Harford County, the metropolitan region's only jurisdiction without a permanent homeless shelter, is faced with reduced services for the coming winter after budget cuts eliminated one agency's funds for providing motel rooms for clients with mental illness.
Michael J. Drummond, executive director of Core Service Agency, a nonprofit organization that oversees mental health services for Harford County, said the group provided about 1,400 motel nights last year for the homeless with mental disorders, but will not be able to provide any in the coming year.
Drummond said the cut will have a "tangible effect" on both the homeless in the county and the community because the lack of motel nights will leave vulnerable people on the street.
Mary Lee Bradyhouse, transitional services coordinator for the county's Department of Community Services, said the news is a blow for Harford's homeless.
"I think we're looking at a very difficult winter season next year," Bradyhouse said. "It's going to mean the loss of bed nights for homeless folks."
Churches offer aid
Without a county shelter, caring for Harford's estimated 50 homeless men, women and children has fallen largely to volunteer efforts. Since 1999, a group of churches has operated a rotating homeless shelter during winter months.
Dianna Tilton, president of Faith Communities and Civic Agencies United, a group formed in the 1990s to find a location for a permanent facility, said the group is still working with a real estate agent to find locations for a shelter. Strong community opposition led the group to drop plans this year for a site on Philadelphia Road in the Joppa area.
Tilton said the group has scaled down its original 48-bed transitional and emergency shelter facility plan. The group now plans to open an 18-bed emergency shelter and two smaller facilities to house employed men who need transitional housing until they can afford their own apartments.
Permanent shelters
Though the locations have not been determined, Tilton said the list is down to a handful. The transitional shelters need to open this fall, or the group will lose promised state and federal grant funding, she said.
But the group will feel the loss of motel nights provided by Core Service Agency, Tilton said. "We have some motel money, but not a lot," she said, adding that some churches in the shelter rotation are too small to accommodate more shelter seekers.
