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Catholic Charities describes family shelter demand, urges support for emergency-shelter certification bill
Summary
Catholic Charities’ Angel’s Watch family shelter serves up to 120 beds nightly and reported serving 316 people in the last fiscal year; the agency asked delegates to support House Bill 93 (shelter certification) and to consider increased recurring funding from the state.
At the Jan. 24 Southern Maryland Delegation meeting, Amanda Chesney, executive director of housing and homeless services for Catholic Charities, described the agency’s Angel’s Watch family emergency shelter and asked the delegation to support House Bill 93, a state proposal to develop certification standards for emergency shelters.
Chesney said Angel’s Watch, which opened in December 2018 and is located in Charles County, offers up to 120 beds per night and can expand by 10 to 20 beds during hypothermia (extreme-cold) events. She said the shelter has 30 private rooms with en-suite bathrooms and ability for families to stay together; last fiscal year the program served 316 people, including children. Chesney said roughly half the facility’s occupants are children at any given time.
The shelter operates 24/7 with about 26 staff and relies on a mix of funding sources. Chesney said the Maryland Housing Solutions Program provides recurring state support that has been “a real lifeline” but represents a limited portion of the shelter’s budget; she said the agency’s annual budget for the Southern Maryland shelter is about $1,400,000 and that there remains a deficit between operating costs and secured recurring funding.
Chesney asked delegates to support House Bill 93, which would develop a certification program for emergency shelters; she said the state must also fund the services that certification would require. When asked by Senator Jackson, she said archdiocesan support historically accounts for less than 1 percent of the shelter’s annual budget and offered to provide full details to the delegation outside the meeting.
Delegate Patterson and others thanked Catholic Charities for the presentation and encouraged members to contact the agency for additional information. No formal endorsement or vote on HB 93 was recorded at the Jan. 24 meeting; Chesney requested delegates’ support and said she would provide follow-up materials.
Ending: Delegation members invited follow-up information and were asked to consider support for HB 93 and additional state funding for certified emergency-shelter operations.
