"For the last two weeks, it's been a nightmare," says Terry Barton, staying at the rescue mission. |
The weather has many of the area's homeless searching for shelter wherever they can find it.
Knowing this, the Roanoke Valley Rescue Mission has kept its doors open to guest during this cold snap. Normally, adults would leave the building after breakfast and return later in the day.
"Oh, running around the streets with ice, the sidewalks are a mess here in Roanoke. For the last two weeks, it's been a nightmare," said Terry Barton, staying at the rescue mission.
"In our women and children's shelter, for example, in the women's dorm, we had 28 beds, and last night we had roughly 35 people so there were people sleeping on the floor because that shelter area was full," said Lee Clark, with the rescue mission.
In all, the shelter has just under 400 beds, that on most days are full.
Workers say the last few weeks of snow has sent a few more people their way, but more than anything, it's families falling on hard times financially that continue to drive the numbers up.
