Advocates for Lawrence’s homeless say they don’t want to see a repeat of what happened Saturday night, when the Salvation Army turned away five adults from its overnight shelter.

“Whatever happened — that caused a huge wave of people to come over here,” said Joel Pollock, a volunteer at Lawrence Open Shelter, 944 Ky. “We were completely full in a matter of no time. I had to turn people away. Our capacity is 20. I probably had twice that many show up.”

Temperatures overnight Saturday reached minus 12, the National Weather Service reported.

“A lot of people had to sleep on the street that night,” said Doni McCarten, a homeless woman who spent most of Tuesday morning at the Community Drop-In Center, 214 W. 10th St.

“When it’s that cold, somebody could have died,” she said.

McCarten said more than five people were turned away from the Salvation Army shelter. “It was more like 20,” she said, “That’s what everybody’s saying.”

But Salvation Army administrator Rich Forney said he checked the shelter’s records and found that five had been turned away. All five, he said, had not fulfilled the terms of their contracts.

“When you come here, you sign an agreement that says you’ll do a certain number of things in order to continue coming,” Forney said. “You agree to see a case manager at least once a month, and agree to attend at least nine hours of class a month.”

The classes are designed to help participants find jobs and become self-sufficient.

Joel Pollock, a volunteer at Lawrence Open Shelter, cleans sleeping mats in the women's section of the building at 944 Ky. Several people were turned away from the Salvation Army shelter, 946 N.H., during Saturday night's minus-12 temperatures. As a result, the Open Shelter was filled to capacity and also had to turn people away.

Of the five turned away, Forney said, one hadn’t met with his caseworker since early December; the others hadn’t met the class requirement.

“All of them knew they would be put out,” Forney said. “They’d been talked to about this. It wasn’t a surprise.”

Forney said he regretted denying people shelter. But at the same time, he said, he can’t expect some to follow the rules and not others.

“I think it’s important for people to realize we’re only talking about nine hours (of class) a month,” he said. “And we’re not real strict about it. You can get credit for doing chores here or for going to A.A. (Alcoholics Anonymous), or to the Adult Learning Center or to Independence Inc. — all you have to do is bring back a slip of paper that says you were there.

“All we’re doing — and all that the Salvation Army is about — is helping people help themselves,” Forney said.

After a meeting Monday with shelter residents, Forney said that in the future, those to be turned away would be given a formal, one-day advance notice.

Jane Chatterton, who’s been homeless “only a couple months,” says the Salvation Army’s policies are as flawed as they are understandable.

“If you’re working, making nine classes a month is not as easy as it sounds,” said Chatterton, 20. “And if you’re mentally ill, well, your illness can get in the way of your doing what you’re supposed to do. But if you’re alcoholic or you’re doing drugs all day, sitting on your butt, you can’t blame them for putting you out.”

Loring Henderson, co-chairman of Lawrence Open Shelter’s board of directors, said he wished the Salvation Army had waited until temperatures weren’t life-threatening.

“I do not want to appear judgmental,” Henderson said, “and I do not think it’s wrong for them to have rules. But I also think, and this is the Open Shelter’s philosophy, that at some point, we are a shelter first, a self-improvement agency second.”