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| Daryl Platt makes his cot for the night |
Instead of in a tent huddled under three blankets, Daryl Platt woke up in the predawn hours inside a warm Lower Makefield church. Outside the temperature was 10 degrees.
The same 13-passenger bus that brings him and other Lower Bucks homeless people to a temporary shelter on below-freezing nights, will drop them off before sunrise the next day at designated bus stops, regardless of the weather.
The process repeated Thursday morning for many of the area’s homeless, left on their own to find protection from the snow and body-numbing cold weather that has latched onto the region until the shelters reopen at 9 p.m.
There’s no snow day for the homeless.
Bucks County emergency and health officials are evaluating whether it would extend its current Code Blue emergency past Sunday, which signals county volunteer groups to activate their temporary homeless shelters, according to county spokesman Chris Edwards.
The number of homeless people in Bucks County is fluid, according to activists. Last January, Bucks County reported 49 unsheltered homeless — those living in cars, tents or otherwise outside — up from 30 in 2016, according to the federal government, which conducts a point-in-time homeless count each January.
There were 37 homeless people at the Woodside Presbyterian Church on Edgewood Road on Wednesday night including two first-time visitors, down slightly from the 43, including Pratt, on Tuesday, according to Penny Martin, executive director of Advocates for the Homeless and Those in Need, which serves the Lower Bucks community. But shelter numbers vary. Sometimes the homeless can scrap up money to share a hotel room or family or a friend will take them in for the night, Martin said.
New Year’s Eve there were 39 overnight guests and 41 on New Year’s Day, Martin said. Last year, the number hit 56, which Martin expects to exceed this year.
“I think it will raise into the 50s by the end of the month,” she said.
AHTN runs the temporary Code Blue shelter program for Lower Bucks; there are other programs in Central and Upper Bucks County serving homeless populations there. The groups operate overnight shelters in churches and other institutions when temperatures fall below 26 degrees between December and March.
The temporary shelters like AHTN generally are open at 9 p.m. and close before 7 a.m. so the churches and other institutions that donate the space can operate during regular business hours. Most nights shelter volunteers find people waiting outside an hour or more beforehand, Martin said. She added the shelter has donated coats and winter accessories and hand-warmers that are passed out to guests who need them.
The Quakertown Masonic Lodge remained open all day New Year’s Eve and Jan. 1 because volunteers knew that with the holidays there was likely no other businesses open where the homeless could find shelter during the day, said David Heckler, the pastor of St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Haycock. Heckler also coordinates the Upper Bucks Code Blue initiative. The last two nights the Quakertown shelter has hosted about 10 homeless guests, a higher number than usual this time of year, Heckler said.
During Thursday’s snow, the Quakertown shelter had to close during the day because it didn’t have enough volunteers to operate, Heckler said. He added that volunteers are rallying to keep the shelter open all day Sunday, when more bitter cold is expected to move through the area.
A popular daytime spot for the Upper Bucks homeless is the Quakertown branch of the Bucks County Free Library, Heckler said. About a dozen homeless people have taken refuge during the below-freezing snap, according to a library employee. But that option wasn’t available Thursday, since the county libraries were closed because of the bad weather.
Newly homeless people are the ones who worry Martin the most. Those who have been homeless for a long time know places they can go to stay warm during the daytime, she said.
The ones who aren’t at work, look for post offices where front doors are left open for P.O. box users, convenience stores, fast-food restaurants, she said. A local home improvement store, which opens at 6 a.m., will let homeless stay there, even provide them hot coffee, if they are clean and behave, Martin said.
Organizations like the Lower Bucks YMCA in Bristol Township allow the homeless to shower during certain hours, but the people have to get rides or walk there, which can be difficult for those without cars, Martin said.
Kim Appenzeller is 61. She has been living out of her 1999 Honda for almost 12 years. But when the weather gets this cold, she comes inside at night to the AHTN shelters.
She spends her days at a local fast food restaurant where she once worked, she said. As long as she buys coffee, the employees leave her alone. She works part-time when she can. She hasn’t worked since early December, but said she is looking for a job.
Bill is 63. He has been living out of his car for eight years, the last two in Bucks County. He gets $1,000 a month in disability payments, but it’s not enough for rent after paying his storage fees and gas and maintenance for the car, he said.
During the day he spends time a fast food restaurant where he’ll get a big pancake breakfast or two egg white sandwiches, his main meal until he arrives at the Code Blue shelter. Sometimes during the day he’ll visit family in Bucks County or he goes to a local bookstore where he is reading a biography on the late actor James Stewart.
He also sleeps in his car during the day, or tries to. He complained that people will slam doors, honk horns and otherwise disturb him when he is parked in shopping centers.
Tarik Frazier described himself as a struggling aspiring musician. He has been homeless before, but his name is on the waiting list for federal subsidized housing, he said.
During the day he will go to anywhere that is warm and has WiFi. He admitted to panhandling sometimes so he can get enough money for a motel room.
But there are people far worse off than him, he said. He sees a guy walking around Bristol Township that won’t come to the shelter. He gave that guy one of his winter hats and hand warmers that homeless advocates pass around at the shelter, he said.
“I was like Jesus,” he said. “I’m not perfect. I’m just human. I keep God with me and he keeps me going.”
Keep going is also the mantra that Platt follows since he became homeless most recently in April.
“I’m getting by,” he said.
Platt had plans to walk to a drug store near his tent city to ask about a job application during the day Wednesday, he said. He hoped someone could give him a ride to a nearby retail store selling propane heaters for $80.
Mostly, though, Platt said that he expected to spend the day buried under his three blankets.
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