Homeless Shelters See Surge During Storm

 Gateway Center spokesman Jason Tatum says in addition to those lining up at the center, it proactively searched for those needing shelter.

“We have spent a considerable amount of effort loading up our vans, having staff go out to places where people experiencing homelessness would normally congregate, so we’ll go out to the bridges and overpasses and have made efforts to encourage those folks to come inside from the cold and rain.”

The Atlanta Mission also saw a large influx of people. Atlanta Mission spokesman Britton Clark says about two hundred more men and dozens more women and children than normal sought refuge at several of the organization’s shelters.

“We’ve provided more showers, more changes of clothes, more meals and more bed nights, and so we’ve had to really tap into our resources that we’ve allocated for the rest of year, which is causing us to be over budget right now.”

Local shelters say Wednesday was their busiest night this week. They expect their numbers to start diminishing as temperatures start warming up.