AS HEAT INDEX PUSHES 110, EMERGENCY SHELTER'S A/C BROKEN

by Michael Monks
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UPDATE Monday July 25: Per community activist and volunteer Candance Witte, Kenton County Judge-Executive Steve Arlinghaus has taken swift action. Shelter administrator Rachel Winters confirms that a new air conditioning unit will be installed immediately on the roof of the Scott Boulevard building.

ORIGINAL STORY:

The Northern Kentucky Emergency Cold Shelter keeps its guests warm in the winter, but very hot in this brutal week of summer. The Kenton County-owned building's air conditioning unit broke down last summer and has been since using a portable one.

But with temperatures approaching one-hundred degrees and a heat index even higher, the building's twenty-one guests find themselves in an uncomfortable setting.

The River City News is told that the temperature inside the building is in the mid-eighties and that the one window on this Scott Boulevard building does not open.

Volunteers Paul and Candace Witte discovered the situation late Wednesday night while dropping off donated supplies after they helped serve dinner at the Madison Avenue Christian Church. "I couldn't go home and sleep in my cold bed knowing this was going on down here," said Candace.

She contacted Steve Hoffman, who operates a nearby wedding chapel, and who then contacted Kenton County Judge-Executive Steve Arlinghaus. A repair crew is expected to arrive Thursday to fix the roof-top air conditioning unit that broke down last year.

Hoffman tells The River City News that Arlinghaus was unaware of the air conditioning problem but that the Judge-Executive responded quickly.

The Emergency Shelter serves a different purpose in the summer than it does in the winter. One former guest tells The River City News that in the winter, "it's a life-saving program, in the summer, it's a life-changing program."

The men live in this space during the summer months and they have to finish tasks to be admitted and to remain inside, such as going to a jobs service center and completing a resume. Once admitted, the guests learn how to beat substance abuse, how to find a job and how to be self-sufficient.

The ones who work are required to put seventy-five percent of their earnings into a savings account that can be used to secure housing upon completion of the program. Nineteen men have completed the program in its three-year history.

"These guys here are awesome," said Candace Witte. The shelter operates through donations and through the help of volunteers and five part-time staff members.