The Cold Weather Shelter, operated by Human Services Programs of Carroll County Inc., is only designed for people staying overnight, not during the day, according to Corina Canon, director of shelter and housing there. The county's designated daytime warming centers in Westminster — the public library, Department of Citizen Services building and Senior and Community Center — were closed due to the severity of the storm last weekend. The 21 people staying at the shelter Friday night, she said, had been told to either find someone to stay with during the day Saturday, or to be prepared to walk to the only place open, On Our Own, a peer-supported wellness and recovery center in the 200 block of East Main Street.
"This is what many of the residents do on most days throughout the winter," Canon wrote in an email. "Some residents grumbled about walking in the snow. Unfortunately, the Cold Weather shelter is small and not equipped for day programming."
The 57-year-old Sullivan was one of those who complained. Having reached out to a few people he knew, and having been told that they did not believe the shelter would make them leave during the blizzard, he was expecting to walk to On Our Own, but the snowy parking lot changed his mind.
"I looked out the door and there was about 15 inches of snow covering the whole parking lot. It was about 300 yards to get through the parking lot onto Stoner Avenue," Sullivan said. "I said, 'I am absolutely not leaving. You can call the police ... I am not going out there and risking my life.' "
An arrest, if the police could even get to the shelter to arrest him, would at least get Sullivan a ride to a warm place, or so he figured, but after a truck appeared to plow the parking lot, he decided to make the roughly 3/4-mile trek after all. Stoner Avenue had been plowed earlier and Sullivan was able to follow some vehicle tracks along it to Bishop Street.
"I made a right on Bishop, by some miracle it had just been plowed and there was like 2 inches of snow on the ground. That was easy and Bishop Street goes all the way to Main Street," he said. "When I got to Green and Main Street, they were both like 12 to 15 inches; it's a good thing we didn't have to go there. By some miracle, these side streets were plowed and the main streets were not."
Sullivan made it to On Our Own, but he is adamant in his opinion that the conditions were not safe that morning, and that luck was a major factor in his making the trip successfully.
"I had to keep my head down. If I lifted my head up the snow was beating so much in my eyes I couldn't see," he said. "It was dangerous."
Sullivan was not the only person to walk out that morning. There were 20 people in all who made the trek, including Don Freeman, 44, who left earlier than Sullivan in order to get to On Our Own ahead of the rest and get the place ready for their arrival.
"Me and another guy, we left right around 6 a.m. and clawed our way over because no one had plowed yet. It was about knee high," Freeman said of the snow. "Then we got out the shovels and helped another manager clean out around the street so the other folks could get in here around 7 a.m."
There was also Judy Duvall, who is 19 and has been homeless for the past two years, and also left before Sullivan. Last year, there were times it was brutally cold when she had to make the morning trek from the Cold Weather Shelter to On Our Own, but it wasn't as bad as walking the 3/4-mile in the driving snow.
"You had to trudge through it — on Bishop Street they didn't really have it plowed real good," Duvall said. "It was kind of icy, too."
Duvall was worried about falling, and the cold, because, she said, she is five months pregnant. She believes everyone should have been allowed to shelter in place at the Cold Weather Shelter until the worst of the blizzard had passed.
"I think it's just crazy because we shouldn't have had to do that — it was a code blue," Duvall said, referring to the code blue alert announcement by the Baltimore City Health Department during the blizzard. A code blue is issued during periods of life-threatening cold and in response, shelters in the city expand their hours and keep individuals inside, according to the city Health Department website.
Carroll County does not utilize a code blue alert system, though multiple agencies are involved in deciding when to open the Cold Weather Shelter and warming centers, according to Ed Singer, the county health officer.
Only so much shelter in the storm
The Cold Weather Shelter is housed in the same building as HSP's Safe Haven shelter, a full-day schedule shelter for people with mental health issues. Many of HSP's shelter volunteers were snowed in on Saturday, according to Canon, and with a travel ban in effect, there were only two volunteers, working double shifts available for both shelters on Saturday morning. Given the cramped space at the Cold Weather Shelter, and the fact that HSP had already verified that On Our Own was willing to take people from the shelter on Saturday, it was decided to send people out in the morning before the snow worsened.
"Saturday and Sunday mornings the weather between 6:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. was not so severe as to prevent people from walking four blocks to On Our Own," Canon wrote in an email.
The partnership between HSP and On Our Own is complementary, because each organization's schedule can fill the gaps in services provided by the other, according to HSP Executive Director Angela Gustus.
"The Cold Weather shelter is not designed for all-day programming, as it is a very limited space for the number of individuals serve," she said. "In the same regard, On Our Own is not designed for individuals to stay overnight, which is the reason that these types of partnerships are a wonderful way to support individuals during situations like the blizzard."
Those at greatest risk — a man who is wheelchair bound, another woman who was seven months pregnant — were able to find alternative arrangements before the blizzard struck, but Gustus wrote in an email that there had been a contingency plan if they had been unable to find placement.
"We had one resident that uses the services of the Cold Weather Shelter quite frequently that had recently been in an accident, and mobility was a major issue for her," Gustus wrote in an email. "To best assist her, she stayed in HSP's Women's Shelter for the weekend in a room that was available for the weekend to accommodate her needs."
