HAMPTON ROADS, Va. — As temperatures drop and wind gusts continue to affect our area, shelters and organizations are providing resources to those in the community in need or experiencing homelessness.
HOPE Foundationis providing warm meals, winter coats, bikes, and bus tickets. This event will take place Friday at 4:30 p.m., in the parking lot across from the Norfolk Bus Depot.
Freemason Street Baptist Church is also providing a Christmas Day Lunch from noon until 1 p.m., at the church located at
400 E. Freemason Street.
There is a winter shelter in place nightly from Dec. 25 to Jan. 1 at TAB Church from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. Pick up starts at 5 p.m. at the New Life Ghent Campus parking lot.
WOW Shelter says their center on Tidewater Drive has been activated for Thursday night through Tuesday. They say no one will be turned away.
Catholic Workeris back at Salter Street for their Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday breakfasts as well.
Anyone experiencing homelessness should call the Housing Crisis Hotline at 757-587-4202 to begin the referral process for services/housing.
"It's tough to know they're out there, especially on a night like this," said Alan DeFriese, the CEO of Peninsula Recue Mission, a shelter for men in downtown Newport News.
DeFriese expects the shelter will be busy this weekend. "We wish we had twice the beds that we have," he said.
At Help, Inc. in Hampton, the shelter is normally open just at night, but will be open during the day for the next few days to keep people out of the cold.
"These are kind of the deadly conditions that we don't often see in this area and when they do happen, we have to be prepared," said Matthew Stearn, the Executive Director of Help, Inc.
With the holiday weekend here, many public buildings could be closed, where some may normally go to seek shelter from the cold.
"This is the kind of unicorn of all things happening at one time we have a holiday weekend, so most of our public facilities are going to be closed," said Stearn.
While Help, Inc. isn't anticipating being over capacity, Stearn says they can work the city and church organizations to find people warm places to stay if need be.
"Anybody who needs a place to go we'll find them a spot," he said.
