The current overflow shelter, located at 440 W. High St., is unable to accommodate the increasing number of homeless individuals needing a warm, safe place to sleep, said IHN Assistant Director Elaina Bradley. The overflow shelter opens in the evenings, December through March. Individuals arrive at the shelter to sleep and leave in the mornings. On-site staff provide food and hygiene products as well as a breakfast before they leave.
“We don’t have enough beds (at the High Street shelter). We’ve already had to turn individuals away,” Bradley said. “The Salvation Army gymnasium will enable us to provide more beds for individuals in need. It has more shower facilities as well.”
About a dozen individuals a night have sought overnight shelter since the weather turned cold, she said. “And we’re not even into January yet.”
That does not include individuals and families who are currently staying at Interfaith’s women and family shelter, which has a waiting list. Fifty-eight individuals — including eight families — spent Christmas Day in the homeless shelter. Families with children who are waiting for the shelter have been temporarily put up in a local hotel. It’s expensive, but “we just can’t turn away any family that has children,” she said.
“Going into 2011, it doesn’t look like we’re going to decrease,” she said.
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