HARRISBURG, Pa. — As the weather gets colder and the holiday season nears, homeless shelters are struggling to keep up with an increasing demand.
Bethesda Mission in Harrisburg is one of those many homeless shelters in need.
Cindy Mallow, the organization’s director of development says the 129 beds across its men’s and women’s shelters are completely filled and have already had to resort to a number of overflow beds.
It’s a demand they say is only going to increase through the colder months.
"I don’t see homelessness improving at all in Harrisburg or in any other cities. The numbers have stayed the same or actually gotten worse," Mallow explained. "As the weather gets colder, the needs become greater, and the urgency [for help] is greatly increased."
With costs skyrocketing due to inflation, shelters say food donations and more helping hands are a necessity.
"The cost of food is sky-high right now, so that becomes really difficult for us if we have to purchase food," said Mallow. "We also can’t afford to pay dozens and dozens of staff members to be at a shelter, so volunteers are huge. We couldn’t do what we do without volunteers. They’re so important."
Bethesda Mission adds they heavily rely on giving during the holiday season. It receives one fourth of its entire donations for the year in the month of December.
"The financial donations will take us into summer when our dry period is," said Mallow. "So this is a really important time of year for us."
They emphasize no matter the size of donation, every little bit counts.
"Any amount makes a difference in a life of a person. It only takes a couple dollars to feed someone a meal, it takes about 75 dollars to have a guest here and give them all of our services but it adds up so any little bit helps."
For more information on how you can help, head to Bethesda Mission's website.