep, and many of them would sleep for hours.

"I think that means they feel safe," she said.

"When you're out on the street, you are living in a state of constant vigilance. I'm noticing the immediate relief that our friends are experiencing when they are here."

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Other shelters also available

Oklahoma City also has eight overnight shelters that serve the unhoused community throughout the year.

But with the bitter temperatures this week, several winter overflow shelters are extending their services, including The Homeless Alliance, The Salvation Army, City Care and City Rescue Mission.

“During the day today, we are welcoming guests into our day shelter as we would normally on any other weekday,” Homeless Alliance spokesperson Taylor Self said Monday. “Normal hours are 6:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., but we will be open 24 hours through Thursday.”

The Homeless Alliance emergency shelter is at 1729 NW 3. The City Rescue Mission night shelter is at 800 W California Ave. The Salvation Army night shelter is at 1001 N Pennsylvania Ave. City Care night shelter is at 532 N Villa Ave.

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Contributing: Staff writers Jana Hayes, Jessie Christopher Smith and Josh Dulaney

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral offers emergency help to OKC homeless