Shelter

Roberto Pagan-Franco didn't have a bank account for decades. His employer paid him in cash or with a check that the Baltimore resident took to a check-cashing store. A few years ago he lost his job after a severe illness and for a time was homeless. Not exactly the type of customer you'd expect a big bank to court. But Pagan-Franco enrolled in a PNC Bank program that targets consumers who otherwise might be shut out of the banking system. And today, the 54-year-old has checking and savings accounts at PNC and is in the process of getting a credit card.

A deteriorated funding arrangement with Baltimore City has left one of the state's oldest social service agencies in dire straits — behind on multiple mortgages and without basic utilities at its men's shelter on East Lanvale Street. Founded in 1869, the Prisoners Aid Association of Maryland Inc. has long been a financial partner of the city's, helping to provide a safety net for the thousands of men and women who are estimated to be homeless in the city each night. But multiple contracts between the city and the association have been terminated in recent years.

A deteriorated funding arrangement with Baltimore City has left one of the state's oldest social service agencies in dire straits — behind on multiple mortgages and without basic utilities at its men's shelter on East Lanvale Street. Founded in 1869, the Prisoners Aid Association of Maryland Inc. has long been a financial partner of the city's, helping to provide a safety net for the thousands of men and women who are estimated to be homeless in the city each night. But multiple contracts between the city and the association have been terminated in recent years.

Baltimore's biggest and neediest animal shelter is on the verge of winning big bucks in a national competition. The Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter, entered in the ASPCA/Rachael Ray $100K Challenge, has been inching past the competition all week, creeping from 12th place, to seventh to fifth, its current spot. The chronically underfunded shelter cares for many of the city's most neglected dogs and cats. When Phoenix was found fatally burned after being doused with lighter fluid and set on fire in 2009, her first stop for treatment was BARCS.

Editor: The Welcome One Emergency Shelter in Belcamp operated by Faith Communities and Civic Agencies United (FCCAU) continues to provide excellent services for Harford County's homeless population. Even faced with reduced funding, our exceptional donor base and dedicated staff have demonstrated relentless diligence and compassion in caring for some of our county's most vulnerable citizens. During 2010, the Welcome One Emergency Shelter became a temporary home to 202 homeless men and women.

Editor: I would like to publicly thank the Bel Air Barnes & Noble bookstore for their role in recovering from hurricane Irene. I am writing this message on my mobile device from inside their store Sunday afternoon. I am using their free Wi-Fi service and one of their electrical outlets. And, for over an hour there were six others near me doing the same thing. Nearly every outlet in the store had somebody plugged in with a notebook, tablet, or a phone. So, thank you Barnes & Noble for supporting the wireless users of Bel Air during the power outage.

To the Editor: I don't understand what people have against the Humane Society, and what they do for the discarded animals that nobody wanted. What would they like folks to do for them other than try to find them good homes? This is in regard to the article in Wednesday Jan. 4, and the Rebels dog park. People from all over come go use this park because it's safe. It's grass, not dirt and mud. It is fenced, and everyone seems to have a great time...owners and dogs. There aren't many places folks can take their dogs that is basically worry free.

Baltimore County officials have found housing for the 55 men to be displaced by the closing next week of a shelter for the homeless in Rosedale. Nehemiah House, the only shelter for homeless men in eastern Baltimore County, will shut down for a month beginning Tuesday, President Bart Pierce wrote this week in a letter to county homeless services coordinator Sue Bull. The shelter, which has been operated by Rock City Church in Towson for nearly 19 years, gave residents a week to make other arrangements.

In light of recent news articles pertaining to homelessness in Harford County, Harford Mall management is partnering with the Welcome One Emergency Shelter in a collection and donation drive to benefit the shelter. The collection drive, called Have a Heart for Harford's Homeless, is taking place until Feb. 29. The goal of the Have a Heart for Harford's Homeless campaign is to collect needed items from the Welcome One wish list, as well as monetary donations. Donations for the shelter can be placed in the display area at Harford Mall's center court. Mall representatives will be on hand throughout the donation period to accept monetary donations to the shelter.  "This is a wonderful opportunity for the mall to provide some much needed assistance to our neighbors in Harford County," Harford Mall General Manager Lauri Altman said in a news release. "It is one small way that we as a community can give back to those who need it. " The kickoff for Harford Mall's campaign was last Friday afternoon in the mall's center court.

The hundreds of thousands of Haitians who now are living in flimsy shelters that they have pieced together from scraps of rubble, plastic and bedsheets may count at least one blessing: It's the dry season. Little precipitation has fallen on the beleaguered Caribbean nation since the earthquake Jan. 12 leveled the capital. But the rains are coming, and with them, mud, misery and water-borne disease. For shelter experts struggling to move as many earthquake survivors as possible into better housing before the start of the rainy season in April, it's a race against time.

Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter ( BARCS) is one of 108 shelters across the country  officially in the running for slots in The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) Rachael Ray $100K Challenge. The top 50 shelters will compete for a $100,000 grand prize and more than $500,000 in prize grants. The top 50 shelters will be chosen through online public voting. After the contestants are selected, the participating shelters will try to save at least 300 more cats and dogs during August, September and October 2012 than they did in the same time period in 2011.

So you want to get a puppy. Great! Now where should you go and what should you do? I would imagine that the owners of the new store in Columbia called "Charm City Puppies" would want you to immediately walk through their doors. Or the folks who manage "Today's Pet" would want you in their store. But are there other, better options? If you were to ask me the question of where you should get your puppy, my answer would be to head to Columbia's animal shelter — the Howard County Animal Control and Adoption Facility (HCAC)

Tucked behind trees off a street in Glen Burnie are about a dozen mostly makeshift tents and a small trailer, forming a small community of homeless people who have been there off and on for several years. Now, Anne Arundel County has ordered the homeless to leave the site by April 3 — the second time in about a year there's been a push to clear the site. County agencies and nonprofit organizations — the Department of Social Services and the nonprofit Arundel House of Hope among them — are trying to connect the homeless people there with shelters and other services.

The Mount Vernon house spent decades as one of several 19th-century millionaires' mansions. But in the last 25 years, the Patrick Allison House has found another mission. Once a church office, it is now a sanctuary for the homeless where a neighboring congregation once served breakfasts. Its role changed to fit a need, and its rooms are now a year-round residence. The spacious bedrooms house homeless men who have given up drugs and alcohol and are making their way into the workforce, often after release from prison or jail.

In light of recent news articles pertaining to homelessness in Harford County, Harford Mall management is partnering with the Welcome One Emergency Shelter in a collection and donation drive to benefit the shelter. The collection drive, called Have a Heart for Harford's Homeless, is taking place until Feb. 29. The goal of the Have a Heart for Harford's Homeless campaign is to collect needed items from the Welcome One wish list, as well as monetary donations. Donations for the shelter can be placed in the display area at Harford Mall's center court. Mall representatives will be on hand throughout the donation period to accept monetary donations to the shelter.  "This is a wonderful opportunity for the mall to provide some much needed assistance to our neighbors in Harford County," Harford Mall General Manager Lauri Altman said in a news release. "It is one small way that we as a community can give back to those who need it. " The kickoff for Harford Mall's campaign was last Friday afternoon in the mall's center court.

Editor: In light of the recent tragic death of two of our homeless members in Aberdeen, Giving Hope Ministries would like to take this time to thank you for volunteering your time, donations and the warm place in your heart for our homeless families. We cannot express the gratitude we feel for your care, concern and dedication that you have shown in support of our efforts to feed the homeless and to aid in their welfare and well being during these cold winter months and throughout the year.

The harvest is on, and the nights are getting colder. So some Marylanders have begun to wonder when the stink bugs will show up. The experts say it won't be long. But they disagree on whether there will be fewer of them this time around, or more. "I personally have more than last year. Others have told me they have less," said Mike Raupp, a University of Maryland entomologist. "But at this stage of the game it's like predicting the track of a hurricane. I will have a better answer in a few weeks.

The Family Crisis Center of Baltimore County will receive $107,000 in federal funding to continue programs that provide housing and counseling for victims of domestic violence. The grant, announced Wednesday, will assist the nonprofit center, which is struggling with a funding shortfall and decrease in donations this year. "Quite simply, this award means we survive," said Doug Murphy, center director. "We can continue to provide services that are critical to women and families.

Baltimore officials have spent nearly $65,000 over the past six months bringing homeless people to overflow shelters, according to city spending documents. The city opened a new $8 million shelter last year that offered private showers, laundry facilities, computers -- and provided 100 fewer beds . That's a problem because Baltimore's homeless population has grown exponentially in recent years.  Outreach workers counted 4,100 homeless people on a January night last year, but noted 3,400 two years earlier.

Baltimore officials have carved out space for 75 additional people to sleep in the city's homeless shelter this winter, officials said Wednesday. The news of the additional sleeping space came as the city's spending board approved nearly $160,000 for contracts to run the city shelter and ferry the homeless to overflow facilities. The newly constructed $8 million shelter offers private showers, laundry facilities and computer work stations, but it has 100 fewer emergency beds than the facility that preceded it. Homeless advocates had threatened to sue the city because the shelter offers fewer beds for women than for men. There are 175 beds in the men's dormitory and 75 for women.