If you've lived in Florida for a while, you might not have experienced this stretch of cold weather like we're seeing now.
Cold weather shelters across the greater Tampa Bay region are also keeping their operations going for longer than they can remember.
In eastern Hillsborough County, Pastor Reba Haley looks through a box of donated clothes at the shelter she's overseeing at her church, The Gathering Place, in Valrico.
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She said the demand has never been like this before.
"We've never ever, in the years that I've been working with the county and being partners with them, never had four days straight,” Haley said Friday. “Now we're going on five, six days straight."
At the shelter, people get food, a warm place to sleep, and a place to take a bath and brush their teeth.
Haley said more organizations should open their doors to help keep people warm and give them a place to eat and sleep.
"We need more facilities and more partners with Hillsborough County government to meet the needs of all the people,” Haley said. “All the shelters last night were full. I mean over-capacitated full.”
“And remember, this is an overnight shift, so not only are they providing food, the logistics of cleaning up, and then in a lot of cases, it's not a traditional cleanup. They're doing extensive cleanup and making sure that things are sanitized, picking up the mats, cleaning that those things up.”Felecia Crosby-Rucker, Hillsborough County homeless and community services director
Haley said the shelter could also use donations of warm-weather clothing, along with money to buy food, paper towels, and other essential items.
“We understand [people at the shelters] may have issues, but that's somebody's daughter, somebody's father, somebody's son, and it could be yours,” Haley said. “So how would you want somebody to treat your child, or your brother or your mother, your father?”
She said she’s met a few women that are in Florida alone without friends or family, and she’s using this as an opportunity to get them back to their loved ones across state lines.
“We have a young lady who came here just with some friends, and it didn't work out when she left her city, and we were able to send her back to Tennessee, to her mother, who was looking for her and concerned,” Haley said. “We're sending another young lady today who came here from another state. We're reuniting her to her family, who is in North Carolina, working with Hillsborough County government to make sure that we do that to help those that are less fortunate.”
Felicia Crosby-Rucker is the county's homeless and community services director. She said last year, they activated the cold shelters around 10 times. By the end of the week, it'll already have been activated 15 times this month alone.
And she says big events like this weekend's Gasparilla parade reduce where they can place families in need.
“Tampa is a very vibrant and busy community,” Crosby-Rucker said. “We have a lot of things going on, so there could be things that can impact our availability or accessibility of a faith-based building, as well as a hotel. For instance, Gasparilla is this weekend, so we know that we're going to have challenges in accessing hotel rooms for families with small children.”
She says another big challenge has been the strain on volunteers coming back night after night, while managing their own lives.
RELATED: Cold-weather shelters open across the greater Tampa Bay region
“And remember, this is an overnight shift, so not only are they providing food, the logistics of cleaning up, and then in a lot of cases, it's not a traditional cleanup,” Crosby-Rucker said. “They're doing extensive cleanup and making sure that things are sanitized, picking up the mats, cleaning that those things up.”
Crosby-Rucker says the county is still looking for organizations that can serve as cold weather shelters to house more people if needed.
“We were aggressive in the off season, but we're going to be even more aggressive,” she said.
There are currently five cold weather shelters for Thursday and Friday night:
- Greater New Hope Anointed Ministry
2104 Mud Lake Rd., Plant City, FL 33566 - Church of God of Prophecy Hyde Park
107 S. Oregon Ave., Tampa, FL 33606 - Hyde Park United Methodist Church
500 W. Platt St., Tampa, FL 33606 - Tampa Bay Mission of Hope
212 S. St. Cloud Ave. Building A, Valrico, FL 33594 - Amazing Love Ministries
3304 E. Columbus Dr., Tampa, FL 33605
The shelters are accepting guests from 6-8 p.m., but they have limited capacity.
More information and updates on the shelters can be found on the county’s website.
