TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Tucson’s Ward 3 Office is opening their community room to the public as a warming center for the season.
It’s purpose is to not only offer an escape from the cold morning air but to serve as a community hub to connect the public with resources that help with housing, food, healthcare or treatment.
Angela Murphy spends her mornings brewing a coffee and oatmeal for an empty table, hoping that as the sun rises, the seats fill up.
During the summer, Murphy ran a cooling center in the same location with the goal of becoming more than just a climate-controlled room.
"We really want this to be a community hub," she said in
Even as she was running the cooling center, she knew that something similar was needed for the winter months.
Last week, the Tucson Pima Collaboration to End Homelessness announced on their social media that they’d handed out the final emergency blankets from 2024 and were unsure if or when new blankets would arrive, adding in the post that they’d “requested additional blankets for this year, but the program was not yet funded.”
The winter warming center is funded partially by Ward 3 funds to keep the lights on and the heat running with supplemental grants and private donations for blankets, warm clothing, coffee and food.
Murphy says the center offers a warm breakfast, a hot cup of coffee and a chance for people to get connected to resources.
Each day, around 6:30 a.m., Murphy says a new service provider from a partnering non-profit will come to the center, offering but not requiring services from food stamps and healthcare enrollment, to mental health or drug treatment, to help escaping dangerous relationships.
She says she’s focused on peer-based organizations like Hope Incorporated, Old Pueblo Community Services, Southern Arizona Against Slavery and Housing First. Murphy calls herself a peer too.
“I’m a peer first, and most of the organizations that we’ve partnered with, they’re also sending peers,” Murphy said. “I think that’s really important because we remember what it’s like to be on these streets— to be cold, to be hungry, to be scared. This is a safe place.”
The Warming Center is open Monday through Friday from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. until March 13. The center is welcoming donations of warm clothing, blankets, grab-and-go snacks, travel-size toiletries and funding.
Donors can drop items off at the Ward 3 Office during their hours from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m..
Murphy is also holding a donation drive Dec. 5 at the Desert Garden Gallery at 2452 N Pantano Rd..
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Alex Dowd is a multimedia journalist at KGUN 9, where her work combines her two favorite hobbies: talking to new people and learning about the community around her. Her goal is to eventually meet every single person in Tucson. Share your story ideas with Alex via email, alex.dowd@kgun9.com, or connecting on Instagram or X.
