Puerto Seguro expands life-saving services

For years, the non-profit Puerto Seguro Safe Harbor, at 519 Old US Hwy 85 in Socorro, has quietly offered relief from Socorro’s harsh weather, opening its doors to residents and their pets whenever temperatures soared up to and beyond 100 degrees. But limited volunteers meant the cooling center could only open sporadically. This summer, that changed.

In July, the City of Socorro approved a proposal to fund two staff members to supervise a cooling center in the summer and a warming center in the winter. The partnership, worth $23,000, will allow Puerto Seguro to operate up to 30 cooling center days and 40 warming center nights.

“This is absolutely a life-saving service,” said Puerto Seguro Board President Shay Kelley. “Extreme heat itself is dangerous, but it also makes other medical conditions worse. Being able to open more consistently, and not just when volunteers are available, will make all the difference.”

The cooling center has been operating since 2019, offering people a safe, air-conditioned place with cold water and ice. Puerto Seguro also allows people to bring their pets, a policy Kelley said removes a major barrier to accessing shelter. “About 20 percent of the people using the cooling center bring in a pet. We want to keep both people and their animals safe,” she said.

The funding from the city will allow the shelter to open its doors outside of regular operating hours when the staff knows temperatures will reach dangerous highs, or lows.

Puerto Seguro is open every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10a.m.to 2p.m., with a meal served at 11a.m. Showers, laundry, hygiene kits, food kits, and case management are also offered at those times. Kelley said the shelter runs on a “shoestring” budget that is typically raised through grants and grassroots fundraising, but this year things have been tight.

“The grant market right now is kind of drying up across the board, in all sectors,” Kelley said. “We are really in a pickle where we need $70,000 to stay open for the remainder of 2025 and that’s for all the services that we’re providing.”

So far, they have raised about $9,500 towards their goal with a large donation from Socorro Electric Cooperative and individual donations from community members, which can be made at www.psisafeharbor.org/donate.

Since the city partnership began in August, the center has opened ten days, serving up to 20 people daily.

“On average, we’re serving about 800 people each month—that’s 10 percent of Socorro’s population,” Kelley said. In addition to monetary donations, the shelter said the public can donate basic supplies like laundry detergent, bottled water, men’s underwear, ready-to-eat foods, sunscreen, bug spray, coffee, and tea.

“We are the only organization in Socorro that is providing people with meal kits for people who do not have a way to cook,” said Kelley. “We give away 40 to 50 of those every single day that we’re open, the idea being that it’s enough food to tide people over until we’re open again.”

Kelley said this will be the first winter since 2018 that she feels confident in the shelter’s ability to keep people safe, thanks to the partnership with the city. “In the past, I’ve always gone into winter worried about how we were going to keep people alive. With this support, we can finally change that.”