Code Blue and the Good You Do
By Albert B Kelly
It has been hard lately not to give a passing thought to
winter as autumn settles in with temps down in the 40’s and even some upper
30’s overnight. It is a beautiful time of year as the leaves change and the
crisp chill in the air reminds us that winter is near and that soon enough,
we’ll hunker down in the warmth of our homes to enjoy the holidays, put the
finishing touches on another year, and wait out the long shadows until spring
comes our way again.
But if you’re one of the dozens of homeless in our area,
you’re not thinking about the leaves or the holidays or the beauty of autumn.
If you’ve heard of climate change or El Niño, you’re hoping it’s real and that
it might lead to milder temps. Absent that, you’re just wondering how you’re
going to survive from day to day and maybe make it through another winter.
That’s why Code Blue matters. Some years we catch a break
and the numbers of Code Blue nights are few because temps stay relatively mild
which basically means anything above freezing. Other years, we get absolutely
hammered as we did last year with 45 nights of cold and assorted weather that
necessitated calling a Code Blue for the county’s homeless.
However worn out we volunteers might feel over the course of
a winter, we remember when it all started back in the brutally cold December of
2013. A Bridgeton man named Joseph Hanshaw was attempting to either get a coat
out of the donation box behind the Salvation Army building or to climb into the
box itself to try and stay warm. Either way, he got stuck and died of exposure.
Out of that tragedy Bridgeton City government, the
faith-based community, and citizen-volunteers mobilized and started Code Blue
utilizing a handful of churches willing to open to their doors as warming
centers on colder nights to allow the homeless to find a little shelter from
the storm. It has grown much since then and your donations make this success possible.
A Code Blue is called when temperatures are expected to be 32
degrees with precipitation or 25 degrees without precipitation overnight. When Code
Blue happens, participating churches in Bridgeton, Millville, or Vineland make
space available for an overnight warming center for the homeless. Along with temporary
shelter, people can also get a hot meal.
So you know how much your donations matter, consider that
last season, which had 45 Code Blue nights, 4,300 hot meals were distributed.
Each Code Blue night in Bridgeton, Millville, and Vineland, requires a minimum
42 volunteers covering three shifts of 3-5 hours each. The program has 300-plus
approved volunteers and last season, they collectively gave 5,670 hours of help.
Code Blue costs $500 a night to operate- covering reimbursement to churches as
well as equipment and related needs.
Out of the Code Blue initiative grew the nonprofit
organization M25. In addition to coordinating and overseeing Code Blue each
season, M25 is also focused on ending homelessness through a “Housing First” approach.
The idea being that to help transition someone out of chronic homelessness,
which often has long term joblessness, substance abuse, mental health issues,
or similar issues as contributing or causal factors; the first step is providing
a stable place to live.
This matters because so many programs condition their help
on a homeless person being clean and sober, having a job, a permanent address,
or some combination of these. To my mind, such conditional help is not meant to
benefit the homeless so much as to hedge against the possibility that homelessness
is a failure of character. When I get to thinking that way, I try and remember
guys like Johnny Bobbitt.
But all of that is to say that winter is coming and it will
hold its share of cold and frigid nights and perhaps more than a few inches of
sleet and snow. When it comes, we’ll be calling Code Blue so that those among
us who are homeless or hungry or broken down by life will have a place to go-
shelter from the storm.
If you can and if you would, please consider helping us
either by volunteering or making a monetary donation to help support these
efforts. You can reach M25 by visiting www.m25initiative.org
or by calling 1-844-625-4673. Whatever you can do is greatly appreciated and
may just save a life.