Mid-Missouri shelters see increase in people in need as frigid cold hits the area

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Columbia Room at the Inn is keeping its doors open throughout Saturday night for people in need of a warm place to sleep as the frigid cold sweeps through mid-Missouri.

Manager John Trapp said the shelter regularly hits its full capacity of 110 people. The shelter opens at 6:30 p.m. and closes at 8 a.m.

He said people are grateful to have a warm space and a meal to eat.

"Well, if they're here, they're not outside," Trapp said. "That's our main goal, is to keep people from having to sleep outdoors during the winter."

The warming shelter will be open Monday, which is Martin Luther King Jr Day. Trapp said that's because the library won't be open, and the buses won't be running.

Many people won't have any place else to go.

"With it being a holiday, it really doesn't meet our criteria to stay open as far as the coldness goes, but we're going to do it anyway," Trapp said.

Audrain County Room at the Inn Executive Director Revae Moore said the shelter saw new people on Friday night.

"The shelter's different every day, so I know last night we had more people than we've had in a while," Moore said. "Several new faces were at the shelter last night, so it was good to see them come off the streets."

Moore couldn't tell ABC 17 News the exact number of people in the shelter Friday. Moore's shelter can serve 16 people, and she saw eight people the last time she was in.

The shelter opens daily at 5 p.m., and people can come in and out of the facility until 10 p.m. The shelter closes at 7 a.m. on days when the weather is below freezing. The shelter will open early and stay open throughout the day, although Moore said she doesn't think that's necessary for Sunday.