Each morning, overnight visitors at Grace Wellness Community Center’s winter warming center carefully pack their personal belongings in totes, suitcases, a duffle bag or clean garbage bag, putting linens in pillowcases and folding the clothes they aren’t wearing before the shelter’s close at 8 a.m.

People as young as 20 years old visit the warming shelter on 123 E. Diamond St., Glade Run Lutheran Services CEO Steven Green said, with unhoused visitors ranging in age. Some stay for only one night, while other guests return each evening for the winter.

The bags they bring, carry and pack away often hold their only possessions, program manager David Baynes said.

“They take a lot of pride in their belongings,” Baynes said. “Their belongings — that’s all they have to their name right now.”

Baynes, who oversees the day-to-day operations of the shelter, allows visitors to leave some packed belongings inside to make their day easier.

“Especially if it does snow or there is ice, we don’t want any elderly (people) carrying around suitcases,” he said.

In the morning, some visitors leave for work. Participants can find a meal at the Grapevine Center on North Elm Street, and some frequent the public library or the nearby Dunkin’. At 7 a.m. each morning, a case manager from Catholic Charities meets with participants to discuss their housing plans.

“We’ve been successful as a program in transitioning a lot of people that come visit us into more permanent housing solutions,” Green said.

Some participants live “off-grid,” Green said, and prefer not to share their housing plans.

“Some just have trust issues, and some have a plan of their own that they just don’t want to share with us,” Green said. “Maybe they’re hoping to live with a relative or friend, or they have some other housing option that they have planned on their own.

“We understand everybody’s in a different place,” he said.

Green emphasized that trying to guess anyone’s choice behind asking for help or refusing it would be purely speculative — everyone is different, he said.

“I think it’s important to know that anyone can find themselves in this situation,” he said.

“I think the misconception is that they could just change their situation by working harder or getting a job or pulling themselves up from their bootstraps,” he said. “You know, that kind of attitude that they put themselves in that situation — we don’t think like that.”

Homelessness doesn’t happen overnight, he said.

“People will pass judgment when they see a homeless person,” he said. “They don’t understand that maybe this person was doing fine until they got sick and didn’t have medical benefits, and then they had to pay back, you know, $20,000 to a hospital or corporation. Or a marital separation, anything like that … 20 of those things stack up on a person, and the next thing you know, they’re down and out, but this world doesn’t care.”

The reasons people find themselves without housing are diverse, Green said.

“It’s an array of behavioral health, mental health and economic, socio-economic struggles,” he said.

“We always consider trauma that people have experienced and that kind of helps us understand their presentation from time to time,” Green said. “We come from a perspective of, not what’s wrong with them, but what happened to them. That’s the perspective.

“If you keep that perspective, you’ll be able to have a little more empathy.”

Green said while staff ensures the environment is inviting, more in-depth conversations are reserved for therapists and social workers.

“We’re just making sure everyone’s safe and warm, and we’re friendly,” Green said.

Baynes said the center averaged about eight visitors in November, 14 in December and seen about a dozen in January. This is the second year that the center has been open.

Equipped with pillows, linens, blankets, quilts and over 25 cots, Baynes said the shelter would be equipped for an uptick in guests on any given night.

Inside, visitors can find snacks, coffee, towels, toiletries and blankets. They can wash their clothes in a laundry room and can take a shower.

To gain entry, overnight guests can obtain a voucher through Catholic Charities or the Center for Community Resources.

“If someone arrives to us after hours and doesn’t have a voucher, normally, we’ll allow them in or we will send them down to CCR to obtain a voucher,” Green said. “All they have to say is, ‘I need a place to sleep for tonight.’”

Participants are also asked to arrive before 11 p.m. and agree to the center’s safety rules and protocols.

While the shelter does not accept minors, Green said staff would immediately call CCR, if a family or child was in need of a place to sleep.

“I think it’s important to recognize … the warming center is just one program on the homeless housing continuum in Butler,” Green said. “And we just fit a niche.”

Green commended the work of other agencies, including Butler County Human Services, in connecting people with resources.

Outside of formal agencies, seeing others in the community extending help to people in need is also encouraging, Green said.

“’What do you need?’ Just ask them,” Green said.

“I think the more people see others help, the more (homeless people) believe and convince themselves that there is help (available),” Baynes said.