By Sophia Wiener
RED BANK – The Heartwarming Center, a facility for women in need of a warm place to sleep when the temperatures plummet, opened on Red Bank’s Maple Street last winter. On days and nights when the weather chills to 32 degrees or lower, the center opens its doors to women struggling with homelessness and insecure housing.
Up to 13 women can find safe lodging there – and all that comes with it. The center has large, soft recliners with plenty of blankets and a bureau and shelves overflowing with pajamas, winterwear and all kinds of toiletries. There’s a new kitchen, a coffee nook, a small laundry room and a sitting room with books and a television, decorated with art created by guests during weekly art sessions.
And thanks to donations from the First Baptist Church of Red Bank, throughout 2024, the center opened for more than just a respite from the cold. During the week, guests could enjoy the space and each other’s company, have a good meal and attend the day’s group, something Teena Lomack, a retired nurse and the center’s director, said is important.
“We believe that when you invest in women, you accelerate progress,” Lomack said.
After the guests are checked in by a peer leader – center regulars themselves – and have a chance to relax, they can participate in group sessions. The center offers weekly breakfast with Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office representatives, as well as addiction counseling services and house meetings. One day a week, a doctor from Parker Family Health Center volunteers his services for medical checkups. “One lady, her blood pressure was so high he was able to write a prescription and get her medication for that night,” said Lomack.
180 Turning Lives Around, a charity dedicated to combating sexual and domestic violence, leads “amazing groups,” Lomack said. “Sometimes ladies don’t recognize, especially homeless ladies, that they’re in an abusive relationship. So this is a time they can share. They can talk and figure things out.”
Addressing abuse is fundamental; the Heartwarming Center maintains a blanket no-friends-or-family policy precisely because many of its guests have had, or do have, abusive partners. 180’s programs especially help improve self-esteem, which is beneficial to all of the women. “We’re working on empowering them because they’ve been torn down and beat up so bad, we’re trying to get them to start loving themselves again,” Lomack said.
Groups are held every day of the week, focused on bolstering guests’ mental health, giving them ways to volunteer, helping them with banking and budgeting, and applying for social services.
As Lomack got to know volunteers, she realized what an untapped resource they were; volunteers included licensed social workers and even a Fortune 500 bank vice president. Soon, she was asking them to lead more and more groups.
Getting clients on board with this schedule was easier said than done. Some of the more charismatic clients argued that they shouldn’t have to attend group, they were just there to sleep. “But then I have to let them realize, understand that it’s not a flophouse. What we want to do is work on mind, body and soul, so they can progress,” said Lomack.
Eventually, the women came around, and almost all have kept coming back.
Heartwarming Center peer leader Erika Cox is one such woman. In October, after she lost her jobs, she wasn’t able to pay her rent. She slept on friends’ couches and in hotels, but as the weather turned, the specter of cold loomed.
While asking around Asbury Park’s social services, she found her way to the center by chance and is grateful she did. Now, she helps other women who come to her with similar problems.
Cox emphasizes the stress of being homeless. “It was sort of overwhelming. I was trying to do everything, and I couldn’t get anything done,” she said.
She also points out the intense persistence necessary to get out of homelessness, to job hunt and jump through the many hoops necessary to attempt to qualify for and utilize social services, and how valuable aid in that pursuit is.
Cox was recently hired by Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and is saving to find a place to live in the spring. She said the Heartwarming Center has helped immensely to ease that transition. “The fact that when it’s cold, I don’t have to worry about where I can go that night and I can take a shower” is so important, Cox said.
Another woman, living in a house for years, abruptly lost everything when she needed to take a restraining order out on a partner. After coming to groups, though, she started to open up. Eventually, she mentioned that she was licensed for truck driving. Lomack spotted a suitable opening on a Monmouth County job listing, the woman applied and she now works full-time for the county.
The Heartwarming Center is a ministry of First Baptist Church, and operates out of the first story of a house just a few doors away from the church. Its creation was championed by Rev. Steve Brown, who noticed a need in the community while volunteering with Red Bank’s Hope and Comfort Warming Center (which serves men), and an enthusiastic parish. A year later, the center runs off donations from both inside and outside the parish. Operating costs are $500 a day.
The center’s motto this year is “Don’t just survive, THRIVE in 2025.” Leaders intend to focus on adding credit counseling to their roster of services, increasing volunteer opportunities for clients and having more permanent job placements. They also hope to expand their center to help more women.
For more information on supporting the center, visit First Baptist Church of Red Bank at fbcredbank.com.
The article originally appeared in the January 16 – 22, 2025 print edition of The Two River Times.
