Columbia’s Room at the Inn shelter is at capacity during heatwave

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Hall at the Shelter Inn has been consistently full with around 70 guests each night during this recent heatwave.

This is the first summer Room at the Inn has been open after receiving funding from the city in October to remain open year-round. The shelter was only open during the winter.

The inn’s executive director, John Trapp, said the summer capacity is 72 people. Before the heat wave, the shelter housed about 60 people each night, but Trapp said that over the past week it was constantly full each night, to the point of turning people away. .

“Heat kills a lot more people than cold, so summer is really important to have a cool place,” Trapp said.

He said more people are coming to the shelter suffering from sunburn, heat exhaustion and dehydration.

Temperatures were at or above 90 degrees in Mid-Missouri for several days in June. The entire region was under a heat advisory Tuesday and the ABC 17 Stormtrack weather team considered it a weather alert day due to the extreme heat.

Triple-digit heat indexes were forecast for a second straight day Tuesday.

The shelter, which is usually open from 6:30 p.m. to 8 a.m., even remained open all day Saturday due to the high heat index and the fact that the Turning Point day center is closed on Saturdays.

“People getting sunburned and going out with a heat index over 100 degrees, that’s a recipe for bad things to happen,” Trapp said.

Trapp said it’s difficult to stay open during the day because it requires overtime and increased resources, something the shelter doesn’t have the funds to do consistently.

He said Room at the Inn is also seeing more people arriving with poison ivy, insect bites and allergies, something the shelter wasn’t used to when it was first open only in winter. He said the shelter offered more water, sunscreen, antihistamines, calamine lotion and steroid creams.

Trapp said being open year-round has put more responsibilities on the shelter. They are implementing new transition resources, including a social worker and treatment plans.

Check back for updates.