— Even Minnesota, eventually, gets warmer. And when it does, the list of homeless shelter options for people who have no place to go gets a little slimmer.

Every spring around mid-April, the men’s shelter at the Mankato Salvation Army closes. When it does, the potentially two dozen men who could stay there must find some place else to live. (Keeping it open, the Salvation Army says, would cost an additional $40,000 to $50,000 that it doesn’t have.)

The impact on the community isn’t overwhelming. But the closing gives shelter workers a chance to try and let the men who have lived there know about services available to them.

Something new the Salvation Army tried this year was giving men bus tickets to a year-round Salvation Army shelter in Minneapolis called Harbor Lights Center.

All men at the shelter were given the chance, and four people took the opportunity.

Joel Wortman, a program director at the shelter who also runs the Salvation Army’s Maxfield Place housing facility, said the Salvation Army is trying to do more for the homeless population. He says that he came to the Mankato Salvation Army about eight months ago, and since he arrived, he said they’re trying to improve what they can do for some of society’s less fortunate.

So in the weeks leading up to the closing of the shelter, Wortman said they tried to give the men residing in the shelter a primer on what services area available to them in the community.

They work closely with Blue Earth County, Wortman said, by getting men who are chemically dependent or dealing with mental illness lined up with social workers who can help them.

Some men, like Greg Origas, wind up in the Salvation Army’s Maxfield Place. To stay there, men must have been rendered homeless four times during a three-year period, or have endured a full year of homelessness. They also must either have chemical dependency issues or a mental illness. In Origas’ case, it’s the former.

To Origas, the Salvation Army’s homeless services are a godsend.

He says he became homeless after a series of unfortunate events and bad decisions, including the end of a bad marriage and a bout with drinking.

“One thing leads to another, and pretty soon you don’t care anymore,” he said.

His life fell apart in Duluth, then he came to Mankato, where his mother lives. But his fortunes didn’t improve much here.

“I kind of hid, camped near Land of Memories Park, in that area toward the edge of town just so you weren’t in the middle of town,” he said. “I treated myself like a homeless person. I didn’t interact, I didn’t walk about town to be noticed. I was ashamed of my situation.”

But he knew one thing: where to get help.

Origas says the Salvation Army was instrumental in his efforts to survive.

“They went out of their way to help me,” he said. “I actually had a lady come down to the park and look for me before I got in (to Maxfield Place,) telling me they’ve got a house I could live in.”

Before he found Maxfield Place, however, his pride wouldn’t allow  him to accept shelter. He said he lived out of a tent and sleeping bag, even during the winter months.

“I guess it would have been easier to go to the shelter,” he said. “It was an adventure.”

He’s hoping to get a good-paying job so he can move out of Maxfield Place.

“I would be very happy to be able to come down and tell (case worker) Corinne Overstake, ‘Hey, I’m grateful for everything you did, but it’s somebody else’s turn.’”

Homelessness isn’t limited to adults.

Over at The Reach, a new drop-in center for homeless and at-risk youth, Lutheran Social Service employees are trying to establish it as a place where younger folks can come and get the help they need.

Craig Hinkle, a mental health practitioner for LSS, said The Reach is taking off slowly, but word is getting out.

Some nights, he said, no one comes in. But they have helped about 20 teens and young adults.

In a few cases, they’ve gotten hotel rooms for individuals with no place else to go. And in one case, they purchased a Greyhound bus ticket for a woman who needed transportation back to Ohio.

Churches are on board, Hinkle said, and the community continues to embrace the idea of The Reach.

Hinkle said the community can’t afford to not embrace the idea.

“My biggest concern is if they can’t find a place to stay, they turn to their survival skills and do whatever they can do to find a place, whether it’s selling their body or something else they shouldn’t be doing,” he said.

Hinkle said he hopes that by late spring or summer, business will start to pick up at The Reach.

The Salvation Army, meanwhile, has some big plans for the future.

They’re hoping to partner with area agencies to create a walk-in center where the homeless — or anyone dealing with mental health or chemical dependency issues — can come in and get help finding housing, help with addictions, or help navigating the world of county human services.

Wortman says that, if all goes well and he gets the grant money he’s applied for, he could have the center up and running by fall.