photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

The Community Building at 115 W. 11th St. is pictured on Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2021.

After putting out an urgent call for volunteers last week, the City of Lawrence received nearly 100 inquiries from people interested helping staff the city-run winter emergency shelter.

On Wednesday, the city said that it might need to close the free, temporary shelter at the Community Building, 115 W. 11th St., if more volunteers did not come forward. Since then, Stephen Mason, the city’s volunteer coordinator for the winter emergency shelter program, said the city has received inquiries from 96 people interested in volunteering.

“We are deeply grateful to everyone who has already responded to the call,” Mason said in an email. He said some of those new volunteers have already worked shifts and others have signed up for shifts after the first of the year.

Mason said that the city would need to keep volunteer levels up for the remainder of the temporary shelter program, which will be open through at least March 1 any night the overnight temperature is forecast below 35 degrees in the Lawrence Journal-World.

As to whether the additional volunteers will be enough to ensure the program is able to open every night it is needed, Mason said it was extremely hard to put an exact number on how many volunteers the city would need in total. The number of volunteers needed per night depends on how many people show up to seek shelter, which varies with the severity of the weather.

Mason said while the new volunteer turnout has been great, there are still 10 more weeks to fill and he hoped people would remember the need throughout the winter. He said the city would also continue to reach out to various constituents and groups to expand its volunteer pool.

The city currently has two part-time volunteer coordinators, and is in the process of hiring someone for another part-time position to help with the program. Mason said the city has also had a good response to that opening, with eight applications to date. Apart from the level of volunteers, Mason said it was also the difficult hours of the program’s overnight shift that led the city to create the additional paid position.

Regarding whether it’s an option for the city to add another paid part-time position if the city does not have the volunteers it needs going forward, Mason said while that is not his decision, the recent influx of volunteers makes him hopeful the city would not need to pursue hiring for any additional shifts.

“I would expect us to expand or adjust the overnight shift to make the check in and check out shifts more appealing to volunteers before pursuing opening additional paid positions,” he said.

The program’s hours are currently broken into three volunteer shifts: 7 to 11 p.m. for evening check-in; 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. for overnight supervision; and 5 to 8 a.m. for morning checkout and cleanup. Those interested in signing up for a volunteer shift can fill out a volunteer inquiry at lawrenceks.org/winter-emergency-shelter/volunteer.

The city or volunteers have taken on the responsibility of emergency winter shelter services since the Lawrence Community Shelter reduced its capacity in 2019, initially due to budget shortfalls. The LCS has the capacity to serve 125 people most of the time and 140 people during the winter. LCS capacity has been further reduced to a maximum of 40 people during the coronavirus pandemic so that the shelter can space out guests and have room to quarantine guests as necessary at its building in eastern Lawrence.

This fall, the Lawrence City Commission voted to suspend certain city codes to enable the city to use the Community Building and the East Lawrence Recreation Center, 1245 E. 15th St., to provide overnight shelter during the winter for up to 150 people experiencing homelessness. The Community Building serves as the main site while the East Lawrence center will be used for overflow if needed.