By Glenn Rolfe

Despite facing a severe shortage of volunteers, five of six Code Purple shelters in Sussex County are committed to opening their doors Wednesday for those seeking overnight refuge from the cold.

“We are ‘go,’ but it’s a rough start. We don’t have hardly any volunteers,” said Nikki Gonzalez, Code Purple Sussex County executive director. “It’s pretty bad.”

Powered by Love INC, Code Purple shelters slated to open this week include St. Luke’s Episcopal Church Parish Hall (men only) and Grace Seaford Church (women only), both in Seaford; Avenue United Methodist Church (men) and Milford Church of the Nazarene (women), both in Milford; and Georgetown Presbyterian Church (men).

The shelter in the Cape region, based at the former Delaware State Police Troop 7, will not open until Dec. 13, Ms. Gonzalez said.

Except for the Avenue United Methodist site, volunteers are at an abnormally low level.

“We’ll make it work. We’ll make it happen. But it (is) very precarious at this point,” said Ms. Gonzalez. “People talk about all the donations, and that’s great. We love donations and need them. I think a little bit of it is fear. I think a little bit of it is, ‘Well, somebody will do it.’ Well, it’s not always the case.”

The agency’s mission is to provide “emergency nighttime shelter for our homeless neighbors during the winter months.”

Shelters will remain open, regardless of temperature, through March 15.

A delay in the contract and the volunteer shortage factored into the decision to delay the Lewes opening until Dec. 13, which coincides with the opening of the Community Resource Center in Rehoboth Beach, Ms. Gonzalez noted.

“And I don’t have one interested person to serve overnight (at the Troop 7 site),” she added.

This marks the eighth winter for Code Purple in Sussex County.

Ideally, each site would have two volunteers, an intake person and an overnight staffer arriving about 9.

“If (I) don’t have an intake, I’ll just ask the overnight to show up early and do intake,” Ms. Gonzalez said.

Overnight volunteers frequently sleep during their service, as Ms. Gonzalez can attest.

“We mostly sleep, if you feel comfortable with sleeping. I feel comfortable, have stayed the (whole) night,” she said. “Now, we’re not naive to think that nothing dangerous could happen. But I think seven winters of safety is a pretty good track record.”

Volunteers are welcome and desperately needed.

“Every year, we have struggled. This year, it seems to be a little lighter than normal, with the doggone COVID and all that scaring people,” Ms. Gonzalez said. “I hear that everybody is having volunteer problems. So it’s not just us.”

Code Purple Sussex County shelter sites

• St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 202 N. North St., Seaford (men); check-in is 8-9 p.m., and checkout is 7 a.m.
•  Grace Seaford Church, 805 Atlanta Road (women); check-in is 8:30-9 p.m., and checkout is 7 a.m.
• Avenue United Methodist Church, 20 N. Church Ave., Milford (men; sex offenders cannot be housed due to the adjoining preschool); check-in is 8:30-9 p.m., and checkout is 7 a.m.
• Milford Church of the Nazarene, 11 N.W. Salevan Place (women with or without children); check-in is 8-9 p.m., and checkout is 7 a.m.
• Georgetown Presbyterian Church, 203 N. Bedford St. (men); check-in is 9-9:30 p.m. (except Saturdays, 10:30-11 p.m.), and checkout is 7 a.m.
• Former DSP Troop 7, 18006 Coastal Highway, Lewes (men); check-in is 8-9 p.m., and checkout is 7 a.m., beginning Dec. 13.

Code Purple’s Sussex County hotline for anyone experiencing homelessness is 302-519-0024. General questions can be directed to 302-956-6006. Code Purple’s website is here.