TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) - This week’s cold weather mobilized a team of community organizations and volunteers to look out for Topeka’s unsheltered population.

The Extreme Weather Task Force reopened warming centers, which are now set to close at 11 a.m. Friday.

Topeka Rescue Mission CEO LaManda Cunningham and deputy director of supportive services Miriam Krehbiel provided an update on Eye on NE Kansas.

Topeka Rescue Mission, Fellowship HiCrest, Street Team Ministry and Bread of Life at Ripley Community Center and Central Park Christian Church all hosted warming center sites. Organizations including Valeo Behavioral Health and TPD’s crisis intervention team also assisted with additional housing considerations and with transporting people to warming center locations.

The centers served 140 people this week. They had 90 to 110 guests each night.

Cunningham also urged the city’s decision makers to become more involved in supporting the warming centers and other efforts to assist those are unsheltered. She said current ordinance chances appear to be punitive without providing resources to support options and continuum of care for the unsheltered.

“I just hope that decision makers really start acknowledging that lives are being saved out here and it’s because of the non-profits and the incredible hearts of many volunteers that are doing it - not being paid and on their own time,” Cunningham said.