But the Religious Coalition could still use additional supplies for those coming into the shelter.
Frederick, Md (KM) Even though it’s been extremely cold in recent days, the number of people coming into the Alan P. Linton Emergency Shelter on Degrange Street in Frederick has been steady. That’s according the Executive Director of the Religious Coalition for Emergency Human Needs, Nick Brown. “Thankfully, we have not seen a large influx of folks coming to the Emergency Shelter. Numbers of have been holding fairly stable as far as the core population coming since the warm weather months,” says Brown.
He says the Shelter has been averaging about 90 to 98 people daily coming into the facility, which has 80 beds.
But there is an overflow, Brown says the nearby Rescue Mission on West South Street can provide space for the men. “We do have an ability to offset some of those numbers of folks coming in to an area church which is willing to take some of our female overflow,” says Brown.
The Rescue Mission works with men who are getting over drug and alcohol addictions so they can stay sober.
He says the Religious Coalition could use more supplies to help the men and women who come into the Alan P. Linton Shelter. “We generally distribute tons of socks and gloves,” says Brown. “Hot chocolate, the hand heaters are all in high demand.”
Right now, Brown says, the number of people coming into the shelter this winter is about the same as last year. “The numbers have been similar, a little higher this year than last year,” he says. “At some point, our building here is just going to run out of space. So we are strategizing on what our next structure is going to look like.”
Brown says the Religious Coalition has made no decision yet on whether to enlarge its current facility, or find a new site.
By Kevin McManus