Jorri Cates found emergency shelter this bitterly cold week at the Butte Rescue Mission.
She was not alone. The mission has been busy.
“I would not have had any place to go,” Cates said Tuesday, a day when the sub-zero cold sank its teeth into exposed skin and stunned the lungs.
“Without this place, I would be out of luck,” she said.
When temperatures plunge in the Mining City, staff at the Butte Rescue Mission on Platinum Street think about safety and the vulnerability of the population they serve.
“In the last two days we’ve given away probably 20 warm coats,” said Brayton Erickson, co-executive director of the mission.
The Butte Rescue Mission’s emergency shelter offers 16 beds, but more people can find temporary refuge there when demand increases during frigid weather.
Otherwise, the mission’s Restoration Program offers 40 beds and is designed for long-term stays as residents address substance abuse problems, mental health issues or both.
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“The main goal is sober living,” Erickson said, and providing a safe place for people to heal and get their feet beneath them.
Hypothermia finds a community’s most vulnerable — older adults with inadequate food, clothing and heat and the homeless who sometimes struggle to find a safe shelter.
Sub-zero cold bites, burns, numbs and freezes tissue. Risk factors for frostbite include being at high altitude.
The National Weather Service predicts sub-zero cold will continue at night through Friday in Butte. The high temperature Wednesday is forecast to be 4 degrees.
Misty Johnston, operations manager for the Butte Rescue Mission, and Erickson said homeless camps in Butte still exist even when the temperatures plummet. Some people prefer to be alone and avoid shelters. They live in tents or sleep in cars.
Erickson said a man with mental health problems died from hypothermia last month in Butte. He said the man apparently failed to recognize the symptoms that could have signaled he was about to die of exposure.
He said people who first encounter the Butte Rescue Mission through the emergency shelter sometimes end up in the Restoration Program.
That program helped 66 people find full-time employment and 86 people find housing, he said.
Housing has become more of a challenge, Erickson said, as prices for rentals have escalated in Butte.
The Butte Rescue Mission welcomes donations, he said, including seasonal goods like winter coats and blankets.
“You don’t reach everybody. Our goal is to try.”
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February 23, 2022 at 05:30AM
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Butte Rescue Mission provides shelter from the bitter cold - Montana Standard
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