Shelter Beds Fill Up as Cold Weather Sets In
Howard County's cold weather shelter has been full all week; Baltimore City accepts overflow.
Empty beds are scarce at Grassroots—Howard County's sole emergency shelter—and this week's extreme temperatures have made space even harder to come by. "We get more calls [during cold snaps]," said Brian Yost, crisis services director for Grassroots. "We were full today, both in-house and at the Cold Weather Shelter," said Yost on Wednesday. In the shelter's seasonal Cold Weather Shelter (CWS) program, Howard County churches house the homeless on a rotating basis. The CWS has been operating at capacity all week, according to Yost, who explained: "We're the only shelter in Howard County." Grassroots has seen a lower number of requests overall this season, because temperatures have been warmer than last year, said Yost. But that changed …
