HAMPTON ROADS, Va. — With the colder temperatures setting in and the prices for just about everything going up, many people are turning to homeless shelters for a hot meal and place to stay. Some emergency shelters in Hampton Roads are filling up fast, too.
The Union Mission in Norfolk is open every single day of the year, 24 hours a day. It never closes.
Jacob St. Cyr has been staying at The Union Mission for the past year. He turned to the shelter several years ago to get back on his feet and returned looking for that same support.
“My story is I got into drugs and alcohol, a downfall,” St. Cyr said. "They can open up the doors and bring people in and change their lives quickly with help.”
In recent weeks, Helen Hayes Sommer, the director of development, said the number of calls from people looking for shelter has gone up. Last year, The Union Mission served nearly 800 men, women and children.
Organizers expect to see more people through the doors this fiscal year. Monday morning alone, eight men moved in.
"During the pandemic, there were also limitations on evictions and those types of things. That moratorium has been lifted," Hayes Sommer said. "Additionally, just the cost of food and electricity and the basics has gone up, as well."
PORT Winter Shelter in Newport News is seeing the same trend.
Lynne Finding, the executive director of LINK of Hampton Roads, the agency that offers the PORT program, said, the emergency shelter opened three weeks ago and they've already served 190 people. That's an unusually high number of those who are homeless or at risk.
Many people are not able to afford the rising rents.
“Most people on disability income, or retirement, or maybe our single people who’ve lost a partner, can’t afford that kind of money anymore,” Finding said.
Both shelters help families find housing, jobs, and connects them to services like mental health.
“We try to look at the whole person and try to address whatever issues brought them here,” Hayes Sommer said. “Homelessness is just a symptom of a lot of other things.”
The Union Mission and PORT Winter Shelter need donations to help with the influx of people.
The Union Mission is trying to open the Women and Children’s Shelter, but Hayes Sommer said they need more workers to do that.
The PORT Winter Shelter needs more volunteers to help in the kitchen and with intake. Both shelters need warm clothes for families.
