Bucks County homeless advocates say more seek shelter this winter. Can they meet the need?

It's dangerous, and has proven deadly, living and sleeping in the woods. The homeless in Bucks County do it anyway.

Early Wednesday morning, the risk caught up with Marie Holly Waters. Her lifeless body was found around dawn in a tent in a wooded area along Route 13 in Bristol Township, just a few miles from the Bucks County Homeless Shelter.

She is the fifth person in Bucks County in the past 12 months to die while living outdoors, and she did so after two weeks of flooding rain, followed by frigid, snowy conditions.

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Waters had just been counted Tuesday night in Bucks County's annual Point in Time count of those who are homeless and living outside, said Karen Mineo, the managing consultant for the Advocates for the Homeless and Those in Need (AHTN).

The AHTN group has been trying for the past 15 years to provide the homeless in Lower Bucks County with meals every night and shelter on the coldest nights of the year when conditions warrant the county declaring a Code Blue, opening emergency community shelters that provide overnight indoor accomodations.

Bucks County's Housing Link provides services to people experiencing homelessness or housing instability, but space at the Bucks County Emergency Shelter in Fairless Hills is at a premium and families with children are the priority.

Mineo said that the AHTN group had been sheltering more and more adults in the past few months on Code Blue nights.

"Our numbers are higher than usual," she said, pointing out that between 53 and 58 people have been sheltered per night over the past 11 consecutive days when the Code Blue has been in effect, and on a total of 27 nights this winter. All told, they've helped 100 different individuals.

"The numbers are way higher than they've ever been," she said.

Nicole Buckley Mormello, executive director of the Coalition to Shelter and Support the Homeless, said that this month the shelter at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Buckingham housed between 26 and 30 people every night, double the number that needed sheltering last year.

The county calls a Code Blue when the temperature hits 20 degrees two nights in a row, but the AHTN lets the homeless know that it will also call a Code Blue when the temperature or wind chill hits 26 degrees. And sometimes they will call one if the weather is really rainy for a few days and the ground is very wet.

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In December, Shir Ami in Newtown Township hosted the overnight shelter. This month, the Woodside Presbyterian Church in Lower Makefield is doing so. In February, the Calvary Baptist Church in Bristol will host it; and the Morrisville Presbyterian Church will take a turn in March. Other houses of worship host the nightly meals.

In Central Bucks the Coalition to Shelter and Support the Homeless and in Upper Bucks the Advocates for the Homeless in Upper Bucks offer similar services at area houses of worship. All three nonprofit, volunteer agencies are seeing a rise in the number of homeless people who need their services.

Since federal COVID relief money that helped those struggling to pay rent ended, the problem has grown.

"It's because the rent burden is coming home to roost, putting folks out on the street," said Pastor David Heckler who directs the AHUB program in Upper Bucks. One recent day he received 14 calls from people who didn't know where to go on a cold night. And some have pets they don't want to leave outside to go into a shelter.

"They'll risk freezing to death rather than come and not bring their pet inside," he said. The pet may be the only emotional attachment they have.

The National Low-income Housing Coalition points out that in Pennsylvania, you need to make between $19 and $26 an hour to afford a two-bedroom apartment because of the shortage of affordable units.

While the three advocate organizations receive grant money from the county to help buy supplies to help with sheltering the homeless on Code Blue nights, the amount of aid could change as the county's share of COVID relief funds dwindles, Mineo said.

Volunteers needed for Bucks County Code Blue shelters

Before they can activate a Code Blue sheltering night the three groups need enough volunteers to set up and man the shelters and transport the homeless.

AHTN needs to have 18 volunteers in place. Some drive or accompany the homeless to the designated shelter, others set up the cots or stay with the homeless all night. If they don't have the 18 volunteers they need to do the job safely, they can't open the shelter, Mineo said.

Even when the weather is warmer, AHTN still helps the homeless get to shared meals provided at the houses of worship and other aid locations each night. It picks them up at the designated bus stops named on its website.

"They know to go to these stops," Mineo said. And if a shared meal can't be provided, like during the COVID crisis, the group takes take ready-made meals to the homeless at the bus stop locations.

Mineo said she didn't know why Waters didn't go to the Code Blue shelter. "The outreach people talked to her," she said. "Don't know why she didn't come in."

County spokesman James O'Malley said anyone who is experiencing homelessness or a housing crisis should call the county's Housing Link at 1-800-810-4434. And the county HUB website is another good resource to help people navigate where to get help before a housing issue becomes a crisis. It coordinates all the services that may help a person save enough money to afford their rent or mortgage and not lose their home.

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Bucks County seeing more homeless, in need of shelter