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HRDC Warming Center activating 'Code Blue' to provide 24/7 shelter during subzero temps

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BOZEMAN — This weekend, the Gallatin Valley is expecting to feel the chill of sub-zero temperatures.

Gary Watson is among the 90 regulars who frequently stay at the HRDC Warming Center.

“Yeah, I'm here every night. You deal because you have to. And give everybody else consideration in what they are going through too,” Gary says.

HRDC Warming Center to provide 24/7 shelter during expected subzero temps

With temperatures lowering below zero this weekend, the shelter that was once a roller-skating rink could see upwards of 120 people.

“It can get really bad, there's been people here that have had their limbs cut off,” says Gary.

Gary says what he fears the most is, “The feeling that somebody might be stuck out there and might not know about this place, that would be hard."

A code blue goes into effect at the Warming Center this Saturday at 7 p.m. The shelter will remain open until Monday, Jan. 20.

Brian Guyer of HRDC says staying open speaks to the shelter's core function.

“When the weather conditions are life-threatening like we anticipate seeing this weekend, it's incumbent on us to get as many people out of the cold as we possibly can,” Guyer says.

Guyer says keeping their doors open comes with a cost: “About $2,000 per day extra, on top of our budget to keep our doors open and keep our staff here."

But they are not just keeping people out of the elements.

“Trying to foster as much sense of community as we can in the facility,” Guyer says.

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Guyer says with homeless numbers on the rise, “This is too affluent of a community; this is too caring of a community for something like dying from exposure from the cold to happen.”

For Gary, he's just hoping his situation improves.

“I just wish people will help out more especially if you have that kind of money, I wish people would help these kinds of people,” he says.

The HRDC plans to open Homeward Point, a new homeless shelter, in June 2025.

The Warming Center in Livingston will also be placed on a code blue and can sleep 20 people.