'Just step up:' Stillwater smoke shop opens their doors to anyone who needs to stay warm

Just before 9 a.m. on Thursday morning, customers were already coming into Pit’s Smoke Shop on Perkins Road in Stillwater, but there were others who had been there all night, and some that were still sleeping.

“We let them come in when the temperatures are just unbearable,” said owner Philip Steidl. “The homeless, anyone who needs a place to stay.”

Steidl has been opening his business’s doors for years. He knows a shelter in a smoke shop is unconventional, but if he didn’t open, he worries others would stay in the cold.

He knows because he’s been there.

“I don’t claim to be perfect at all,” said Steidl. “Drug addicts mess up. I mess up. I haven’t in a few years, but at the end of the day, I’m just like the rest of these people.”

The people staying at Pit’s avoid the shelter in town for a variety of reasons. There are rules, background checks, and a requirement to describe your circumstances.

“The rules basically are respect everybody,” said Tammy Vasek-Hunt about Pit’s. She said she has been living in a tent ever since a storm damaged her home in Perry.

Phil was her first call when she saw the forecast, and she’s been at the shop for four days. He helped her get a shower and gave her clothes.

“I come here because I feel safe,” she said.

Beyond that feeling of safety, there’s immediate acceptance. 

“This is probably one of the only places that I do not feel that judgement, and everybody knows I have not been no saint, but it’s an open door to make a change and they’re rooting for you the entire time,” said Brittany Mullins, who started working at the shop three weeks ago.

She said after some bad decisions, she didn’t have anyone to turn to, and Phil took her call. He’s been by her side, helping her get clean.

“He does what he can, and that makes the difference,” said Mullins.

Pit’s Smoke Shop on Perkins will be open to anyone who needs a place to stay until Saturday morning.

“Just step up; that’s all it boils down to,” said Phil. “You've got to do something.”

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