How to help people facing homelessness this winter is the topic of Thursday’s Facebook Live
Updated Dec 17, 2020;
Local social service agencies that provide help to homeless people in our area are sounding the alarm. We’re heading into the dead of winter, people are losing jobs, the moratorium on evictions is slated to end Dec. 31 and the death toll from the coronavirus now exceeds 300,000 in the United States.
The statistics, indeed, are bleak, with the threat of even more suffering ahead. PennLive reporter Ivey DeJesus and John Luciew spent weeks looking into the situation for homeless people in our region, and the news is far from good.
Want to help the homeless? Here’s how to do it
Updated Dec 17, 2020;
When considering how to help the homeless, the vast majority of people approach it with good intentions.
Most are inclined to give one-time donations to shelters by way of food, clothing or personal hygiene items. Those are well-intended, but not always the best way to give or help. In fact, service providers say that donations such as food - particularly perishable food - often are more of a hindrance than a help to a well-established system that already functions effectively.
Area providers say those who are willing and able to help can do the most good with a financial contribution (see a list of agencies is provided at the end of this story). Social service agencies need money to pay for staff and supplies.
Only two homeless people sought safety in emergency winter storm shelter - but for providers, it’s a teaching moment
Updated Dec 17, 2020;
It may not have been the anticipated groundswell of homeless people, but even the two individuals who sought safety Wednesday night at an emergency shelter as the first winter storm pummeled the region serves as a teaching moment for service providers.
Like most people, the homeless value their possessions and are reluctant to leave them behind, even if it means enduring inclimate weather conditions.
That’s one of the early assessments from Darrel Reinford, executive director of Christian Churches United of the Tri-County Area, whose organization along with Gospel Fellowship Church, on Thursday opened a temporary emergency hazardous weather overnight shelter for men as the first major storm of winter approached the region.
Coronavirus complicates bringing Pa.’s homeless in from the cold
As the mercury drops, many homeless living in hidden camps will look to come in from the cold. But the coronavirus has sharply cut shelter space.
Updated on Dec 18, 2020;
Published on Dec 17, 2020
Stephanie Tighe, a community health worker with UPMC Pinnacle Mission Effectiveness, delivers a new pair of glasses to Mark at the homeless encampment near the PennDot building in Harrisburg on Dec. 2, 2020. He was headed to his brother s house. Tighe had taken Mark for an eye exam earlier and was finally able to connect after searching for several weeks. (Photo by Joe Hermitt | jhermitt@pennlive.com)
Emergency men’s shelter opens in Harrisburg to help during snow storm
Updated Dec 16, 2020;
An overnight shelter for men has temporarily opened at Gospel Fellowship Church at 1635 N. 7th St. in Harrisburg.
The shelter is a temporary one, and designed to help men have a safe and warm place to go during the snow storm. It is open from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. through Friday. There are also plans in place to make it a daytime shelter if that’s needed.
The shelter will be run by Christian Churches United and Gospel Fellowship Church. It was organized with Capital Area Coalition on Homelessness, Dauphin County Human Services and the City of Harrisburg. An emergency winter shelter for women is also open at Grace United Methodist Church at 216 State St. in Harrisburg.