YOUNGSTOWN Offering a warm place to sleep

People living paycheck to paycheck who suddenly lose a job can need emergency shelter.
By ROGER G. SMITH
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Monday night's temperatures dropped into the teens. A steady wind left temperatures feeling like the single digits.
Nights like those are why Bob Altman and the Rev. David Sherrard have spent the past dozen years bringing homeless people inside and out from the cold.
"Our goal continues to be that no one freezes to death because they have nowhere to sleep," said Altman, a program director at the Help Hotline Crisis Center. He coordinates the cold-weather emergency-shelter program for the homeless in Mahoning County.
The emergency-shelter program, with the help of the county's many social agencies, is entering its 13th year.
There is never a shortage of clients, officials said Monday.
The previous night was an easy reference. Seventy-five people stayed overnight Sunday at the Rescue Mission of the Mahoning Valley, said the Rev. Mr. Sherrard, the mission's executive director.
Getting services
A multitude of agencies work together to direct homeless to the mission between 9 p.m. and 7:30 a.m. every day, December through March.
Someone who needs a place to stay for the night needs only to call Help Hotline at (330) 747-2696.
Help Hotline will direct the person to a place they can stay for the night, usually the mission. A cab will deliver homeless people to the mission if they are more than a mile from the building on Martin Luther King Boulevard.
The mission has space for up to 130 people.
The $7,000 a year spent on emergency sheltering for the homeless comes from the city, county, United Way and several foundations. A variety of other social-service agencies also lend help, such as by offering counseling.
"There's a lot done with very little money involved," Altman said.
The slumping economy is changing who needs emergency help, said Terry Vicars, a homeless case manager with Catholic Charities. It's not just the chronic homeless -- those who make living on the streets a lifestyle.
People living paycheck to paycheck who suddenly lose a job are just as likely to need the help on a nasty winter night, Vicars said. "People who are absolutely shocked to wake up one morning ... and be homeless," he said.
More women with children are showing up because welfare rolls are being trimmed, he added.
Since 1990, Help Hotline has taken 28,882 calls about emergency shelter. The shelter has taken in 16,165 people, among them 2,654 women and 825 children.
rgsmith@vindy.com