After feeling the heat from community, Gastonia to open indoor cooling center

On South Broad Street in Gastonia, directly across from the former Salvation Army building, two medium-sized misting fans blow cool air through a chain-link fence. Two crates full of Sam’s Club water bottles resting in ice baths sit beneath them. And under the branches of a large tree, 10 dining table chairs are arranged in a single line.

This is the site of the outdoor cooling station in Gaston County.

The cooling station — a partnership among Gastonia, Gaston County and HealthNet Gaston, the lead agency for the county’s continuum of care — opened Friday after the community raised concerns about the need for a place for the unhoused to escape the heat. When the Salvation Army shelter closed last fall, it left the county’s most vulnerable residents with nowhere to go.

While a solution was put in place, Gastonia’s mayor, a city council member and local advocates say that having the cooling station outdoors is less than acceptable.

“We have failed our people,” Ward 4 councilwoman Cheryl Littlejohn said in a June 29 Facebook Live video.

Following community uproar, Gastonia will open a portion of the former Salvation Army building on Tuesday to provide the community with an indoor cooling station, Mayor Richard Franks said. The cooling station will be open every 90-degree day for about the next three months.

While Franks said he’s still trying to figure out why the outdoor location was selected in the first place, he’s disappointed it happened.

“We have too many places in the city that we could have worked with,” he said. “I can’t say that we have the answers, but there are too many facilities in the city to not have it indoors. It’s unconscionable. It’s reprehensible.”

Poor planning

Beneath the shade of a large tree at the outdoor cooling station, Scott Agleog rests in one of the dining chairs watching his friend on his bike. From where he’s sitting the breeze from the misting fan can’t be felt, but the shade from the wide branches is cooler than where he’s been camping out, Agleog said.

Agleog said he’s just glad to have a space to escape the 90-degree heat beaming down on downtown Gastonia Monday, he said.

Crystal Walls, executive director of HealthNet Gaston, said Monday that the outdoor setup was just a starting point. Walls said the organization did not formally have volunteers manning the site, but they did have a van providing resources to the unhoused in the parking lot.

“There’s a lot of things that have to take place. We can’t just open the doors and move in,” she said of the former Salvation Army building.

Tasha White is the founder of HELP Carolina, a nonprofit organization serving individuals experiencing homelessness in Gaston, Lincoln and Cleveland counties. When the outdoor cooling station opened on Friday, White drove by to find no chairs for people to sit and no signage letting people know the cooling station was there. Instead, an existing “No trespassing” sign was posted by the entrance.

After sharing her frustrations on social media, White was able to get 10 chairs donated from the First United Methodist Church and eventually signs were put up. But White wonders why these conditions were allowed in the first place.

“Why don’t we have a plan?” White said. “COVID happened. There’s a disaster plan in place. Hurricanes happen. There’s a disaster plan in place. There’s thousands of meetings that I have attended that we have talked about, how do we distribute information to those that are unhoused? There’s thousands of meetings that I’ve attended that we talk about (what to do for the unhoused) when it gets cold, when it gets hot.”

Mayor Franks said earlier this year he told HealthNet Gaston — as the lead agency for addressing homelessness in the county — that they needed to have a plan in place once the summer heats up. If having people outside was the plan, then the city may have to reevaluate its relationship with HealthNet Gaston going forward, he said.

“They didn’t have a plan. And my point of view is these people have forgotten the least of us,” he said. “Would you keep your dog outside?... No. So just because they’re homeless, just because they’re down on their luck, doesn’t mean that they’re not human beings.”

For those who are looking to help, Franks said the city is looking for volunteers to help man that station and bring food.

This story was originally published June 30, 2025 at 7:09 PM.