Nonprofit that feeds and cares for homeless people now running emergency shelter in Macomb County
WARREN, Mich. (FOX 2) - Taco was living in a tent behind Taco Bell one year ago when he sought some relief from the cold.
"I was homeless and came into the shelter," he said.
Little did he know, it would be a life-altering decision for the better, getting him out of the frigid temperatures and into work. He now volunteers with the group that helped house him: Motor City Mitten Mission.
The mission will be running one of Macomb County's emergency winter shelters this year, operating out of the Trinity Lutheran Church in Warren.
The nonprofit already performed daily outreach for those struggling with homelessness, meeting them on the streets and connecting them to both emergency short-term fixes and long term solutions to whatever issues they may have.
But on Nov. 1, they expanded their services to include a low-barrier shelter capable of sleeping more than a hundred people a night.
"We've got lots of people living in their cars right now," said Gail Marlow. "We're seeing more and more people on the street with nowhere to go and last year we serviced 558 people in the shelter, so without us, we're going to have all those people out on the street again."
Marlow is the executive director of Motor City Mitten Mission. She's predicting a greater need of their services this year. Their guests range in age from 18 to 60 and older. Last year, it took months before they got settled on a permanent location.
But this year they'll be operating out of the church the entire winter.
"I mean, we have 120 beds that we're allotting for. I don't think it's going to take a lot of time for those beds to fill up," Marlow said.
"The basic goal of this entire venture is to make sure that some folks who might be in danger of freezing will not freeze this year," said Pastor Ryan Reese, whose church will be hosting the shelter. All who are homeless or hungry are welcome.
"Living on the streets for any length of time is a huge amount of stress and trauma to a person, so they are always undergoing a lot of personal experiences that make life more difficult," said Reese.
And for anyone that does come to the shelter, they'll have the chance to get connected with other housing resources. Because many homeless people also have mental health problems or struggle with drug addictions, there will also be services to help with those needs as well.
"Many of the people that we are assisting are looking for ways to move out of this situation," said Reese.
Macomb's new emergency shelter prepares for busy season this winter
The group running the shelter is made up with volunteers who used to be homeless themselves. They talked to FOX 2 about their experiences and why the shelter is badly needed ahead of the winter.
That includes people like Joseph Burks, who was formally homeless. Now he volunteers with Marlow. He had left his apartment due to domestic problems. Now he's back in an apartment and working for the mission.
"Gail actually found me in a parking lot in my car, invited me in," said Joseph Burks, a lead support specialist.
"Coming through this program, they do help you a lot more. They have community housing come through and they help you to find some housing. I mean - all in all, it's up to you to follow and do what you need - but I was successful," said Burks. "It didn't take me long, about eight months to get through the program."
They're also in need of donations and resources. To find out more information about how to help you can visit motorcitymittenmission.org.