With snow accumulating and temperatures dropping below freezing, the Carroll County’s new emergency shelter has been providing warmth for some of the area’s homeless and at-risk residents.
The basement of St. Paul’s United Church of Christ has been transformed into an emergency shelter, where individuals can warm during the day or spend the night without pre-registering. The center offers hot drinks, activities, and a light lunch during the day and dinner for residents at night.
The shelter has been operational since November and is being run by Human Services Programs (HSP) of Carroll County — a private nonprofit that works with with the county to combat homelessness. The organization has been serving the county’s homeless for 30 years.
In previous years, HSP has run a cold weather shelter out of the Westminster senior center. But because of COVID-19, senior centers were closed. Also, the Carroll County Public Library branches had previously worked with the homeless population to provide heat and bathroom services, but they have been closed as well.
Scott Yard, the executive director of HSP, said the closing of public facilities has taken a toll on the homeless and at-risk population.
“When everything shut down, that really impacted the homeless population because there were all these places that people would go,” Yard said. “They might get a library, they might go to the mall, they might go to just different service. And with all those closed, that’s what triggered us to say, hey, we need to create a day center because there’s nowhere else to go.”
For some individuals who refuse night shelters, public facilities were enough to meet their needs. But now with most public spaces closed, few options remained for those residents who only sought daytime services.
In response, HSP, in collaboration with other government agencies, now provides essential services at St. Paul’s, including restrooms and charging stations for phones. Showers are available across the street at HSP’s Second Chances community free store.
“Fortunately, because of special grants and the federal government having various different relief grants, we were able to take advantage of those as a county to operate additional services that we didn’t have before, like a day center or expanding our shelter to have a temporary location. So it’s been interesting, but we’ve been able to get it done safely,” Yard said.
The shelter at St. Paul’s was funded through a community development block grant.
Currently there are four shelters operating in the county, including a domestic violence shelter that is not operated by HSP, but due to the coronavirus pandemic ,capacity at all shelters have been reduced. An adult shelter and another night by night shelter operate from the same address in Westminster but are separate.
Despite this, Yard said the organization has been able to serve the same number of homeless and at-risk residents.
“We restructured all of our shelters to try to increase our beds, to use to take the same amount of money that we’ve had in previous years, but to do more with it once the pandemic hit,” Yard said.
The organization has an outreach team that makes weekly visits to known encampments and keeps contact with many of the county’s street homeless individuals.
Celene Steckel, director of the county’s Department of Citizen Services, says outreach has increased during COVID-19 to inform residents of additional services.
“Anyone is able to come there to get warm,” Steckel said of the new shelter. “It’s not just for people that are homeless, we are using that space this winter as our warning center.”
The county administers a biannual count of the homeless population with the most recent count having taken place on January 20. Currently the county has identified 18 unsheltered individuals.
Yard also encourages individuals who are at risk of having their power turned off or eviction to contact HSP.
“We also operate the county’s home energy program, so we help thousands of individuals during this time of year that can’t afford oil or they have their electrics been turned off,” he said. “So we process thousands of grants each year for individuals to have heat and electricity.”
For those residents who wish to help, Yard said the best course of action is to spread the word.
“The best thing to do would just be to give people our phone number,” Yard said, “and hopefully we can point them in the right direction.”
HSP-run shelters
To access the shelter at St. Paul’s Church or any of the other shelters operated by HSP, call 410-857-2999.
St. Paul’s Church: 17 Bond Street, Westminster
Family shelter: 10 Distillery Drive, Westminster
Adult only shelter: 27 Stoner Ave., Westminster
Night by night shelter: 27 Stoner Avenue, Westminster