The residents, bundled up in hoodies and coats, ran up the hill when they saw Daniel Moore arrive with some hot soup.
"They see me come," Moore said, "they come a-running."
Moore, whose wife Betty does the cooking, regularly drops off hot meals, blankets, coats and other items for the residents of "Tent City," located along the Elk River near the Spring Street Bridge.
"The good Lord tells me to do it," Moore said. "I'd hate to be down on my luck like that."
A light snow fell as Tent City residents worked to keep the fire going Monday afternoon, hours before the temperature was expected to drop to around 5 degrees.
"We're surviving," said one of the residents, Dorothy Bradfield.
She and others there were more focused on making sure a visitor was warm. "Stand here," they'd say, gesturing to the warmest spot by the fire.
Bradfield's boyfriend, who said he wanted to go by the name Ezekiel for the article, said he doesn't complain anymore.
"God taught me not to complain so I don't complain," he said. "I just wish he would turn off the air conditioner."
Comments about the cold do escape, at times. "I swear, it's colder than my ex-wife out here," said another resident, Charles Sandbron.
And Vallary woke up cursing the cold this morning. But she was smiling and welcoming in the afternoon.
That's how she said she was treated when she arrived.
"They just welcomed us in," she said. "That's what they do with everyone."
There are other options for people who don't have a home to go to.
About 15 more people have arrived over the past few days at Union Mission Crossroads Men's Shelter. The shelter sees an increase in residents when the temperature drops, said Rex Whiteman, Union Mission's president and CEO.
The shelter doesn't turn people away, Whiteman said.
"If we don't have enough room, we put bed rolls on the floor," he said.
People pick Tent City - where about 15 to 20 people sleep at night - for different reasons.
One got kicked out of a shelter. One said he had words with a shelter employee. One said a local shelter has bedbugs.
About every day or every other day, they say, another load of supplies is dropped off.
At night, they sleep in sleeping bags and tents and use donated hand-warmers.
People drop off all kinds of supplies - the sleeping bags, tents and hand-warmers were donated. So were clothes, hygiene products, water, propane heaters, canned and boxed goods.
Ezekiel and Bradfield have been living there for about three weeks.
"Everything you see here's been donated since we've been down here," Ezekiel said.
Pastor Larry Westfall, who leads the Hissom Tabernacle Church nearby, just wishes people would be a little more thoughtful about their giving.
"Their needs are specific," he said. "We think we know what they need, but we're wrong."
Westfall notices that sometimes donors think more about what they personally don't need, such as used clothes that don't even fit anyone at Tent City, than what the residents need, such as socks and toiletries, including pads and tampons. He recommended asking the Tent City dwellers what they need, or working through an agency.
"Potato chips just don't help a lot of times," he said.
Stacy Jones, who raised $700 to donate propane heaters, said she asked the residents what they needed first.
"They end up with a bunch of clothes," she said. "They will actually take it to Salvation Army or Goodwill because they want to be able to give back to other people that don't have it."
Still, sitting in front of a fire made with donated firewood Monday, Bradfield said she was grateful.
"It makes me believe there are still people who believe in God in this world and there's still hope," she said.
Reach Erin Beck at erin.beck@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5163, Facebook.com/erinbeckwv, or follow @erinbeckwv on Twitter.