On winter nights, a bus makes its rounds, offering the city's homeless an escape from the weather

The Baltimore Sun

Nights like these are the worst, when the mercury dips below 32 degrees and the streets are cold, even for a man whose bed is usually nothing more than a bench downtown.

And so on a night like this, Michael Jones makes his way onto a bus that shuttles him to the city shelter, where he joins nearly 300 others to weather that most difficult part of the year when the sun sets and the streets stand empty and the cold closes in all around.

Jones has been homeless for about eight years, spending nights in various spots downtown. He learned about the city's free Code Blue bus service through "word on the street," and picks it up in front of the Oasis Station shelter on Gay Street.

"Its gets very cold," says Jones, 41, at the city's Code Blue shelter in East Baltimore. "But I have blankets. Tonight I just felt like coming up here."

Around and around, the yellow school bus makes the downtown circuit from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on nights when the temperature is forecast to drop below 33 degrees, maneuvering through the emptying downtown and into the barren streets of East Baltimore. A mild winter, it may seem, but there have been almost 30 Code Blue nights so far.

Vanessa Helena Jenkins feels it.

"Just trying to stay warm," says Jenkins, 54, shivering, though bundled up, as she boards the bus.

Jenkins has been going to the shelter every night, and she's happy that she has the alternative. "I think it's nice," she says. "It's been pretty good."

As the bus winds past a church, she points to the steps. "We used to sleep out there on the church steps," she says of two winters ago. "On blankets and cardboard. It was cold."

Behind her, a man in a top hat coos about the fat flakes falling. "It's like Anchorage, Alaska," he says to no one in particular.

"They'll be straggling all night long," says Zeke Carter, 72, the bus driver. "There's always someone there."

Some come prepared, with stuffed duffel bags and backpacks and overflowing garbage bags. Others come empty-handed.

On another recent night, Fannie V. Wells sits on the bus toward the end of its route, two stuffed bags in tow. It's past 8 p.m. so the bus is nearly empty. At 5 p.m., it's almost always full.

Wells says she's been coming to the shelter "on and off" for three weeks. It's either that or the bench in front of Legg Mason. "It's OK," she says. "It's a place to stay."

The 54-year-old slept outside last winter. She says she was homeless for about four months last year, then had a place to stay until her basement apartment flooded and she found herself back on the streets.

"See you in the morning, driver," she says to Carter as she departs. "I thank my God for him."

Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, the city's health commissioner, says this is the first year that the city's Code Blue Winter Shelter is open every night from Nov. 15 through March 31, with the pickup bus operating on colder nights. Last winter the shelter was open only when the temperature was below 32 degrees. Before that it was available only when the temperature was predicted to be below 25 degrees with sustained 15 mph winds.

Sharfstein says the decision to remain open in the winter was a response to a large number of hypothermia deaths, as well as the logistics of opening and closing a shelter.

There were 15 hypothermia-caused deaths last winter -- occurring between Oct. 1, 2005, and Jan. 26, 2006 -- compared with seven so far this season.

"We heard from both the clientele and the staff that it's hard for people to tell the difference between 32 and 33 degrees," says Sharfstein. "So the need to keep it open was definitely there for people who really have no other place to stay."

According to a 2005 count, there are about 2,900 homeless people in Baltimore City, a number that includes those living on the street and in shelters.

The Code Blue shelter this year is at the former Elmer A. Henderson Elementary School in East Baltimore. And for the first time, it is being operated by the National Institute for Healthy Behaviors, a nonprofit organization run by William Glover-Bey and his wife, Myra. Inside the shelter, the Glover-Beys and their staff of about 20 attempt to contain the chaos inevitable from housing what will become more than 280 people on this night -- some dazed, appearing high or drunk.

Sixty are women, and 10 are children younger than 18. The women and children sleep on cots in separate rooms from the men.

"Sometimes they come in at 3 or 4 in the morning," says Myra Glover-Bey. "They can come at anytime and in any shape or condition."

"We like to call it a low-demand shelter," says William Glover-Bey. "This gives those still struggling with addictions a place to stay."

Bags are searched and people frisked to make sure no weapons, alcohol, drugs or even food make it in. Mental health and addictions services are offered.

Many people congregate in the cafeteria, where green beans and tuna salad are the night's meal.

A woman throws down a chair. A man screams that the Gestapo run the place.

"I guess you can see how it smells!" screams another woman.

Others gather in an adjoining room, where the State of Union address on television goes unnoticed by most.

