Shelters not seeing increase despite weather

Despite single digit weather and below-zero wind chills, local shelters offering warm meals and lodging have not seen an large increase in visitors. \nRepresentatives from three local agencies -- the Community Kitchen, the Shalom Community Center and Shelter, Inc. -- say attendance has not changed in the past couple days. \nCustomers at the Shalom Community Center, an organization located in First United Methodist Church that provides day lodging and food for people who need it, soared Wednesday, but decreased Thursday. \n"Today it seemed to be so cold that only the people who live really close ventured out of their housing to come," said Shirley St. John, treasurer of the Board of Directors for Shalom Center.\nSt. John believes the center's high numbers Wednesday resulted not from the sudden dip in the weather, but because the food pantry, which takes places every Wednesday at the Shalom Center, was open. She said many people lack money to spend on food during the colder months because they exhaust it on utilities.\nThe Shalom Center compensates for the higher attendance Wednesdays by preparing more breakfast and lunches, St. John said. \nAlthough the number of people at the center during the rest of the week has stayed the same, she says the number of requests for blankets -- for sleeping outside overnight -- has risen. The center does not house people overnight.\n"I saw a lot of people I know who sleep out come in this morning and I thought, 'Good grief how did you do it?'" St. John said.\nPeople have been staying longer during the day at the center, attempting to get as much warmth as possible, she said. \n"In this kind of weather, people don't leave. So, this place gets crowded," St. John said.\nIn many cases, numbers at shelters decrease, instead of swelling, during frigid weather. St. John attributes this fact to transients -- homeless persons who travel south during the winter months to escape the cold. \nDamian Dittmer, the assistant facilities manager at Shelter, Inc., 919 S. Rogers Street, echoes this idea. \nHe said Shelter, Inc., a non-profit organization that provides shelter and support for people who are homeless, has not had an increase in visitors the past two days, most likely because of transients. \nHe said the shelter's numbers peak during the summer, when people are back north.\nThe number of "emergency" families -- for example people who lose their housing because they cannot afford utilities -- is high during the winter. And the waiting list at Shelter, Inc., typically runs between 20 and 30 families year-round, Dittmer said. \n"This area needs an emergency shelter. The average stay is between two and three months, so waiting lists do not move quickly," he said. "Families are suffering in this community because we just don't have facilities for them." \nBloomington families without transportation can also suffer from abnormally cold weather because it can prohibit them from getting food at places such as the Community Kitchen, 917 S. Rogers Street, Adam Sommer, the kitchen's evening supervisor, said.\nAlthough the last half of a month at the kitchen usually experiences increased business, the last few days have been slower. Sommer believes the weather is too cold to trek out in. \n"I think a lot of people probably have a difficult time getting over here in this weather," Sommer said. "Most people walk here." \nHe said Community Kitchen used to provide bus tickets for people to come to the kitchen so they would not have to walk, but because of financial difficulties and people abusing the system, the kitchen stopped distributing the tickets. \n"We wish we could do more, but it's just a really difficult task for us," Sommer said.\nFor more information, call the Community Kitchen at 332-0999, the Shalom Center at 334-5728 or \nShelter, Inc. at 332-1444.