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New winter shelter opens in St. Paul

The city, along with Ramsey County and a few local non-profits, banded together to open the new $400,000 facility.

SAINT PAUL, Minn - A new winter emergency shelter officially opens Friday in the city of Saint Paul.

The city, along with Ramsey County and a few local non-profits, banded together to open the new $400,000 facility.

Workers are now scrambling to get the facility ready for opening night on December 1st.

The site they've chosen, the county's old detox center, has been vacant for more than five years.

Several rooms still need to be painted. Many walls and rooms haven't been cleaned in years.

City workers say the mats people will sleep on at the shelter were delivered just hours before the shelter was scheduled to open.

"There was a very quick turnaround," St. Paul City Council Member Rebecca Noecker says. "We've been working on it for about three months, really going on it the last five weeks."

Noecker says they had to act quickly to get the shelter open before winter.

She says every night there are between 25 and 50 people who don't have a place to sleep, because there aren't enough beds at other shelters in the city.

"Our skyways, buses and trains, those are not the kinds of place we want people to have to spend the night," Noecker says.

Ramsey County Commissioner Jim McDonough also worked on the project.

He says the overall goal of the shelter is to provide law enforcement and the public a place to bring people who desperately need shelter this winter.

McDonough says the new shelter will give officers a place to bring these people they often encounter on their nightly patrols.

"It's not just a spot for them to come for a safe night on a mat and then back out on the street. The shelter is here to make that connection, that strong connection with people," McDonough says.

The shelter is seen as a temporary solution to a much bigger problem.

McDonough says the county has plans to commit $200,000 in 2018 to hire more outreach workers who will engage with homeless individuals on the street.

"We want to get them connected with resources and get them stabilized so that they don't have to come back here again the next night,"" McDonough says.

The shelter will remain open through the end of March.

City and county leaders say they don't have plans to open it up again next winter.

The shelter will be open from 10pm to 7am every night this winter.

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