Aurora’s winter warming center underwent a number of changes this year: it was open on more nights, in a new location and run by a different organization.
Now, with the center’s season over and summer here, the city of Aurora and those running the warming center are looking back at how operations went — and beginning to discuss next year.
In November, the Aurora City Council approved a contract with Becoming Oswego Church to operate the shelter at a cost of around $135,000. The temporary warming shelter, at 712 S. River St. in Aurora, was open from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. when temperatures were at or below 32 degrees for at least six hours, a change from past years’ threshold temperature of 15 degrees.
The city previously contracted with Wesley United Methodist Church in Aurora, which provided the warming center the year prior, but it didn’t apply again this past year. Before contracting with Wesley, the city operated its warming center at the Aurora Transportation Center, starting in 2014.
The contract approved in the fall was set to provide funds for the warming center to be open for 100 nights, providing funding for staffing, security, food and administrative costs, Aurora Chief Community Services Officer Nicole Mullins said at Tuesday’s City Council meeting. And a $50,000 contingency fund was set up in case the center needed to be open for additional nights, to provide hotel vouchers for families or to address overflow needs.
But some services were provided by Becoming Oswego unrelated to the city’s contract with them, Mullins said, indicating that the city is “grateful for those additional things that they did as humanitarians and as their church.”
According to the Aurora Winter Warming Center’s Executive Director Annie Fish, Becoming Oswego came in under budget in its operation of the center, spending around $110,000 this past year.
It was able to serve 351 different people from November to April, Fish said at the Tuesday City Council meeting. The warming center saw an average of 40 guests per night, she said, with a maximum number of 57 guests in a night.
And, given the higher temperature threshold, it was open for 86 nights — around double the amount from last year, according to Fish.
Operating the shelter involved work by 38 paid staff, more than 200 volunteers and a number of faith communities, organizations and local businesses, added Patrick Fish, the pastor of Becoming Oswego Church.
“Our goal was so that no one in our community would die due to preventable things like frostbite,” he said. “We are grateful that so many were a part of that work, so that our most vulnerable would have a safe haven this winter.”
The contractor for the warming center also provided more than 6,611 meals and held things like shower and laundry events, according to Annie Fish. Eight people found stable or supportive housing, she added, and 29 people gained employment while staying at the center.
“It was a super-successful season despite the roadblocks,” she said. “These numbers speak for themselves.”
According to Fish, one of the circumstances Becoming Oswego found itself dealing with was that local shelters had people on waitlists this year.
“It became our issue to try to help fill that gap,” she said.
The city warming center was not meant to duplicate the efforts of Hesed House, a local homeless shelter, but was intended for people who cannot go to Hesed House, either because it is at capacity or because the person was turned away for some other reason.
The warming center also saw an increase in clients when there were campsite sweeps, she noted, prompting the center to create a storage system for people’s belongings.
“It truly changed lives,” Fish said about the center. “And that changes atmosphere and creates pride in their community, and it just means a whole lot.”
That impact is personal for Atlantis Delgado, who was a guest at the warming center.
At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, Delgado recalled celebrating her birthday at the center.
“Originally, it was just, like, me by myself, and it made me pretty sad,” Delgado said, until she went to the warming center. “Annie just comes up to me and she’s like, ‘Happy birthday, Atlantis!’ And I’m just like, ‘Oh my goodness, she remembered my birthday.’ Someone remembered my birthday.”
That experience made Delgado “feel human,” she said.
“Something like the warming center is nice to have — because of that,” Delgado said. “It makes people feel human.”
During the City Council meeting’s public comment period, some other residents also spoke in support of the warming center.
Ald. Will White, at-large, commended the services the warming center was able to provide as “great,” and Annie Fish explained that some things, like birthday celebrations, came out of Becoming Oswego’s pocket.
Ald. Dan Barreiro, 1st Ward, asked whether there were funds available in 2026 to start up the season in the fall, to which Mullins said she doesn’t yet have final numbers because the city still has to process some receipts.
Aurora Chief of Staff Shannon Cameron said the city earmarked $250,000 in the current budget to cover January through April 2026 plus give them start-up money for the coming year.
As for next year, Fish said at a prior City Council meeting on May 26 that this past season operating the warming center taught organizers that “preparation matters, time matters, planning ahead matters.”
“Even without all the time we needed, people came together and made something meaningful happen,” she said.
But she cautioned against waiting “until the next emergency, the next season, the next project or the next funding cycle to begin thinking ahead.”
Talk of lessons learned for next year also arose on Tuesday.
Fish said organizers would like to improve the center’s care for families going forward. She also said that the season’s start was “a little rushed,” so they’re hoping to get the ball rolling sooner this time around.
Also, looking to the future, Patrick Fish, Becoming Oswego’s pastor, said that these efforts shouldn’t be by only one church or group, and that organizers want to work with whoever runs the shelter on how to operate it.
“This is about just taking care of our neighbors who are here,” he said. “We’re just excited that we live in a community that wants to see our neighbors and take care of them in the hardest months.”
Pointing out that the church is from Oswego, he also said that it wants Oswego to be “part of the solution,” so its starting a nonprofit there so the village of Oswego can be part of the response to this issue. People coming to the shelter are not just from Aurora, he noted.
Ald. Carl Franco, 5th Ward, at Tuesday’s meeting thanked organizers of the center for their efforts.
“This is not an Aurora problem,” Franco said. “It’s a regional problem. So getting our neighbors on board is wonderful.”
As for next year’s plans, Mullins emphasized on Tuesday that the city has not said the warming shelter won’t exist for the next season.
“That has not even been up for debate,” she said.
The city is still gathering data for end-of-year reporting and plans to do an internal city debrief on the center’s operations, according to Mullins. Once that’s been done and the city has gathered all of its final data, decisions about next year will be made, Mullins said, and the city would go through the “proper procurement processes.”
mmorrow@chicagotribune.com
