St. Mary's churches band together to shelter homeless

At least nine St. Mary's County churches will open their doors to the homeless this winter in the first Warm Nights program.

Warm Nights is one of several initiatives included in the county's three-year plan to prevent homelessness. County commissioners will formally take action on the plan this week, but Warm Nights will move ahead regardless of the commissioners' action.

"One time somebody asked me, 'What does a homeless person look like?' I said, 'Hold up a mirror,' " said the Rev. Kenneth W. Walker, pastor of Lexington Park United Methodist Church. "The stereotypes prevent people from knowing what homelessness is about and the extent of the problem in this area and also in other areas."

Walker and other clergy members in St. Mary's approached Three Oaks Center, a homeless shelter in Lexington Park, to create the Warm Nights program, modeled on programs in Calvert and Charles counties.

One church will open its doors at night to about 20 homeless people in the coldest months of the year to provide meals and cots when the three St. Mary's emergency shelters are at capacity.

Nine churches have signed up to host, Walker said, with a firehouse and another church considering joining. A network of 15 churches will offer financial and volunteer support.

"There is a tremendous amount of poverty and homelessness. My church is in Lexington Park, and we see it every day here at the church," Walker said. "One of the things we have always noticed at the church is that the existing sheltering arrangements, while the Department of Social Services, Three Oaks and Leah's House try to keep up with it, aren't always able to keep up. The need exceeds the ability to shelter people."

The program fits into the county's three-year plan, which combines the work of county, government, faith and nonprofit organizations.

St. Mary's County had nearly 1,900 homeless people last year and 1,200 this year, according to a one-day countywide count, called a point-in-time survey.

But Bennett Connelly, director of the county's Human Services Department, said he hasn't seen that drop. "We are not seeing those numbers throughout the system," he said. "The 1,800 is more accurate in the community."

Calvert County's point-in-time survey found 78 homeless people, and Charles had more than 1,280.

Connelly said the three-year plan is "an effort to bring the community together, organize our effort, strengthen what we have and look at the data to really keep our pulse on the community so we can really see what is happening."

Those in need of help can call the Walden Sierra hotline, at 301-863-6661, to learn about services or be referred to the Department of Social Services, which will serve as the first step in the county's process to get people into the system, Connelly said.

The department will do intake screenings and determine what each individual or family needs, including monetary assistance, substance-abuse treatment and mental health services, among other items. Department officials will then refer the clients to the correct organizations for help, he said.

Cynthia Brown, a human services manager, told county commissioners last week that a focus will be put on services that might prevent someone from becoming homeless, such as energy or rent assistance.

However, once a person is in the system, the plan is to get them out of emergency shelters and into permanent housing as soon as possible "to get them into a stable environment where they can then receive the needed services to reach self-sufficiency," she said.