Community Resource Center opens seasonal summer shelter
Money, awareness and socks. Those are the three things the Community Resource Center staff on Oyster House Road in Rehoboth Beach say they need most.
CRC opened its weekend shelter for homeless clients July 12, for the second year in a row. The shelter is open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday and Sunday until Aug. 17, in addition to its normal Monday through Friday hours.
Clients can spend the day in air conditioning, watch TV, do laundry, take a shower and eat.
Annette Johnson, CRC program manager, said 15 people came on the first Saturday, and 10 to 12 came Sunday.
She said some of their regular clients came from the Tharros tent village, which opened for its second season at the former Delaware State Police Troop 7 location near Lewes July 7.
Word has gotten around about CRC’s services, according to Johnson.
“We’re seeing more new faces than ever before. We saw more new faces in the winter time, and we saw new faces just this past weekend,” she said. “The heat has something to do with it, but they know they can get a meal and we have a great staff.”
Johnson said their clients receive case services that can help them get everything from photo IDs to permanent housing.
She said they have been helping clients fill out applications for an apartment complex in Seaford that has several openings.
Johnson said DART bus passes are also needed, so people can get back and forth to jobs.
She said personal items, like toiletries and clothes, are always in demand.
“We can use underwear for men and women, and socks. We can use gently used clothes for our winter program for men and women, including jackets and gloves,” Johnson said.
CRC’s winter program begins Dec. 1, the same day Code Purple overnight shelters open for the season. Many Code Purple clients spend their days at CRC’s shelter.
Nancy Alexander, CRC executive director, said maintaining donations to keep all services going is critical.
“It’s an atmosphere of uncertainty. To me, that’s the biggest problem, because if you’re not sure that funding will be there in the future, you stop dreaming big,” she said.
CRC will hold its annual Building Bridges fundraiser from 6 to 9 p.m., Friday, Oct. 3, at Kings Creek Country Club in Rehoboth Beach.
For more information or to donate, go to rehobothcommunitycenter.org.
Bill Shull has been covering Lewes for the Cape Gazette since 2023. He comes to the world of print journalism after 40 years in TV news. Bill has worked in his hometown of Philadelphia, as well as Atlanta and Washington, D.C. He came to Lewes in 2014 to help launch WRDE-TV. Bill served as WRDE’s news director for more than eight years, working in Lewes and Milton. He is a 1986 graduate of Penn State University. Bill is an avid aviation and wildlife photographer, and a big Penn State football, Eagles, Phillies and PGA Tour golf fan. Bill, his wife Jill and their rescue cat, Lucky, live in Rehoboth Beach.