Freeman, Duvall and Sullivan all said they wished HSP had been able to find some similar accommodations to the woman who was able to stay at the Women's Shelter. Freeman and Sullivan recalled that several year ago, the Cold Weather Shelter would remain open during extreme weather events, a fact supported by Jay Hutchison, a former Safe Haven shelter volunteer, who is now a cook at the Westminster Rescue Mission.
"I was there a few years ago and would stay and volunteer and stay for a few days with the guys in times when they had no place else to go," Hutchison said. "I just think they should have made some arrangements. That's just sad."
Cold heart strings
Sullivan had attempted to make his own alternate arrangements before the storm arrived. He had called on a family member, and also an acquaintance, Ruth Kalinowski, of Manchester, asking each of them if he might be able to stay with them during the storm.
Kalinowski turned him down.
"I said, 'They are not going to put people out,'" Kalinowski said. "He said, 'Yes they are, they already told us.'"
After she called and spoke with someone at the Safe Haven Shelter, Kalinowski felt assured that some arrangements would be made to take care of people at the Cold Weather Shelter. She did not realize those arrangements might include walking in blizzard conditions to On Our Own, and when she found out, she was outraged, which she said is not a common emotion for her in such situations.
"I am not a bleeding heart, I am just the opposite. I have very little empathy for people," Kalinowski said. "Even if they never had anything for the homeless people, if they had to live in tents in the woods and all that stuff; even if that were the case, it still is horrible that in the case of a blizzard, nothing happened."
It's cold out there
Winter Storm Jonas was a serious storm. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan declared a state of emergency for the entire state effective 7 a.m. Friday, Jan. 22, and urged people to stay off the roads and at home during the storm.
The National Weather Services issued a blizzard warning for Carroll County on the evening of Friday, Jan. 22, to be effective until 6 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 24.
In Carroll County, Board of Commissioner President Steven Wantz, R-District 1, declared a state of emergency effective as of 8 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 23.
"Our utmost concern is for the safety and well being of the citizens of Carroll County and this emergency declaration will facilitate our response and the deployment and sharing of resources," Wantz was quoted as saying in a Jan. 23 press release announcing the state of emergency. "We ask our citizens to stay home and stay off the roads during this winter storm."
The temperature at 8:05 a.m. Jan. 23, according to the data recorded by the Weather Underground meteorological station at Carroll Community College, was 21.2 degrees, or 8.3 degrees with wind chill factored in. Winds were gusting from the north at up to 24.2 miles per hour.
According to county government spokeswoman Deborah Lundahl, the county views sheltering the homeless in an adverse weather situation to be HSP's responsibility, although county resources and assistance were offered.
"HSP was offered the use of the Westminster Senior Center, but HSP declined the offer," Lundahl wrote in an email.
To accept the county offer, HSP would have had to staff the senior center when staffing was already an issue, according to Canon, and it was decided to close the Cold Weather Shelter as planned.
"We had this as an emergency option if it became warranted," Canon wrote in an email, "but Saturday and Sunday mornings it seemed that our residents would be better served at an agency intended for their use that has day programming and activities to help occupy their time."
Safe harbor
Despite Kalinowski's alarm at shelter residents being forced out at 8 a.m. during the storm, it's not as if residents were being thrown to simply survive in the outdoors alone; they had a place to go and a place with which some of them were familiar. On Our Own hosts peer support sessions, Narcotics and Alcoholic Anonymous meetings and workshops on everything from anger management to finding services, according to Executive Director Laurie Galloway, so many of the Cold Weather Shelter clients also frequent the center.
Galloway is happy to help people who are out in the cold and to open the center's doors during inclement weather when possible. However, she did say it is important to consider that On Our Own is an all-volunteer effort and does not receive support from the county the way HSP does. On Our Own is a peer support center for people recovering from substance abuse or mental illness, not a shelter.
"We are not an extension of the [Cold Weather Shelter], we do not get any funding or anything," Galloway said. "People have to have a place to go when it's cold. There are the warming centers, but they were closed, so we extended our hours to try to help."
Two of On Our Own's volunteer managers live within walking distance and were able to make it over to the center to open at 7 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 23. The center would normally close at 6 p.m., but the snow had become so deep at that point that Galloway made the call to stay open all night — something On Our Own normally does not do, and is not equipped to do. At least 10 people, including Duvall, elected to stay overnight.
"The bottom line is we do it because they have nowhere else to go," Galloway said.
Without additional help, however, On Our Own may not be open for people when they have nowhere to go, according to Galloway. The cost of taking people in during winter storms last year was defrayed only by the generous donations of a number of area church congregations, she said, and similar donations, or some other source of funding, will be needed again this winter.
"The only way we can do this is if we get the donations. Next year? As of right now we are not doing it next year," Galloway said. "We have never done it before, but I think we will talk to the [Carroll County Board of Commissioners] about getting some extra funding for next year."
Although there are no promises, county spokeswoman Lundahl said the commissioners would certainly be open to discussions on funding.
"The budget process is coming up soon and we would, of course, be happy to entertain any request that they would have," she said. "We're always happy to open discussions with our community partners."
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©2016 the Carroll County Times (Westminster, Md.)
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