Keith Hughes has turned Post 160 in West Seattle into a warming station for the homeless.
In a city where the daily low temperature in January averages below 40 degrees, a Legionnaire is doing what he can to get the homeless off the streets during the coldest hours of the day.
For the third winter, Keith Hughes – a Paid-Up-For-Life member and commander of American Legion Post 160 in the neighborhood of West Seattle, Wash. – has turned the 4,000-square-foot post into a warming station for the homeless. The facility is open overnight at least three days a week, providing food and hot drinks to those who need it, and will stay open longer on colder days.
“I did it because it needs to be done,” said Hughes, a U.S. Army veteran who was named the Westsider of the Year in 2022 by the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce. He took the idea to the post’s membership, who signed off on his idea.
“This is my third winter doing this,” Hughes said. “The last two winters have been with the COVID crisis going on, and nobody wanted to hang out in a building full of homeless people. So I have a fold-down couch that turns into a bed in my office at the (post), and I basically live here.”
Hughes has used some of his own money to fund the operations for the warming center, while others have donated to the cause.
This year, Hughes opened the center on Nov. 3. From then until Dec. 26, he averaged 26 people a night. “That’s seven days a week, 24 hours a day that I was open,” he said. “We have cots and blankets. We provide a meal.”
Hughes served in the Army from 1970 to 1973. He said operating the warming center is an opportunity to continue serving others.
“If you’re going to serve your country, serve your fellow men and serve your community, there needs to be some physical action attached to that,” he said. “This country has been good to me, and I’ve done OK for myself. I’m not a rich man, but I’m 75 years old, I’m retired now, and sitting in front of the TV and watching soap operas is not my idea of the way to spend my retirement.”
- News