COVINGTON, Ky. — Freezing temperatures continue Saturday. The weather can be dangerous for those without heat.

The Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky says need started going up as temperatures cooled early this year. Early January, as the weather started getting colder, officials say they were turning away 20 to 25 people each night from the shelter’s location on Scott St. The facility can house 24 people. Capacity has been reduced due to COVID-19.

“Beyond homeless, individuals experiencing homelessness, what if you were staying someplace and and didn't have heat?” said Kim Webb, Executive Director of Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky. “This is where house fires happen because people, they put an oven door. They plug in things. They use kerosene heaters, you know, is there is there a way for us to continue to to improve our response as a community?”

Shelter officials opened up an overflow shelter at Mother of God Church on West 6th St. in Covington. The church can house up to 49 people.

The Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky will also open a new, larger facility later this month.

You can help the shelter by making a monetary donation. $30 will provide shelter for one guest for one night. Donations can be made online here.

Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky is a few weeks -- and $1.7 million -- away from completing construction on its new home in Covington.

The nonprofit on Thursday announced the launch of a Help Us Home campaign to raise $5 million over the next five years, with $1.7 million of that total earmarked to help the organization finish constructing and furnishing its new facility.

The rest of the money will help the nonprofit expand programs, replenish cash reserves and create an endowment to secure its future, said Executive Director Kim Webb.

“Would I have wanted to be doing a capital campaign and in construction at the same time? No,” Webb said. “However, given the opportunity – much like anybody else achieving housing right now – when the housing is available, you have to jump at the opportunity.”

Lucy May | WCPO

Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky began operating in 2008 and is Northern Kentucky’s only cold-weather shelter for adults. The organization has worked from a temporary location on Scott Boulevard in Covington for more than a decade and has been searching for years for a permanent home.

The nonprofit officially broke ground last December on that new home to serve people experiencing homelessness. The building at 436 W. 13^th Street in Covington is being expanded as part of a $2.7 million renovation and build-out.

The new facility will more than double the shelter’s current capacity with 68 beds in 10,000 square feet. The new shelter also will house Northern Kentucky’s first Daytime Navigation & Engagement Center with a medical clinic, meeting rooms for community partners, mail services for guests, self-service laundry, showers, phone charging stations and internet and computer access.

A capital campaign launched in 2013 raised $1 million for the new location, but Webb said she, her staff and board knew they would need to ask the community for help with the rest.

While the coronavirus pandemic raised construction costs for the new shelter, Webb said, it also gave her and her staff the opportunity to reconsider the facility’s design, giving guests their own spaces and the ability to maintain social distance.

There is not a firm date for the new shelter’s completion, Webb said, but she’s hoping it will be finished sometime in November.

“In an ideal world, we would close the doors here (at Scott Boulevard) one night and the next day open the doors at the new place,” she said. “And it’s seamless.”

The Carol Ann & Ralph V. Haile Jr. Foundation and Drees Home Foundation each have committed $500,000 to the Help Us Home campaign, and supporters and community leaders have lined up to help Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky raise the rest.

David Drees, the CEO of Drees Homes, is chairman of the campaign in honor of his mother and late father, Ralph Drees, who helped establish Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky.

“To continue this noble mission, the shelter needs our help now more than ever, and I am thankful for this opportunity to help ESNKY continue its mission while preserving my father’s legacy of care and compassion for the homeless,” Drees said in a news release.

As the campaign works to raise that money, the organization also needs help day-to-day to operate at its current location on Scott Boulevard, Webb said.

Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky relies on donations and volunteers to serve people experiencing homelessness in Northern Kentucky. Information about how to donate, help or buy items on the organization’s wish list is available online.

Lucy May writes about the people, places and issues that define our region – to celebrate what makes the Tri-State great and shine a spotlight on problems we need to address. Poverty is an important focus for Lucy and for WCPO 9. To reach Lucy, email lucy.may@wcpo.com. Follow her on Twitter @LucyMayCincy.

It has been two weeks since the United States Supreme Court overturned the extension of a nationwide moratorium on rental evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since then, at least one area homeless shelter has reported an uptick in people seeking temporary housing during an already taxing time.

"It is devastating to watch people sit across the street from this building and not be able to access services because we don't have a bed available," said Kim Webb, Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky executive director.

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Webb said she and other emergency shelter staff had turned people away since opening its doors this summer ... an unusual step for the historically winter-only shelter.

"We're starting to see more people sleeping in cars in our parking lot, which is something we haven't seen in a long time," Webb said.

She attributed the recent rise in demand to the effects of COVID, which includes limiting the shelter's capacity due to the pandemic.

The shelter is currently alternating guests every other night to give more people access to its services.

According to Stacey Burge, Interfaith Hospitality Network of Greater Cincinnati president and CEO, the situation is similar for shelters across the river in Ohio.

"At any given time, we can take about half the people who are calling," Burge said. "And so that was a challenge that already existed before the pandemic."

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She said it is too early to tell how lifting the eviction ban had impacted local shelters because shelters were already turning people away before the Supreme Court overturned the moratorium on evictions.

"I believe we will see more people, but people did not quit becoming homeless during the pandemic," Burge said.

She added that adding more beds or space in shelters is not the solution to the growing problems for those without homes.

The answer, Burge said, is more affordable housing.

Josh Spring, executive director for the Greater Cincinnati Homeless Coalition, agreed.

"Before the pandemic, we had an extreme lack of affordable housing," Spring said. "If so much of your income is already going to pay the rent or pay the mortgage, any loss can quickly mean that you just simply can't keep up."

A recent census survey found that one in four Kentucky respondents was behind on rent in August. About one in 10 Ohioans said the same.

Webb hopes the current housing crisis becomes a catalyst for change.

"It takes political will or a catastrophic event to really move the needle on homelessness in a community," Webb said. "We ended up with political will, and now we have a pandemic."

For renters at risk for eviction in Kentucky, they can find resources to help at teamkyhherf.ky.gov. In addition, Kentucky homeowners behind on their mortgages can find helpful tools at mailchi.mp/kyhousing.

In Hamilton County, people can find rental assistance at erap.hcjfs.org.