Charities' aim: Beat winter

When winter roars through the streets of upstate New York, outreach agencies face an extra challenge: keeping up with the seasonal necessity of warmth in clothing, housing and meals.

TROY

"Homeless people have a lot of needs, as do families living on the margins. It's really tough out there," said Sister Linda O'Rourke, director of the Roarke Center in Troy.

In the winter, those needs often begin with staying warm with coats, hats, gloves, socks, boots and blankets.

One of the Roarke Center's priorities is to "get as many people off the streets as we can and figure out how they can get enough support to rent a room or small apartment, or share one," Sister Linda said.

In the winter, a lot of effort is made by the Roarke Center staff to work with social services in moving homeless clients into housing to keep them out of the freezing weather.

The many costs associated with wintertime, Sister Linda said, increase the number of evictions in the city, and, as a result, the number of referrals the Center makes to state social service departments and other charities.

Last week, "we were overwhelmed with the number of evictions," she continued. "People haven't paid their rent because they were spending money on school things and other things. People just don't have an income big enough; so, if they pay a gas and light bill, they can't pay the rent."

ILION

Warmth is also a major issue for the clients of Community Maternity Services in Ilion, according to program director Denise Hodges.

During the winter, she refers many clients to the Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP) and elsewhere to assist them with paying heating bills.

"The hardest thing for our clients," she explained, "is to pay their heat bills during the winter, followed by electric bills, which are a little higher in the winter. If their heat and light is shut off, they can be seen as neglectful parents. It increases homelessness and the risk of their children being removed."

CHATHAM

Wintertime is busy for outreach programs at St. James Church in Chatham, said program coordinator Denise Barry.

The colder months bring the parish's adopt-a-family program, a holiday food drive, "used books for children" programs and "school re-supply week" to replenish educational needs depleted during the fall semester.

Winter also sees an increase in the number of people who provide clothing to the outreach offices and an increase in the use of the furniture program.

The needs of the community, however, "do not vary by season, and we work throughout the course of the year to attempt to satisfy those needs," she said.

ALBANY

The best thing Catholics can do for outreach agencies in the winter months, according to Sister Mary Coons, RSM, outreach coordinator at Blessed Sacrament parish in Albany, is to take care of the basic need of stocking food-pantry shelves.

The number of families who come for help goes up as the mercury falls, she said.

"Our parish food pantry is a very large operation -- 225 families a month," she explained. "We have noticed an increase in those numbers, even in the first couple months in the fall. It's picking up considerably. Our greatest challenge is keeping food on the shelves."

Things also pick up in the winter because of the parish giving tree, and a major Christmas project to provide assistance and presents for families with children, she said.

During the Christmas season, she noted, "we have the good fortune of the food drives that various organizations will have. [Later on in the winter,] the donations are less."

(12/7/06) [[In-content Ad]]