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Petersburg, Va. — Sean Wise was surprised by the police on Friday evening when he walked into the small camp under the Martin Luther Bridge and what they were telling him.
“They were here to tell me about this center, the heating station,” Wise said.
Sean, like many homeless in the Tri-Cities, finds himself living outside in harsh winter conditions. With lows in the double and single digits, no shelters were opened.
Marlow Jones, who had just been elected to the Petersburg City Council, knew the weekend’s frigid temperatures could be deadly, so he reached out online to see if anyone would be opening the building.
“He called me, man, you can use my building for a heating station. And we took it from there,” Jones said.
Corey Wesson saw Marlowe’s plea and spoke to the family.
“She’s like, ‘Use the studio, you’re not doing anything right now, go ahead and let people hang out there,'” Wesson said.
Within hours of the decision, homeless residents like Shawn were out in the cold.
Wise: “He gave me warmth. He gave me food. Loving, caring people.”
Soon, others from the community and Central Virginia lent a hand.
“Blankets and sleeping bags,” Jones said. “It’s not a permanent thing, so we want to make sure we understand that, but it’s here to protect people from the cold,” Jones said.
“We can try as hard as we can, but you know, the business has to go back and, like, where are they going to go next?” Wesson said.
The private heating shelter did exactly what the people who opened it set out to do. He found about a dozen people staying outside in the cold and wind in the heated building.
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