Hours before North Texas plunged to freezing temperatures Friday night, Muslim, Presbyterian and Catholic volunteers were hard at work to give their unhoused neighbors a warm welcome.
They transformed the gymnasium of East Plano Islamic Center early in the afternoon, laying plastic tarps on the wooden floor of the basketball court. Volunteers buzzed around setting up nearly 160 metal cots, folding donated clothes, toting tables and chairs and laying out bedding and plastic cutlery before they welcomed guests at 6:30 p.m. for dinner.
Michael Baker, an unhoused client, helps set up cots at the Plano Overnight Warming Station at The East Plano Islamic Center in Plano, Texas, January 23, 2026. Baker came in from the cold and rain from his spot under the President George Bush Turnpike.
Tom Fox / Staff Photographer
This is the eighth year that a coalition of volunteers from religious congregations around Plano has come together to run the Plano overnight warming station, the only overnight shelter serving people experiencing homelessness in the city. The city of Allen, which doesn’t have its own overnight shelter, often directs people to the shelter at EPIC as well.
D-FW Weather Wise
The shelter opens its doors for the night whenever the forecast shows freezing temperatures overnight or temperatures below 40 degrees with a high likelihood of rain. As North Texas braces for more than 80 hours of below-freezing temperatures, sleet and snow, seven teams of volunteers from the EPIC mosque and churches, such as the First Baptist Church of Plano and the Custer Road United Methodist Church, will work in shifts to keep the shelter open round-the-clock until Tuesday.
With his Bible and laptop, Chris Eddings, an unhoused client, watches a movie on his cot at the Plano Overnight Warming Station at The East Plano Islamic Center in Plano, Texas, January 23, 2026. Eddings came in from the cold and rain as temperatures continue to drop.
Tom Fox / Staff Photographer
Denny Beran, a parishioner at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Plano who has volunteered at the Plano overnight warming station every year since the initiative was set up in 2018, called it a “labor of love.”
“Do we ever have to worry about where we’re going to lay our heads at night … or where our next meal is coming from? Most people in Plano don’t have that challenge,” Beran said. “These people do.”
In 2022, the temporary shelter was moved from the Salvation Army of Plano to the gymnasium at the East Plano Islamic Center that can accommodate up to 225 people. EPIC has a bus that picks visitors up from the Parker Road DART station and a trailer outside the shelter where people can take a shower.
Two police officers and two paramedics from the city of Plano stay at the shelter overnight to help volunteers. The city also allocates around $30,000 annually to reimburse volunteers for the cost of food and supplies. Beran estimates that EPIC and the other religious congregations that volunteer spend an additional $20,000 each year to keep the shelter running.
Sameer Siddiqui, president of EPIC’s board, said he and other volunteers at the mosque were motivated to take on a bigger role in hosting the Plano overnight warming shelter after the devastating impacts of the 2021 deadly winter storm. In 2021, Siddiqui remembers that EPIC set up a hotline for people in the area to call if they needed food or other help.
“We got hundreds of calls for food, for water … medications, all kinds of stuff,” Siddiqui said. “You just name it, we were there.”
Muhammad El-Qasem, who has been experiencing homelessness for about a month after being released from jail, said he was glad the shelter at EPIC had space for him as the rain pelted down and temperatures plummeted Friday night. El-Qasem, 32, said he typically travels between Dallas and the suburbs, sometimes sleeping on the street and sometimes staying at shelters like the Samaritan Inn in McKinney. He said he was touched by volunteers who pitched in to help him get away from the cold.
“Whether you’re in the Islamic community, or the Christian community … they’ve all come together over the suffering of others,” El-Qasem said.