Princeton group eyes warming center for homeless

Princeton’s police chief has been meeting with the Princeton Ministerial Association and Arukah Institute of Healing for the past several months to come up with solutions for what he said is “a pretty significant unhoused population.”

The group is looking into starting a warming center in Princeton for the homeless.

Last winter, Arukah housed 37 people throughout the winter, Princeton Police Chief Tom Kammerer said. This year, Kammerer said the agency won’t be able to provide that.

Instead, 28 volunteers from the community received training to staff a warming center in Princeton. The eight-hour training class educated volunteers on mental health, terminology and safety, among other topics, Kammerer said.

The next step in developing a warming center is to take a census of the homeless population and then establish a location. Mayor Ray Mabry said there are indications that the homeless population may be down a little, with Kammerer saying it was at about 50 people in previous years.

Kammerer said he was hopeful the efforts by the group that regularly meets with the strong support of Arukah, and its resources, have led to success in finding homes, jobs or treatment for some of the population.