LAKEPORT, Calif. – On a cold night in January, volunteers gather at the Lakeport Seventh Day Adventist Church to prepare for their guests’ arrival, a moment 15 years in the making.

The volunteers, who hail from churches all over Lake County, prepare for the night ahead of them, during which they will facilitate hot showers, two hot meals and a safe place to sleep for their guests: homeless members of the community.

“The idea for a warming center started fifteen years ago, when a group of pastors had a piece of property and recognized a need in the community,” said Shannon Kimbell-Auth, president of the Lake Ministerial Association and pastor of United Christian Parish in Lakeport.

Volunteers finally had the warming center ready to open. However, one major obstacle stood in the way: security.

“The team at Sutter Lakeside Hospital are our heroes. They donated $6,000, which allowed us to hire a security guard and open the warming center on time,” said Kimbell-Auth. “Our goal is sustainability, but Sutter’s donation has given us time to operate the shelter while we find a permanent solution.”

She added, “Our guests have told us that at past shelters, they haven’t felt safe. Belongings weren’t secured, and fights would break out. Our rules are simple: if you can’t bring it on an airplane, it gets locked up with the rest of your belongings.”

“We’re happy to partner with the ministerial association to meet the needs of an underserved population,” said Siri Nelson, chief administrative officer, Sutter Lakeside Hospital. “The mission of the warming center perfectly aligns with our own, to improve the well-being of our community.”

The warming shelter, which is sponsored by 12 churches around Lake County, is the only shelter for adults in the area.

“A good number of the population in Lake County lives well below the poverty line,” said Taylor Johnson, MPH, who helped coordinate Sutter Lakeside Hospital’s donation to the warming center. “Warming centers provide much needed respite for unsheltered persons during intemperate weather. The primary goal of the warming center is to prevent morbidity and mortality due to exposure to the elements. We hope that we can at least help people through what promises to be a wet and possibly very cold winter.”

While statistics disagree on the exact number of homeless people in Lake County, the Lake County Office of Education suggests as many as 1,000 people are without stable housing.

“The ultimate goal is to have more substantial programming and funding to provide the type of services that could have a lasting impact on homelessness in our area,” said Johnson. “But we've got to start somewhere.”