The Jimmie Hale Mission has taken over the role of providing a warming station for Birmingham’s homeless on cold nights, at the request of the City of Birmingham.

For years, the city opened Boutwell Auditorium to the homeless on cold nights. On Monday, the city announced that a warming station would be operated instead by the Jimmie Hale Mission at its Shepura campus in the old Thomas School, 3420 Second Ave. North.

“The city approached us,” said Perryn Carroll, executive director of the Jimmie Hale Mission. “We said, ‘No problem.’ We are happy to host. We have agreed to do it going forward.”

On Monday, the city announced a partnership with Jimmie Hale Mission for Tuesday and Wednesday nights as the temperature fell to near-freezing. The mission opened from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m. and sent vans downtown to offer rides for the homeless to the shelter. Tonight’s temperature is expected to drop to about 29 degrees.

Jimmie Hale Mission had prepared 75 cots for use as emergency shelter for the warming station on Tuesday night and 52 people were brought in and housed for the night, Carroll said.

‘We had a wonderful night with 52 overnight guests,” Carroll said. “We had a positive experience. Bluff Park United Methodist Church brought chili and grilled cheese sandwiches.”

The warming shelter will be open again tonight, with chicken noodle soup on the menu, she said. The shelter plans to set up more cots and provide more blankets, expecting more overnight guests than on Tuesday night.

Those who stayed outside overnight Tuesday may have second thoughts about it tonight, Carroll said. “They may not have realized how cold it was going to be,” she said. “When you sleep outside, thirty degree is a lot colder than you thought.”

Jimmie Hale vans offered transportation from Linn Park, Brother Bryan Park, Kelly Ingram Park and the Faith Chapel Care Center downtown. “We transported the homeless here,” Carroll said.

In addition to the Jimmie Hale Mission, emergency shelter is being coordinated by One Roof through its ongoing partners: The Salvation Army, 2015 26th Ave. North; the Firehouse Shelter (for men), 626 Second Ave. North; and First Light (for women), 2230 Fourth Ave. North.

Carroll, who has been executive director since Sept. 1 and previously was interim director from May through August.

Jimmie Hale Mission has a history of offering emergency shelter to the homeless of Birmingham, but in recent decades had shifted to formal programs to treat the root causes of homelessness, such as addiction.

“That’s why more than 90 percent of the people on the street homeless,” Carroll said. “We’ve always been here to serve the homeless, even if they’re not in our program.”

Some of the men who came for emergency shelter did express interest in the rehabilitation program, she said.

“We’re not here to recruit, but we did have three very young men who expressed an interest in our active recovery program,” she said. “We just want to make sure that the homeless have shelter on a cold night.”

The historic mission and non-profit ministry was founded in 1944 to serve Birmingham’s homeless.

The downtown men’s shelter moved from Third Avenue North downtown to the campus near Sloss Furnace in 2007, with an increased emphasis on long-term rehabilitation.

Carroll said Jimmie Hale was happy to partner with the city on ensuring the homeless have a place to go on cold nights.

“We just want people to have a warm bed,” she said.