DETROIT – With freezing temperatures on the way Father Tim McCabe with the Pope Francis Center says he has found a solution to helping the homeless though a pandemic.
The solution includes the lower level of the TCF Center.
“The space will allow us to continue to serve two meals a day. We continue to have medical clinics and medical care available to the folks that are experiencing homelessness,” said McCabe.
Unlike the previous location on St. Antoine where tents had to be used for relocating people outside because of COVID, starting Nov. 16 through April 1 the most vulnerable people in the city will now have a place to go.
But if the numbers continue to grow more adjustments will have to be made.
“We’ll be able to bring in 200 at a time, social distance them. But if we continue to see the numbers that we’re seeing, we’ll have to rotate them through,” McCabe added.
Of course it’s the mission of the church to take care of the less fortunate, especially considering the fact that a lot of them were nervous during the beginning of COVID-19.
“We really worry about folks when it gets cold. The homeless are really subjected off into frostbite and hypothermia. We’ve lost a number of our guests every winter from freezing to death. I promised them that we wouldn’t leave and that we would stay here and we would continue to walk with them no matter what happened and so far, we’ve been able to do that here,” said McCabe.
Now even though this is all being done in the name of charity, it’s not free and will cost around $500,000.
The city was able to donate $300,000 which leaves only $200,000 that is still needed.
Anyone interested in donating can click here.
The number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in Michigan has risen to 216,804 as of Monday, including 7,640 deaths, state officials report.
Monday’s update represents 9,010 new cases and 62 additional deaths over the last two days. On Saturday, the state reported 207,794 total cases and 7,578 deaths.