The Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in downtown Dallas opened Friday as a temporary homeless shelter as North Texas braces for the coldest weather in decades and what could be its largest snowstorm in years.
The convention center will be open through the weekend and possibly until the end of next week as the area experiences record freezing temperatures. There will be at least 200 cots Friday and there is capacity for up to another 200 more, said Anastasia Reed, a city spokeswoman.
This is the first time the city will reopen the convention center to the homeless since this summer. The city previously opened the downtown emergency shelter in March at the start of the coronavirus pandemic here and kept it open until August. Since the start of winter, the city has been relying on temporary hotel stays to help the homeless.
The city shelter’s reopening comes as several local nonprofits and church groups have raised the alarms that the prolonged cold weather would leave them stretched too thin.
Several groups asked the city to reopen the convention center Friday after reaching a limit where they could still safely accommodate people and maintain social distancing, said Wayne Walker, executive director and pastor of OurCalling, a nonprofit homeless service provider.
“We told [the city] we needed the convention center open,” Walker said. “If we didn’t have this space, it’d be impossible to protect people from dying on the street. It’s that simple.”
He said they were helping pay to open the convention center. In exchange, OurCalling was planning to temporarily close its downtown headquarters to staff the convention center around the clock.
He said they would migrate their services there as well. Walker estimated that it would cost his group at least $5,000 a night.
Reed said she didn’t know Friday how much it would cost the city to keep the convention center open.
According to OurCalling, the city is providing cots and security. The Stewpot and Salvation Army are helping with food, Shoreline City Church has donated masks and Austin Street Center and Union Gospel Mission are driving people to the center.
People will be given COVID-19 rapid tests at the center.
