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Local nonprofit urges county‑run emergency shelter as freezing nights loom
Summary
Deanna Gardner of Mother Love, Inc. told the Oxford board that nearly 100 McKinney‑Vento families and other residents face sub‑zero nights and urged the county to open a reliable emergency shelter at Mary Potter Gym or a comparable city site.
Deanna (Deanna) Gardner, founder and director of the local nonprofit Mother Love, Inc., told the Oxford Board of Commissioners on Jan. 13 that the county faces an immediate cold‑weather emergency and urged the board to establish a dependable county‑run emergency shelter.
“For the next several nights and into the next week, people in our county will be sleeping outside in freezing temperatures, including disabled adults, senior citizens, and children in cars,” Gardner said. She told the board her organization spent more than $5,000 on hotel stays in a single month to keep people from freezing and said the county’s single emergency cold‑weather option—Cornerstone Christian Church under the white‑flag program—cannot be relied on for nights when church services or staffing are unavailable.
Gardner recommended Mary Potter Gym as a workable emergency shelter site, noting it is centrally located, walkable from downtown, has bathrooms, space for cots and, in a county air‑quality report, the gym’s indoor air was reportedly cleaner than the outdoors. She also cited federal McKinney‑Vento protections for students experiencing homelessness and said local schools and nonprofits are overwhelmed by placements into hotels.
Commissioners responded that the city and county must coordinate to build a reliable shelter system. Several commissioners said they have been researching options and requested Gardner’s continued participation in planning meetings to ground decisions in frontline experience.
What comes next: Commissioners said they will continue research and convene with county partners; no immediate vote or funding allocation was made that evening.
