Officials seeking help for homeless during outbreak
EAGLEVILLE » While Montgomery County residents continue to isolate at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, county officials said some citizens don’t have a home and they are reaching out to the public for assistance in providing safe shelter for the homeless.
“Since this pandemic started on March 7, we have remained committed to delivering services to the most vulnerable citizens in our society,” county commissioner Kenneth E. Lawrence Jr. said during a news briefing at the county Emergency Operation Center in Lower Providence. “As we continue to advise people to isolate at home,
we must remember that we have citizens in our communities who don’t have a stable place to call home.”
Lawrence said the county’s homeless shelters have remained fully operational during the pandemic “and luckily we have not had any positive cases in those shelters.”
One of the reasons why, Lawrence suggested, is because the nonprofit organization Your Way Home Montgomery County has provided hotel rooms for the homeless in order to help the shelters adhere to social distancing recommendations.
“Due to the extension of the governor’s social distancing orders, $30,000 is needed to house individuals experiencing homelessness through mid-May,” Lawrence said. “We’ve put out this call before and the citizens have responded every time and we thank you for that.”
Those who have the capacity to donate to the cause can visit www.yourwayhome.org/donate “so we can continue to keep our shelters at reasonable numbers so that we can have social distancing there.”
Your Way Home Montgomery County, a transformational partnership between government, philanthropic, nonprofit, and community partners, was established as the county’s unified and coordinated housing crisis response system for working or low-income families and individuals experiencing homelessness or at imminent risk of homelessness.
Officials said the virus is producing a burden that is being felt physically, emotionally, and economically on the individuals and families the organization works persistently to assist.
There are about nine shelters that assist citizens in Montgomery County with various services throughout the year. They include:
• Hope Gardens - Interfaith Housing Alliance/ Traditional Housing & Emergency Shelter, 31 S. Spring Garden St., Ambler
• Interfaith of the Main Line/Emergency Shelter, 1449 DeKalb St., Norristown
• Laurel House/Traditional Housing and Emergency Shelter, Undisclosed locations
• Main Street Ministries at Zion’s United Church of Christ/Seasonal emergency shelter, 256 S. Hanover St., Pottstown
• Sisters of Charity Emergency Shelter, 630 DeKalb St., Norristown
• Coordinated Homeless Outreach Center (CHOC)/ Emergency Shelter, 1001 Sterigere St., Norristown
• Salvation Army Emergency Shelter, 533 Swede St., Norristown
• Salvation Army Emergency Shelter, 137 King St., Pottstown
• St. Episcopal’s Church/ Day Shelter, 530 Church Street, Norristown
According to its web site, Your Way Home embraces a “housing first” approach to ending homelessness by first helping people find or maintain permanent housing with stability and then connecting them with community, health, human, and financial services they need to prevent future experiences of homelessness.