For the last two winters, First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church has served as Portland’s emergency warming shelter, working closely with partnering organizations that handle logistics and operations. Through those partnerships, we were able to offer a low-barrier shelter in an easily accessed location. We move into spring knowing that we helped save lives and limbs.

We’ve also known from the beginning that facilities at First Parish are inadequate to this need. There aren’t enough bathrooms. The available spaces are too small to shelter guests in numbers that sometimes exceed 100 people a night. We’ve had to juggle the unpredictable weather with our complicated schedule of rentals (concerts, classes, weddings and AA groups) that help fund our programming.

We came forward and accepted this life-saving work because no one else would. While many organizations — and congregations — are doing life-saving work, this particular need comes with unique challenges. As a low-barrier shelter, we serve those struggling with addiction, with untreated mental health diagnoses, often with a combination of both.

As a church in the heart of the city, many of our guests are literally our neighbors, living on the streets circling outward from our doors. They’re also our neighbors — and yours — in the broader sense of the word. Every faith tradition offers a version of the Golden Rule, the idea that we care for our neighbors as we would for ourselves. We take that seriously at First Parish.

And yet, it’s unlikely that First Parish can serve as an emergency warming shelter next winter. Even with help from our partners, the work places an enormous burden on the physical structure, on the staff, and on daily operations. For the last two years, we’ve responded when no one else would. But each year, those discussions began in the autumn for a need that had to be met just weeks later.

I’m calling on state and city leaders to begin those conversations now, seeking a viable solution for the many people who will need a low-barrier, emergency shelter next winter. And I’m asking that those conversations not be yet another opportunity to “pass the buck,” but that they encompass the kind of collective and creative problem solving that will save our neighbors’ lives.

I’m also calling on the larger community to join in that creative work. We need the good will and caring hearts of everyone who lives in Portland. We need the good will and caring hearts of everyone living in communities across the state — communities whose neediest residents converge on our city because this is where basic services are being provided.

With an economic environment as unstable as the weather, things are going to be tougher than ever next winter. Let’s get to work now, and let’s do that work together.