Baltimore County has been working since last week trying to find people who are living outside during the dangerously cold weather to ask them to come to a shelter.
Heather Sheridan, the chief of the county’s Homeless Services, said they were doing the annual count last week of how many people, both sheltered and unsheltered, need their programs. So at the same time they made their pitch to those on the street to come into a shelter.
“Since the weather was so tough this year most people did come inside,” Sheridan said.
Sheridan says they don’t know how many people in the county continue to live outside.
Those who are can go to the Prologue Outreach Center in Towson to warm up, do laundry, take a shower, and get something to eat.
Baltimore County Social Services Director Mark Millspaugh said it’s been cold enough to activate the county’s freezing weather shelter plan which increases the number of available beds.
“This winter’s been a very cold winter,” Millspaugh said. “We’ve been active almost every night in December and January.”
When the plan is activated, the county finds room for 78 additional beds in its three year-round emergency shelters.
It also opened two temporary warming shelters, one in Essex, the other in Woodlawn, for county residents who needed them for any reason, whether they are unsheltered or not.
The Essex temporary shelter at the Stembridge Community Center remains open until Sunday. The Woodlawn location is closed.
Sheridan said the county police are helping them find unsheltered people and bring them inside.
“If it’s a health call then EMS will be called obviously but if it’s a simple transport with a bag police are able to do that,” Sheridan said.
According to the county police, they are proactively reaching out to unsheltered people in the county about places they can go to get warm.
You can find out more about Baltimore County’s Homeless Services here.
Millspaugh said anyone who is having housing instability can call the county’s Coordinated Entry hotline: 410-887-TIME (8463).
