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Tarpon Springs church offers refuge to homeless

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BY MARK SCHANTZ

THE SUNCOAST NEWS

Published: December 13, 2008

TARPON SPRINGS - Starting this week, the homeless and those who cannot afford to heat their homes have been able to find refuge from the night's cold at the First United Methodist Church of Tarpon Springs.
Church volunteers have operated a cold night shelter at the church at 501 E. Tarpon Ave. for many years. After Dec. 1 the church shelters refugees from the cold when the mercury drops below 40 degrees.

Benita Wellman, with help from husband Henry, lead a cadre of volunteers from Methodist congregations in Tarpon Springs and Palm Harbor and St. Ignatius of Antioch Catholic Church, also on East Tarpon Avenue.

People who come to the shelter receive a hot dinner, place to sleep and breakfast to start them off on their journey the next morning.
Shelter volunteers are seeing more of the working homeless, who barely make enough money to survive, and those who cannot afford to heat their homes, Wellman says. They are also aiding the newly divorced and people who lost their jobs and homes.

With various soup kitchens around the city offering hot meals each day of the week, such as the Shepherd Center and The Salvation Army, Tarpon Springs is attracting the homeless from around North Pinellas and West Pasco, according to Wellman.

The need for a year-round shelter at which the homeless can sleep, wash up and have a temporary address to get mail grows greater each year, Wellman says. Now all that is available in Tarpon Springs is the church's cold night shelter, which takes five shifts of volunteers to operate for a single night.

Volunteers are always needed, especially if there are multiple nights of cold weather, Wellman says. The people who turn to the shelter for assistance are appreciative, she says.

To volunteer or for more information about the shelter call the church at: 727-937-3271.

Mark Schantz can be reached at 727-815-1075 or mschantz@suncoastnews.com.

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