St. Cloud Area Churches Helping to Fill Gap for Overnight Shelter

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- The St. Cloud area churches are coming together to help provide overnight shelter for the homeless during the cold winter months.

Faith in Housing spokeswoman Molly Weyrens says representatives from six to seven churches meet regularly, and another ten churches are kept updated on the latest developments.

She says right now in the St. Cloud metro area we are about 40 beds short in our existing shelters.

Salvation Army can take some of those folks, Place of Hope can take some of those folks, Lincoln Center can take a few, and then we have this group of maybe 20 people who still don't have a place to go.

Weyrens says the churches have launched a new program called Temporary Overnight Sheltering, where churches sign up for a two-week stint to shelter those people from 8:00 p.m. until 8:00 a.m. each night.

Two paid staff stay at the church at a cost of $300 a night.

Atonement Lutheran Church has donated the use of their van to transport people for the Temporary Overnight Shelter Program.

Weyrens says because church properties are exempt from city zoning ordinances they can have an immediate impact.

It's the call of our churches, we're supposed to love God and our neighbors, and this is a way to do that.  Also, hopefully, as churches take this step, that will also inspire folks to say, "Why is this happening?"

She says they are hosting the first group at a church now, and the following two weeks are also ready to go. They are looking for more churches to sign up from January through the end of March. A letter went out to about 100 churches in the area in the past two weeks, so you can ask leaders are your specific church if they have a plan to get involved.

Churches can also donate cash to help pay for the paid staff members.

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Weyrens says the longtime Church of the Week Program where the homeless can go to Place of Hope to get a meal also still exists, and this is a separate similar program.

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