Not Enough Beds for Charlotte's Homeless

The Observer recently ran this article on the emergency bed shortage in Charlotte:

The temperature dropped as the sun sank Sunday, and dozens of men hunched in the cold outside Charlotte's Emergency Winter Shelter, waiting for the door to open at 6 p.m.

Winter is the bleakest season for Charlotte's homeless people. The cold may have caught up with one man earlier Sunday.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officers found the body in a drugstore parking lot off Freedom Drive a little after 7, just before the morning cold dipped to its low of 24 degrees. Officers were familiar with the man, who they said was possibly homeless. A medical examiner, who could not be reached Sunday, will determine the cause of death.

Charlotte's low Sunday night was expected to plunge to 13 degrees. That would make it the coldest night so far this winter.

The deaths by exposure of three homeless men in 1981 prompted Charlotte to open the emergency shelter, which now operates in a former warehouse on Statesville Avenue.

But while social workers estimate that 5,000 to 8,000 people are homeless in Mecklenburg County on any given night, fewer than 2,000 shelter beds exist.

The men waiting outside Sunday told stories of lost jobs, old injuries, dead wives and burned apartments. Most didn't want to be quoted by their full names.

Surviving the streets in winter, they said, is a matter of constant motion to stay warm, seeking warm niches where they can and trying not to arouse attention.

"We go down to the transit (center) or walk up and down" the streets, said a 42-year-old chef named Craig. "Because they don't want us here before 4 p.m."

Craig wore a toboggan under a sweatshirt hood. His body bulged under two jackets and a heavy wool shirt.

Four p.m. is when the shelter opens its gates, allowing men to line up outside the building. They complain that they were forced to stand in rain and snow Saturday. They point out the suitcases, duffel bags and garbage bags, stuffed with belongings, that they keep stashed behind a storage bin.

"That's all we have in our life," said Bobby B, 49 and an Army vet, angrily poking a frozen pair of jeans with the metal cane he carries for a leg injury.

Director John White says staffing dictates when the doors must open and close -- the shelter is authorized to house 200 men a night, and often overflows to a nearby church. On Saturday night, in the snow, the door opened about 5:45 p.m., he said. Men are sometimes allowed to stay past the 6 a.m. closing if snow and ice are on the ground, he said.

The Salvation Army's shelter for women and children housed 205 people Saturday night, including 60 families, but allows them to stay during the day. An overflow shelter held another 50.

Winter "is terrible for women and children," said Deronda Metz, the Army's Charlotte director of social services. "They've been instructed not to turn anybody away."

The number of women in need continues to rise, regardless of the weather, she said.

Charlotte Rescue Mission operates the Emergency Winter Shelter and provides most of their food.