TRURO – More churches need to come forward to help the homeless, says a Truro pastor.
Cory Somers, lead pastor at Immanuel Baptist Church and one of the people assisting the Out of the Cold temporary winter homeless shelter program, told the Truro Daily News that he has asked many local churches to allow their facilities to be used for the homeless project. The response hasn’t been what he’d hoped for.
“A few churches said they’d send volunteers but were not able to open their doors to this program for their own good reasons,” said Somers.
In the meantime, said Somers, more people are making use of the temporary shelters that are set up at Immanuel Baptist and First United churches from Wednesday to Saturday.
“Last week when it was really cold we had six people in a given night (at Immanuel). Definitely it was more” than other nights, said Somers. “We have at least two every night. I’m not content offering the program only four (nights) a week when we should have it seven (nights) a week.”
Somers said even the local police have contacted the church looking for help.
“The police called a couple of Sunday nights looking for help” but there are no shelters set up on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays, said Somers.
“It’s a sad scenario because there’s definitely a need. What are (people) going to do on those nights?”
He said it’s not too late for churches or others to offer help. In the meantime, those who are offering the service will continue to do what they can until a permanent building or setup becomes available.
“We need a building … but we’ll help as long as we can,” Somers said.
Come on people of Truro; it is time for a change!! Please write, email, or call your local municipal representative to get the ball rolling on a permanent shelter. I know there are tons of us out there that support this so let's unite and show our support by getting the government involved in this! One person without adequate shelter in our community is too many. Enough excuses, it is time to make a shelter a reality in our town.