Modesto-area shelters offering homeless relief during heat wave. Here’s how you can help
People who are homeless can find relief from the relentless heat wave at three Modesto-area homeless shelters, where they can get a cold drink, have a snack, charge their phones and watch a movie.
The Turlock Gospel Mission had about 30 people — including women with children — show up Monday, the first day it opened its cooling center. The center is open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day through July 10.
Executive Director Christian Curby said the mission could keep the center open longer if the heat wave continues past July 10. The National Weather Service’s seven-day forecast has daytime highs of 107 to 111 degrees through Tuesday in Modesto, with morning lows in the lower to mid-70s.
The weather service has issued an excessive heat warning through 11 p.m. Tuesday for inland Northern California, including the Northern San Joaquin Valley.
Curby said a third of the roughly 30 people who used the mission’s cooling center Monday were children with their mothers.
The Salvation Army Berberian Center near downtown Modesto and the Modesto Gospel Mission are using existing programs to double as cooling centers.
The Berberian Center has been using its day center as a cooling center for the last couple of weeks. The center is open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily and until 8:30 p.m. on Mondays.
The center averages 30 to 50 people per day but has drawn as many as 75 to 80 during the hot weather.
The Modesto Gospel Mission is using its day program in its chapel as a cooling center. The hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, but the mission lets people stay later during especially hot days until the start of chapel service at 7 p.m.
“Typically when it gets really hot we do so people trickle in,” Gospel Mission Chief Operating Officer John Villines said.
People using the cooling centers can avail themselves of the other services offered by the three shelters. For instance, Kirby said the Turlock Gospel Mission offers a telemedicine clinic in which someone can meet with a doctor over Zoom. And people using the cooling center at the Modesto Gospel Mission can stay for chapel service and then dinner.
The three cooling centers are in addition to the more than the 20 cooling zones, including public libraries and community centers open this week to anyone in Modesto and throughout Stanislaus County.
Donations of food, toiletries and more help those in need
While the Berberian and the two missions are meeting the demand of the people they serve, they can use donations, including bottled water and individual servings of crackers, trail mix, nuts, chips and other snacks.
The Modesto Gospel Mission also can use toothbrushes and toothpaste, skin lotion, socks, towels and men’s and women’s underwear. The Berberian Center also can use refillable plastic water bottles, and the Turlock Gospel Mission also can use plastic cups for cold drinks and lemonade and other powdered drink mixes.
The Modesto Gospel Mission is at 1400 Yosemite Blvd. and can be reached at 209-529-8259. The Berberian Center is at 320 Ninth St. The phone number is 209-525-3750. The Turlock Gospel Mission is at 437 S. Broadway and can be reached at 209-656-1033.
