Correction: Daily Planet Health Services works with shelter programs but does not provide housing opportunities itself. We have removed a quote that stated otherwise and regret the error.
The inclement weather shelter and a homeless shelter that houses families in individual units in Richmond are both closing this month with no clear plans from the city about how to serve hundreds of people who will soon be evicted from emergency housing.
On Friday, April 15, the inclement weather shelter will close until October. It’s closing because the shelter is seasonal and does not operate during the spring and summer months. The non-congregate shelter, which was formed by the city when the COVID-19 pandemic began to prevent the virus from spreading among people experiencing homelessness, will also close its doors only a week later on April 22.
Michael Dutz is a homeless person living in Richmond. He relies on the inclement weather shelter for emergency housing and says its closure is a dangerous mistake.
“It’s closing. The mayor has no other alternative plans,” Dutz said. “And [now] 150 people who call this place home are up in the air”
Anthony Gamberale was waiting in line outside the inclement weather shelter on Tuesday. He said now that it’s closing, he’s worried Richmonders without housing will experience even greater instability.
“I'm just worried that they'll be people at risk. I might be at risk,” Gambarale said.
According to Sherrill Hampton, Richmond’s housing and community development director, the inclement weather shelter has provided emergency shelter to 1,120 people since it reopened last year. Last month, there were 135 people sleeping in the shelter.
Both the inclement weather shelter and the city’s non-congregate shelter are run by the nonprofit Commonwealth Catholic Charities. The non-congregate shelter is also closing because its one-time funding from the federal CARES Act has been exhausted. That’s according to Jay Brown, CEO of Commonwealth Catholic Charities.
“The non-congregate shelter was a part of the community's pandemic response for people experiencing homelessness,” Brown said. “Originally, the funds were to be expended at the end of March. And we were successful in receiving an extension.”
So far this month, the non-congregant shelter has served 127 individuals including 58 children. On average this year, they provided emergency shelter to about 225 homeless people every month.
Hampton told City Council on Monday that the city doesn’t have anywhere to send the homeless people they evict from the two shelters where they are guaranteed a bed.
“We’ve been working… to see if they [the city] can absorb some of those folks from the closing of these shelters. I have put in a call to the state, and I'm trying to have that conversation to see if they have available funds,” Hampton said.
Brown says Commonwealth Catholic Charities have already helped a little under half of those staying at the non-congregate shelter find alternative emergency housing options before next Friday’s deadline.
“We're working very creatively and we're working diligently with our partners in the Continuum of Care to make sure that each of those families have an option before we close the shelter,” Brown said.
Dutz says he’s seen a handful of people find alternative housing in the run-up to the shelter closing, but they’re the lucky ones. He says those resources aren’t usually available.
“It was just left in the air. And the only time they come ... is the last three or four days when there’s a panic,” Dutz said.
Richmond’s emergency housing intervention services, like shelters, are not meeting the city’s need for homeless resources. Groups like Homeward, the primary agency that distributes Richmond’s Continuum of Care to address homelessness, told VPM about the urgent need for more homeless resources last month.
Though the city has 12 emergency shelters, their capacities are severely limited due to a shortage of beds. For example, only 295 individuals were served by any of the city’s homeless shelters between January and March of this year, according to data Hampton presented to council. In comparison, Homeward’s Point In Time count, which attempts to estimate the number of homeless people in the Richmond area twice a year, recorded 739 homeless people in the capital city in January 2022.
At the same time that these shelters are closing, City Council members including Stephanie Lynch acknowledge that they’re expecting hikes in the city’s homeless population due to the cancellation of the city’s public housing eviction moratorium.
“Even as some of those families rotate off and may be able to go into other shelters, there are more families coming down the pike. That is imminent, because the moratorium has lifted,” Lynch said.
The city has agreed to finance an expansion of Commonwealth Catholic Charities’ shelter on Oliver Hill Way to address the need for year-round emergency housing, and City Council voted last October to direct $1.8 million in federal funding to the shelter.
When it’s finished, Brown says the shelter will be open during extreme heat and other inclement weather events during the summer, in addition to being open during the winter months.
However, Brown said Commonwealth Catholic Charities will likely need additional funding from the city to complete the project. That’s because the city has yet to approve bids for renovating the space, and therefore the nonprofit can not estimate how much renovation will ultimately cost.
“We estimated our expenses back in July of 2021. It's almost been a full year, so we do think that some of those costs will have increased. And we do know that there's some additional work that we weren't originally planning on,” Brown said.
Once it’s complete, the new shelter will have at least 75 beds available. Brown says they might have more space, but there are no concrete plans in the works to make that happen.
Rhonda Sneed is the founder of Blessings Warriors, a local nonprofit that provides direct assistance to homeless people in the city. Dutz says her organization has been the only one to consistently show up for community members staying at the shelters. Sneed agrees that 75 beds is not nearly enough to service the city’s homeless population.
“75 beds. They bragged about that. But… there’s been over 100 people here just about every night. Where are the rest of them supposed to go?” they said.
Dutz also points out that without a centralized place for homeless people to gather and find shelter in the city, the ability of organizations like Commonwealth Catholic Charities and the Blessings Warriors to find the people they’re made to serve is severely limited.
“That was the gift of this shelter. And now… on Friday, all the charities who bring us food… have to spread out throughout the town,” Dutz said.
It costs $125 a night to provide a homeless person in Richmond with a night’s stay in the non-congregant shelter, according to Hampton. She estimates that to keep the shelter going for another month, it would cost the city approximately $44,330. Keeping the shelter open until October would cost the city $265,980.
For comparison, the mayor’s proposed budget for the police department next fiscal year tops $110 million, including $10.7 million to fund pay increases for officers.
In the long term, Hampton said the city is considering purchasing land or a hotel to provide additional permanent emergency shelter. But for the short term, all they can do is direct homeless people and those facing eviction to the remaining, overcrowded shelters in the area.
Lynch urged her fellow council members on Monday to sign a letter demanding that the mayor find the funds to postpone the closure of the non-congregant shelter until newly renovated Oliver Hill Way shelter opens.
“Otherwise, the very real stark reality is that the current population that's there will be out on the street,” Lynch said.
Those renovations are expected to be complete in mid-October 2022.
While they expressed concern about the homeless crisis in the city, council members declined to sign on to Lynch’s letter. Instead they directed the mayor’s office to present them with recommendations about what cuts they would propose making to ensure at least one shelter stays open.
The administration will present those recommendations to the Education and Human Services Standing Committee during its meeting on April 14.
On Friday, the Blessings Warriors are hosting an event to provide last-minute resources to homeless people about to lose their access to the shelters. To register for the event, which is taking place on April 14 at 10 a.m. outside the Greater Richmond Convention Center, call 804-497-9226.
This Friday also happens to be Good Friday for non-Orthodox Christians. To Sneed, the city is sending a message to the area’s homeless population by closing its shelter on a day when Christians are encouraged to do good deeds.
“It’s ironic. They’re being crucified on Good Friday,” Sneed said.
To volunteer with or donate to Blessings Warriors, follow their Facebook page.
