EVANSVILLE — The Evansville Rescue Mission is making a change to its White Flag nights in an aim to keep more men off the streets.
White Flag will now be open when the temperature, actual or wind chill, is 40 degrees or lower. Previously the temperature had to drop to at least 35 degrees, and a few years ago it had to be 32 degrees.
The shelter at the Rescue Mission is open to homeless men, and the meal service is open to anyone.
In a post to the Rescue Mission Facebook page president and CEO Tracy Gorman called the change “small, but significant.”
“Bottom line: Like our partners in the community, we want to help get people off the streets when it’s so dangerously cold,” Gorman stated. “We will do everything we can to help facilitate that goal.”
Earlier this month, the Rescue Mission reported their shelter had averaged 191 residents and guests each night and served over 600 meals each day.
This change to the temperature requirement comes a couple weeks after the death Marvin Ray Beck, 67, from “hypothermia due to environmental exposure.” Beck had been dealing with chronic homelessness on and off since the 1970s.