Temple: Local warming shelter aids and inspires homeless

TEMPLE, Texas (KWTX) - A local homeless shelter has not only helped provide warmth and shelter to the homeless during the winter storm, they’ve inspired them.

Safety and warmth, something that Jeremy Krenke feels blessed to have. He’s been living out of a tent for the last two months and says he normally doesn’t come to shelters, even as the winter storm came in.

“I know there’s a lot of different personalities here,” he said.

“I know there’s people with mental health problems and I just didn’t want to get mixed up in the drama of the homeless life. That’s why I separated myself in the tent.”

However, Impact Church In Temple convinced him to stay at their warming center for the last few nights. Jimmy Slazar, who works with the shelter, says he understands where Krenke is coming from. He used to be homeless before the shelter inspired him to become a volunteer.

“If we see someone’s having an episode, we pull them to the side or outside to talk to them, make sure they’re alright and get them to calm down so it passes by,” he said.

“Then, we’ll just sit with them for a while, no matter how long it takes, until they’re their normal self again.”

Now, Krenke and many others feel safe and comfortable with fresh food, water and warm clothes. While his future in Central Texas remains unknown, he says wherever he goes next, he wants to help other the same way the shelter helped him.

“We need places like this in colder states up north,” he said.

“I’m originally from Michigan, right outside Detroit. If they had places like this, I feel like the world would be a better place.”