When temperatures drop, several Baltimore area counties look to the religious community to help house the influx of homeless people seeking shelter.
“Many of them are living in their cars, some are families, and when it gets cold, they come here,” says the Rev. Mary Dennis of Howard County?s Glen Mar United Methodist Church in Ellicott City, which hosts a cold-weather shelter.
The church and synagogue shelters tend to be smaller than the emergency shelters.
Homeless people are subject to initial screening, first through a crisis hotline and then with a shelter staff member.
Anne Arundel relies on Winter Relief, a cold-weather shelter run by 36 churches, which rotate each week.
On one recent evening, two congregations housed about 55 people, says Phil Bailey, Winter Relief program director.
Running a cold-weather shelter takes something of a small army.
In Howard County, at least 100 volunteers from Glen Mar prepare meals, pick up guests and do laundry for a two-week rotation. The church is one of more than a dozen congregations in Howard that house homeless people.
“From a Christian standpoint, I am blessed with the means to give to others,” says Kelli Johnston, a Glen Mar member, who spends about 10 hours a week coordinating volunteers and preparing meals.
