Hot meals, sleeping in pews: Westside church’s cold snap response shows need for ‘resiliency network’

Last week, Pastor Norma Quintero did something she’s never done before: She converted her Westside church into a temporary overnight shelter and warming center for people seeking respite from the freezing temperatures in San Antonio.

“My mind goes back to me raising my three kids in church and I taught them how to be servants — I need to model that for my kiddos,” Quintero said of the decision to open the church’s doors. She has served as the head pastor for El Templo Cristiano Assembly of God, a Pentecostal congregation that will turn 106 in April, for 17 years.

“I’m always preaching you can say anything you want,” but it’s your actions that set the example of “who you are as a Christian,” she said.

With the help of community organizers, other congregations and the City of San Antonio, Quintero and her congregation were able to serve hot meals to more than 100 people and shelter more than a dozen people over three days.

A GoFundMe page was set up to raise funds to pay for private security guards and electricity, city staff dropped off hand warmers and blankets and other local churches sent volunteers and space heaters to help staff and heat the spacious sanctuary, where people slept among the pews and in the aisles.

While some of the church’s leaders were hesitant to open its doors to people experiencing homelessness, Quintero said many had a change of heart after learning of the effort’s success.

Beyond some carpets that need cleaning, there was no property damage, theft or other incidents during the shelter’s operation, she said.

El Templo’s temporary shelter demonstrates how city and community leaders hope to make this kind of quick, community-led response more commonplace throughout the city in times of emergency — climate change-related or otherwise.

“It was [a] really cool example of resource sharing in the moment and being really responsive,” said Sarah Woosley, founder of the organizing and consultancy nonprofit Impact Guild, who helped Quintero tap into a network of agencies and partners that could help. “It just showed us the value in the connectivity of a network.”

On Thursday, the city’s Office of Sustainability and Impact Guild will host a “Neighborhood Resilience” panel and community input meeting to start crafting a vision for a more connected community. The gathering is part of a full calendar of DreamWeek events.

The feedback received will guide how the city and its partners “cast the vision and the goals of this network,” Woosley said.

Learning which assets and vulnerabilities exist in neighborhoods across the city will help it plan for the future, said Kate Jaceldo, climate adaptation manager for the Office of Sustainability.

Preparedness can’t rest solely on either the city or the community, said Jacledo said. “It’s becoming more clear with these climate events that everybody’s going to have to respond.”

Resource-sharing in a crisis

Quintero’s church was already involved in Impact Guild’s Good Acres workshop series, which is aimed at connecting churches with redevelopment opportunities.

On Thursday, Jan. 11, Woosley received an alert from the city that it was looking to help set up warming centers and shelters across more San Antonio neighborhoods ahead of the freeze.

“We have [one] group saying: How can we use our properties in a way for the community? And here’s a call to action from the city saying we need more spaces,” Woosley said. “I just started texting and reaching out to different pastors and congregational leaders … who might be ready to answer this call.”

Some had plenty of volunteers, but not the space, she said. Others didn’t have a reliable heating system or lacked other logistical abilities.

Then all the pieces — the people and the resources — came together at El Templo.

“We need kind of this community-led, community-based effort that can just serve a different set of needs,” Woosley said, because neighborhood-level organizations such as churches or local businesses can serve different audiences and have often built-in trust with the people they serve.

In fiscal year 2022, after the deadly Winter Storm Uri that pummeled Texas the previous year, the city started funding “resiliency hubs” across the city to serve as shelters and resource centers in times of emergency. Now, the Office of Sustainability is working on developing a resiliency network that aims to connect public, private and congregational resources in times of need.

Cities across the country are developing resilience hubs. Many, including San Antonio, are using guidance from the Urban Sustainability Directors Network.

The city opened six overnight resilience hubs at public facilities where local residents have access to basic needs, supplies and shelter during the most recent cold snap. Other shelters and day centers such as Corazón, SAMMinistries and Haven for Hope extended capacity and hours to meet demand. Travis Park Church also activated its shelter operations.

The expanded resilience network could allow for quicker coordination to open up more shelters and resources in other spaces such as places of worship or neighborhood businesses in times of extreme heat, cold or other emergencies.

Woosley hopes to develop guides or a toolkit for organizations that want to be part of the resilience network.

“Do I know what ‘toolkit’ means yet? Not exactly,” she said. “But we want to have processes and frameworks to help groups be able to develop a project team and set their own goals and develop this out.”

For now, El Templo ended its temporary shelter operations last Wednesday.

“We were very overworked,” Quintero said. “I didn’t sleep, but my volunteers loved it and they want to do it again.”

One of the church’s heaters was recently fixed and the food pantry is refilling, so El Templo may be able to open its doors again if needed in February, she said.

“God came through and we did it,” she said. “And we’re going to do it again.”