Busy Nights on the Cold Front

Officials Predict More Demand for Reopened Shelter

Loudoun County's emergency cold-weather shelter will be unusually busy this year, serving people who have been turned away from year-round homeless shelters that are filled to capacity, social service officials say.

The rise in home foreclosures and the weak job market have kept Loudoun's year-round homeless facilities full, officials said.

A 24-bed Leesburg shelter run by Volunteers of America, open to families, married couples, single women and single parents, is consistently at capacity and had to turn away 78 people in September, said Helen Richardson, its homeless services director.

The two year-round shelters run by Good Shepherd Alliance also are at their limit: a Leesburg facility for single women, mothers and children that can house 20 people, and an Ashburn shelter for families that can accommodate about 12 people.

"We're full most of the time," said Vickie Koth, director of finance and operations for the nonprofit Christian group. "We get calls every day that we have to turn away."

The cold-weather shelter in Lucketts, which opened Saturday and will operate through March, typically is used by twice as many men as women, in part because Loudoun has no other shelters that accept homeless single men. But the mix is likely to change this year as the winter shelter takes in women shut out of the other facilities, said Capt. Bill Criss of the Loudoun Salvation Army, which manages the Lucketts center.

Center officials say they expect that it will often reach its capacity of 24 people and that it will average 15 a night, up from 11 per night last season, Criss said. To prepare for the additional occupants, the shelter has stocked up on hygiene kits and other supplies.

Even if the shelters for women and families had more room, the cold-weather center probably would experience an increase in visitors this winter because of the bleak job market and the area's lack of affordable housing, said Beth Rosenberg, county coordinator for the Loudoun Continuum of Care, a coalition of county agencies, nonprofit groups and faith-based organizations that monitors homeless services.

"More people may be struggling out there trying to make ends meet," she said. "There's really no way to predict when we're concerned with the economy."

Users of the Lucketts shelter are taken there by bus. They can shower and receive a hot meal in the evening and a light breakfast in the morning.

Ultimately, the weather will determine how many people go through the shelter's doors this winter, Criss said. As temperatures drop, "we know that there will be nights that we will be pushing our capacity," he said. "There's a constant fluctuation through the season."

Daytime services are provided to the homeless at a drop-in center on Sycolin Road in Leesburg, where they can shower, do laundry, receive a meal and get counseling from social workers. That facility, operated by the county and previously run by Good Shepherd Alliance, has experienced a slight increase in demand for services, county officials said. The center sees about nine people a day, compared with a daily average of seven when it reopened in July, said Ron Eamich, assistant director of the Loudoun Department of Family Services.

A core group of about eight people routinely uses the facility, and many stop by before working the night shift at stockrooms of retail stores, Eamich said.

The drop-in center is open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and 1 to 5 p.m. Fridays. Eamich said the county is considering adjusting or extending those hours as necessary.