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SEEKING SHELTER: PART ONE

Homeless find refuge from the cold

Immanuel is only local option to get off streets in winter
January 17, 2017

Story Location:
37439 Oyster House Rd
Rehoboth, DE
United States

Simply put, in the Cape Region, there are almost no cold-weather refuge options for homeless people.

According to the Code Purple Sussex County website, there are five shelters that offer protection this winter, but only one, Immanuel Shelter in Rehoboth, is within walking distance for someone located anywhere from Dewey to Milton.

There really is no other option locally to get off the streets, said Tommy Stepnay, Immanuel Shelter manager, during a recent tour of the facility.

The other four shelters are St. Luke’s Episcopal Parish House in Seaford, a women’s and children’s shelter at Gateway Fellowship in Bridgeville, a men’s-only shelter at Avenue United Methodist Church in Milford, and a must-call-ahead shelter at Georgetown Presbyterian Church in Georgetown.

This year, Immanuel Shelter, at 37439 Oyster House Road just outside Rehoboth Beach, opened its doors Dec. 1 and will stay open through April 30.

Janet Idema, shelter board of directors president, said she’s amazed at how the shelter community has grown since it opened in 2010.  It’s gone from a makeshift organization with a board of three in the early years, she said, to a 501(c)3 nonprofit with a board of 11 and regular fundraising efforts.

Idema said last year, the shelter served more than 110 people. She said most of them were single men, but close to 20 percent of the guests were women.

Three days before the winter season’s first snow, Idema said fewer people had been staying at the shelter this year, “but the weather has not been as bad.”

In an email Jan. 9, Idema said the Jan. 7 storm that brought 6 inches of snow, wind gusts over 30 mph and near single-digit temperatures at night made the shelter crazy busy with 28 to 30 guests.

We kept everyone inside due to frigid weather,” she wrote.

The building – an old one-room schoolhouse built by Pierre S. du Pont in the early 1920s – doesn’t consist of much, and space is at a premium. There’s the single large classroom and a small laundry room, small kitchen, small bathroom with shower and a small office.

It’s about immediate safety in bad weather, said Idema.

“We do what we can,” said Idema. “We try to provide food and fellowship.”

Guests enter through the side entrance, where bags are checked. Half the classroom is set up for the night’s meal – tables, chairs and a television to watch. When dinner is over, the tables and chairs are folded up, and the men put out their inflatable mattresses. The other half of the classroom, separated by partitions, is where the women sleep, furnished with three bunk beds and two twin beds.

Idema said there’s a pretty rigid schedule for the shelter’s daily activities. Check-in runs from 4:30 to 6 p.m., with a full meal served by 6:15 p.m. Check-out is 7:45 a.m.

“We really ask for people to be here by 6,” she said.

Kathy Hughes was one of a small group of volunteers preparing the evening’s before-dinner snacks and organizing the kitchen’s nonperishables. She said it’s her first winter helping at the shelter.

Hughes, clearly a woman not afraid to speak her mind, said she was able to convince Schell Brothers’ Dan Matta to donate a new washer and dryer and dishwasher to the shelter.

Matta, Schell Brothers director of customer service, said that after some discussions, Hughes mentioned the need for appliances that would bust the shelter’s budget.

“We were happy to help out any way possible,” he said.

For dessert, the shelter’s guests had their pick out of a box of day-old but still good pastries from Panera. As Idema looked over the box, she smiled, credited the many contributions from the local business community, and said, “They look so good.”

The shelter’s staff and volunteers also collect cold-weather supplies that have lined the Rehoboth Avenue Extension fence behind the Sussex Family YMCA.

That effort is called Chase the Chill, said Kim Courtney, shelter administrative assistant. The packages, attached to the fence in large, clear, ziplock bags with  zip ties, contain donated hats, gloves, scarves, socks and lip balm, she said.

During the summer months, said Courtney, the shelter does a similar thing with warm-weather supplies – water, T-shirt, bug spray, sunscreen and chapstick.

“Sometimes it’s hard to keep up with the demand,” she said.

Immanuel Code Purple Shelter is open 7 days a week. For more information, call 888-634-9992 or visit immanuelshelter.org.

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