NORTHAMPTON — A new overflow emergency winter shelter has opened inside St. John’s Episcopal Church to provide life-saving warmth for unhoused neighbors during the coldest nights of the year.
The St. John’s Emergency Shelter will operate specifically on the nights when the city’s Clinical Support Options, or CSO, shelter on Industrial Drive hits its maximum capacity of beds during winter emergencies. There are now 12 beds available at St. John’s, with more planned to be added.
The new shelter comes at a time when Northampton experiences approximately 20 nights each winter that plunge to 15 degrees or below, conditions that pose severe, even fatal, risks to those without shelter.
“This project is a Jesus project,” said Rev. Anna Woofenden of St. John’s. “We are called to see the image of God in each and every human being, and no one should freeze to death in the winter. In the Episcopal Church, one of the promises we make at baptism, and reaffirm on a regular basis, is to ‘respect the dignity of every human being.’ Making this shelter a reality is what it means to follow Jesus. While we can’t solve all the suffering in the world, we can do our part to re-spin this part of the broken web in our community.”
This effort, led by St. John’s, is in continuation of its effort to reimagine church as a place of restorative justice, real healing and radical welcome. In 2026, the church is celebrating its bicentennial.
The shelter placement is coordinated by the city’s Division of Community Care, and the shelter is run by trained volunteers and fully funded by donations. Many of the area’s unhoused neighbors are already familiar with St. John’s as the church hosts Manna Community Kitchen and Community Center.
Kathy Whittemore, a member of St. John’s senior leadership team, told Reminder Publishing this effort started about a year ago when two regulars of Manna Community Kitchen shared with Woofenden that they had spent a night on the move to keep from freezing because they did not have a shelter option.
“I think anybody would feel terrible about that, but Rev. Anna is a really amazing, feeling, human being, and at the sermon that Sunday, she told that story and said, ‘we have to do better, this is not OK.’ And that set in motion a bunch of things,” explained Whittemore. “This is not to criticize the shelter system as it exists now … it’s just that there’s not enough room, not enough beds. In manageable weather that is not a crisis, but in freezing weather, this is not ambivalent, this is not a gray area, this is black and white. It’s life or death.”
While efforts were made then to establish more shelter space for those without a place to stay, Woofenden and leadership at St. John’s looked to create a more sustainable option. After St. John’s received grant funding from Trinity Church in Lower Manhattan, they moved its industrial kitchen space to the upstairs of the church, which made way for that space to become home for the new emergency shelter.
Trinity awards grants to faith-based and community organizations focusing on areas like housing, social justice and economic resilience. Whittemore explained that with this grant funding, they remodeled the church’s basement to make it accessible as an emergency shelter.
Current Trinity Church Rev. Phillip Jackson is an Amherst College alum and has ties to the area, which helped the church identify the funding opportunity.
Now with work complete and the space ready for use, the shelter had an official blessing and ribbon cutting ceremony on Jan. 8 to mark the opening of the new emergency winter shelter. The ceremony featured remarks from Northampton Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra and the Rt. Rev. Douglas J. Fisher, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Western Massachusetts. Both expressed gratitude for the new shelter and highlighted the critical gap in cold-weather housing for the most vulnerable community.
The new shelter will offer beds in the church’s undercroft, the basement beneath the sanctuary. Whittemore said the effort is in line with St. John’s DNA, as the church previously hosted a cot shelter in decades past. She also credited the city’s Interfaith Clergy group for creating a network where other houses of worship can collaborate to meet the needs of the public.
Whittemore explained the shelter space has been dubbed the “Trinity Room” because they are honoring group collaboration just like the holy trinity of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. It also serves as a nod to Trinity Church for their grant funding that made the project a reality.
Weather will be monitored regularly by church leadership, volunteers and other city groups. When a cold weather emergency is on the horizon, they will notify the public when the overflow winter shelter will open. Whittemore said over 70 people have already signed up to volunteer, and she said those interested in joining can also reach out to get involved. Volunteers will go through an extensive, several-hour training before taking on the role.
“It’s been quiet, but we are trained in resuscitation with Narcan, trained with de-escalation techniques. We are trained in just being vigilant,” said Whittemore, who added that many have already taken advantage of the shelter during the first few nights it opened.
The new emergency shelter is a low-barrier congregate shelter, meaning you don’t have to be sober to enter, and you can bring your pet if you own one.
Whittemore added that this effort from St. John’s Episcopal is a good reminder of what a church can offer for its community.
“We live in a liberal, mostly secular area around here. And in this day in age, unfortunately, and perhaps justifiably, people hear the word ‘Christian’ and associate it with the right and conservative Christian, and Christian nationalism. That is not what St. John’s is. St. John’s is a very progressive church, and we believe in living our faith just as Jesus did, which is reaching out to the marginalized,” said Whittemore. “I think that unhoused folks in Hampshire County know this is a generous community, both secular and faith-based. And we really wanted to meet a need.”
