Warm When It’s Cold

COURT HOUSE – A Code Blue alert is declared whenever temperatures drop below the freezing point (32-degrees Fahrenheit) with precipitation, and below 25-degrees Fahrenheit without precipitation, and weather conditions pose a danger to the homeless population. That is the definition set by Cape May County to determine the opening of warming centers in each municipality to keep homeless individuals safe during bitter cold weather conditions.
Those temperatures were realized Jan. 10 and predicted to last at least until Jan. 14. The Code Blue alert was extended until 6 a.m. Jan. 16.
In previous years, the State of New Jersey paid for municipalities to provide homeless people vouchers for motel rooms during a Code Blue. Starting in 2019, the burden of providing shelter for at-risk individuals was shifted to local municipalities. Vouchers are only provided for those with children.
Cape Community Church was named the official warming center for Middle Township where the Cape Hope organization saw five clients show up Jan. 10 to take advantage of a warm bed, a hot meal and a break from the elements. Cape Hope is a faith-based group of volunteers who seek to help homeless residents of the county.
Denise South is the director of Cape Hope and spent Jan. 10 at the shelter. She said the switch away from the voucher system happened quickly and everyone involved had little time to prepare.
“We are still in a learning process. Clients had a little wait at the pick-up spot today, but it was worked out and everyone got here safely,” South said, praising police and Middle Township Emergency Management Squad Chief Sean McDevitt.
Middle Township homeless were picked up at The Branches in Rio Grande and transported by police car to the church.
The Branches is an outreach ministry of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Stone Harbor and provides a place for the elderly, disabled, homeless, and individuals or families living in poverty to get a meal and stay warm during the day. The Branches agreed to open early during Code Blue.
Food at the warming center was provided by Our Lady Star of the Sea soup ministry, along with donations from other area churches.
South and her husband, Christopher are currently the only volunteers providing overnight supervision, but more volunteers are needed to help serve food, clean up and stay overnight.
Sleeping quarters for men and women are separate and one of the current clients is an expectant mother.
Samantha Rugg said without the warming center, she and boyfriend Scott Goble would be huddled in a tent in the woods with just sleeping bags between them and the elements.
She is supposed to start a job soon and Goble said he has some income, but not enough to be able to afford a place.
“We hope that once I start working, we’ll have enough money for a room,” Rugg said.
Robert Hathaway was at the center seeking shelter because his tent won’t do when it gets bitterly cold.
“We don’t have any source of heat, no fires. Sometimes I find a friend who will let me stay inside for the night, but not always,” he explained.
South said she hopes that residents and officials in the county can work together to find a permanent solution to the county’s homeless problem.
“We all need to come together to solve this problem, and I think we can,” South said.
“We need more donations, more churches serving as warming centers, more treating our neighbors as we would want to be treated. There should be no homeless. These are human beings who should be treated like human beings.”
The warming center at Cape Community Church is open from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. Bus vouchers are provided to clients as they leave the shelter each day.
For more details and daily pick-up locations, call the Homeless Hotline at 609-886-1325 or 1-877-886-1325.
To contact Carl Price, email cprice@cmcherald.com.