ALTON/EDWARDSVILLE - With frigid temperatures over the next few nights, the Overnight Warming Locations will remain open for community members experiencing homelessness or insufficient heating.
The Overnight Warming Locations (OWLs) in Alton and Edwardsville will once again be open on Jan. 7, 2025, as overnight temperatures are forecasted to drop below 20 degrees Fahrenheit. The Alton OWL, located at Deliverance Temple, and the Edwardsville OWL at First Baptist Church both open when temperatures reach this low.
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Lindsey Apple, OWL director, explained that the OWLs are open to all unhoused community members, people without sufficient heating, or anyone who needs a warm place to stay. She encourages people to volunteer with the OWLs, and she reminds guests that the OWLs will always be a safe space for those who need them.
“As a pastor, this looks like church to me,” she said. “I feel really grateful to be a part of that. It’s not a religious movement, but a level of hospitality and care for neighbors. That mutual respect, I think, is a really powerful demonstration of what community actually looks like.”
On nights when temperatures are forecasted to dip below 20 degrees, the OWLs open at 5 p.m. Guests receive a hot meal typically provided by volunteers or a local restaurant. They can take a shower and do their laundry. In the morning, they receive breakfast and two bus tokens.
Apple emphasized that the OWLs’ mission — “Get inside. Get connected. Get well.” — does not require guests to take any “steps of stability.” The goal is simply to make sure people aren’t sleeping outside in dangerous temperatures.
“What the OWLs are providing is an option to be inside,” she explained. “And beyond that is a level of hospitality and care that is kind of unmet in other arenas, so food and showers and then, if guests are wanting to take next steps of stability, whatever that looks like for them…If the desire to get connected and get well is part of the guest experience, then allow some of those next steps to take place, if they choose to. If not, then a warm meal and a place to just rest.”
Apple also encourages those who are interested in volunteering to sign up on the OWLs’ Facebook page. She noted that it takes between 40–50 volunteers to run one night at the OWLs, and they are always looking for volunteers.
They also need donations. Apple said that they have received a lot of material donations, for which they are thankful, but they also need monetary donations to pay for repairs and cleaning supplies.
“It’s a tall order to ask to make sure that both of these facilities are staffed well and have what they need to just operate,” she said. “It takes a whole team of people who are willing to work together, and I’m really grateful to be part of that leadership to provide that support. The temperatures outside are deadly. For us as a community to have options for those overnight temps so people can get inside and get connected, I’m all for it.”
There is currently a push to open an Overnight Warming Location in Collinsville. Apple expressed her support for the plan, but noted that it will take a lot of work to make it happen. Apple was a big component of opening the Edwardsville OWL last year.
“As much as I would love for Collinsville to stand something up in the next week, I just don’t know how realistic it is for their community,” she said. “I do think that it is possible, but it is a big request. That’s just from the outside looking in and somebody who kind of experienced something similar. You feel the urgency to do something right now, but the OWLs don’t just happen overnight. There is a lot of work that goes into it.”
Apple encouraged people to visit the official Overnight Warming Locations Facebook page for more information about volunteering, donating and being a guest at the OWLs. She noted that the OWLs are not the final solution, and she said more work must be done to support community members.
“You have the volunteers who are doing the work to make sure that at the basic level, there is an option for people to get inside,” she added. “There’s far more work to be done regionally and in our communities to ensure that people who are experiencing homelessness or heat insufficiency have options that are a little bit better than what we are offering today.”
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