Death of exposure in Riverton underscores need for homeless shelter

RIVERTON — A man died on South Federal Boulevard in Riverton, suspected of succumbing to freezing temperatures Monday night. The death punctuates years of community efforts to resurrect a permanent homeless shelter to ensure the city has a spot for people who need shelter in Wyoming’s brutal winter months.

Riverton Police Department officers were called to the 1300 block of South Federal on Tuesday at 10:29 a.m. on a report of a male subject lying outside on the ground. The call for service included the entry “Suffix Text: Cold exposure.”

The Fremont County Coroner’s Office was also called to the scene; the sheriff’s office coroner logged the report as “heat/ cold exposure.” The coroner is expected to investigate the cause of death.

The fatality is the first this year associated with exposure to the winter elements in Riverton.

Last winter, a city worker driving a dump truck found a woman frozen to the bottom of a Dumpster in City Park; in 2022, Richard Lonebear was found dead in a parking lot, huddled under cardboard boxes in an effort to keep warm.

A few months before Lonebear’s death, the Good Samaritan Homeless Shelter at Eagles Hope Transitions closed due to a lack of funding to keep it open and staffed. Ever since, community organizers have worked on various efforts to open a new facility in Riverton.

In 2023, a homeless task force was formed, the Riverton Rescue Mission. The city, county and local donors pitched in on a $25,000 shelter feasibility study, but its conclusions were less than positive on the question of whether $2.5 million could be raised to purchase, renovate and staff a new shelter.

Some local options do exist: Wind River Cares operates a shelter outside city limits called the Warming Hut; the Riverton Police Department reported it’s already broken last winter’s record in providing 105 rides to the shelter this winter season.

Eagles Hope Transitions offers transitional housing, but requires clients to be sober.

Just as the Riverton Rescue Mission’s feasibility study was being pondered, a new group surfaced: Mercy House.

That organization’s goal is to provide what the city lacks: a come-as-you-are shelter open to all in Riverton. Eagles Hope recently donated the former Good Samaritan Homeless Shelter building to the group, and organizers are currently working on rehabilitating the building to open its doors.

This story was published on February 22, 2025.