William Mirelez, left, chats with his fiance, Ashley Thompson, after settling in Saturday at the Auburn warming shelter. The two had been staying with a friend on Friday night who they say had been evicted Saturday morning when the landlord asked for the month’s rent upfront, instead of the weekly rates he had been paying. Auburn city ordinances prohibit the warming center from providing sleeping arrangements, but some visitors brought blow up mattresses and shared them. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal
Early risers were met with brisk minus 37-degree temperatures Saturday morning which put into perspective for some the difference it makes where one gets to lay their head at night. For those who have a place to call home, sub-zero temps could simply mean going back to bed or curling up by the fire.
But for the area’s homeless community spending the night in one of this weekend’s area warming stations, the frigid daytime brings a stark reality that they must leave the warmth, return to the place where they keep their stuff, meander until the cold pushes them back to the indoors — or find a new place altogether.
Ashley Thompson and fiancé William Mirelez were staying at friend John Ryan’s apartment until they were all kicked out Saturday morning. Ryan said his landlord changed the rent payment schedule from a weekly to a monthly basis and he was short the cash to pay for the entire month ahead.
“Of all days,” said Ryan, who’s been homeless off and on over the past three years. “She could have waited until it got a little bit warmer … This is the worst it’s ever been.”
Thompson, a Lewiston native, said she spent six years mostly in Louisiana before coming back to Maine. She and Mirelez are waiting on a living arrangement back in a warmer climate, but being homeless in the meantime, especially during historic Maine weather, is difficult.
“We’re going down to Portland and after that, my mom’s got a place she’s buying down south so I can be with my kids,” said Thompson.
Luckily, the trio found out about the 48-hour warming center at Auburn Housing Authority’s Family Development Center on Valerie Circle where they can stay until Sunday.
Claudia Bedro of Immigrant Resource Center of Maine was manning the station which was home to four people Friday night. She expected the head count would be about the same Saturday night.
“It’s a good thing to help your community especially during these times. We’re here to help and work with the community,” she said.
Josh Hughes, a performing artist, stands in his studio located in the old Lincoln Street Firehouse in Lewiston on Saturday morning. Hughes opened his studio space up as a warming shelter when temperatures plunged below zero over the weekend. Hughes says he had around a dozen people sleeping overnight, and that the mood was harmonious. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal
Josh Hughes opened his studio at the old fire station at 188 Lincoln St. as a walk-in warming center throughout the daytime during the cold snap. Hughes is in the process of kicking off a performing arts studio space for the area’s young Black men to learn the value of a variety of performing arts.
“(The building is ) not serving much of a need when I’m not doing what I do. It can adequately fit a lot of people comfortably,” Hughes said. “I wanted to be able to offer another space for people who might not be able to go to the other centers offering this service. So, I thought, ‘just why not?’ Why see a need and not doing something about it? I refuse to just watch people potentially die when there’s something I can do.”
The minus 37 degrees is not an overstatement, said National Weather Service forecaster Sarah Thunberg. The Lewiston-Auburn area was clocking in around minus 17 degrees before windchill around 7 a.m. Saturday morning, relenting to about 2 degrees by 1 p.m. which was around minus 16 degrees with the wind chill factor.
“A historic cold snap,” Thunberg described it as. “At our weather balloon launch last night (Friday) we actually recorded our lowest temperature (ever) at about 4,000 to 5,000 feet — negative 31.5 degrees.”
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