Ritchie Hammond is one of the few who appear to be watching. He has been homeless for two years. "In the United States of America, it's a damn shame that you don't have a place for a person to take a shower," says Hammond, 52, who says he's a war veteran. "Prisoners get better care."

Some people grumble about the food and the condition of the bathrooms and the lack of showering facilities.

Others, like Michelle Holley, a 23-year-old single mother, are grateful.

Holley spends the days at her grandmother's and the nights here with her 3-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son. She shares a room with several other women. Tonight her children watch Fat Albert as she relaxes on the cot.

"It's not the right way to live, for real," she says. "But it's OK. I'm trying to get my own place.

"I'm grateful. A lot of people should feel blessed to have some place to stay until they get themselves together," she says.

The shelter helps the Health Department identify families that should be placed in emergency housing and put in contact with the city's social service agencies.

On a recent night, Stacey Mouzon, a 26-year-old mother of six, enters the shelter visibly scared.

Tears are streaming down her face as her children's backpacks are opened and examined.

Around her stand her five of her children, ranging from a 2-year-old to a 13-year-old.

The Glover-Beys immediately find her a private room and special care.

Settled in later, still shaken, Mouzon says she came to the shelter because she was forced out of her apartment in November and since then has been moving around among family members and friends.

When the electricity at her aunt's place was cut off, she knew she had to find another place to stay, and so she walked to the shelter. On a blackboard, her children work on arithmetic problems.

"I didn't know what it was going to be like," says Mouzon, still crying. "I don't know where we'll go tomorrow morning."

The next day, Mouzon and her family are placed in emergency housing at a hotel, and they're assigned a case manager with the city's housing program.

sumathi.reddy@baltsun.com

Cold-weather shelters

Baltimore

Overnight winter shelter at 1101 N. Wolfe St. Open 5 p.m. to 8 a.m., from the beginning of November through March. Services include place to sleep; hot dinner and breakfast; and addiction, health and mental health services.

Code Blue: Transportation to the shelter is available from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on nights where the evening temperature is forecast to be at or below 32 degrees. Pickup is available at: Oasis Station, 220 N. Gay St.; HOPE Drop-in Center, 1426 E. Fairmount Ave.; Health Care for the Homeless, 111 Park Ave.; My Sister's Place, 123 W. Mulberry St.; BCDSS-HESU, 2000 N. Broadway; and YANA, 2013 W. Pratt St.

Baltimore County

Community Assistance Network operates two overnight cold-weather shelters for the county:

West Side shelter is open to single men and married couples from 5 p.m. to 9 a.m. at 55 Wade Ave., on the grounds of Spring Grove Hospital in Catonsville. Pickup shuttle is at the bus stop at Frederick Road and Paradise Avenue from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Information: 410-370-0968.

The East Side shelter is open to single women, single women with children, single men with children and families from 5 p.m. to 9 a.m. at the Eastern Family Resource Center, 1505 Hospital Drive, Rosedale. Information: 410-574- 7546.

Salem United Methodist Church operates the Night of Peace overnight shelter, which is open to women with children from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. at 7509 Windsor Mill Road, near Rolling Road. Information: 410-922-HELP.

Harford County

Faith Communities and Civic Agencies

Cold-weather shelter provided through referral by Harford County Department of Social Services.

Information: 410-836-4541

Howard County

Call the Grassroots Crisis Intervention Center hot line at 410-531-6677.

Director Andrea Ingram said those needing shelter will be taken to a cold-weather shelter moving from church to church each week, or to the center's permanent shelter in Ellicott City.

This season the cold-weather shelter has taken in 57 people, including five families with children. Ages range from 2 months to 70 years. Another 30 people are housed at the main shelter.

Carroll County

Carroll County's nonprofit Human Services Programs runs a cold-weather shelter at Safe Haven, 127 Stoner Ave., Westminster, 410-857-8473. Those seeking relief from the cold can arrive at the shelter at 7 p.m. each night, according to Holly Hutchins, deputy director of Human Services Programs. During the day, the agency also fields calls about shelter space at 410-857-2999. An additional 1,500 square feet of cold-weather shelter space that will double as a job training center should open by November, said Jolene Sullivan, county director of citizen services.

Anne Arundel County

Emergency shelter is provided by referral through the county Department of Social Services at 410-269-4600. Applicants are reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Assistance for the elderly and disabled is available through the Department of Aging at 410- 222-4464. For assistance in Annapolis, call the Light House Shelter at 410-263-1835. During extended periods of extreme weather or loss of electricity, the county opens large-scale temporary shelters. For information on those temporary shelters, call the Emergency Management Agency at 410-222-8040.

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