Emergency Homeless Shelter Closes Doors

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO) — The beds are bare, the lockers are empty and the 1,500 men and women helped at the emergency homeless shelter are gone. “We’re sad,” says Pastor Kerry Breen of Christ Central Ministries. Breen says since the shelter opened last fall, the staff made a difference. “We built relationships with people, we offered classes, we took them to the medical clinic,” says Breen A look at the numbers shows 1,500 people went to the shelter for help, 1,400 of them are now in various programs to help rebuild their lives and over 100 of those individuals are now in permanent housing. “What we have proven is that it fundamentally works,” says City Councilman Cameron Runyan But, there are more than 100 people who couldn’t be helped. They’re categorized in three groups: Sex offenders, mentally ill and severely disabled. “It’s identified that we’ve got some gaps in the response network here for those three groups of folks and so that is something we’re going to have to work on,” says Runyan Overall we’re told the shelter, modeled after the Columbia Cares plan, was a success. It’s closure Monday was not a surprise. We’ve learned council members met weeks ago and decided to start taking steps to close the shelter that, everyone knew from the start, was temporary.