Last Updated: Jan. 7, 3:58 p.m.
The Sheltering Tree will open the Flagler County cold-weather shelter for its longest-ever stretch as an extended clod wave descends on Flagler County starting tonight and lasting for much of next week.
The shelter will open Friday and Saturday nights. It will be closed Sunday night. It will reopen Monday night and the next tree nights, through Thursday, January 9, as temperatures are expected to fall below 40 each of those nights. A plan to open on Jan. 10 as well was scrapped since the temperature is not expected to fall that low anymore.
The shelter will open at its usual location at the Rock Transformation Center, previously known as Church on the Rock, 2200 N State St, Bunnell, at 5:30 p.m. It will close the following day at 8 a.m. Guests, who may be homeless or who may simply need a heated place, as some homes in the county lack heat, will receive a hot dinner and a hot breakfast, free of charge.
The shelter is run entirely by a corps of Sheltering Tree volunteers, who operate in teams. The nearly week-long stretch of sheltering will pose a challenge to the Sheltering Tree’s organizers, who each night bring together a series of teams, each assigned a task–setting-up the shelter, cooking the evening and morning meals, providing overnight supervision, running the laundry, and so on.
Overnight supervision is provided, as is transportation, if needed. Though the shelter is hosted by Church on the Rock, the shelter operation itself is non-denominational, and open to people of all creeds, faiths or no faith. The Sheltering Tree is under the umbrella of the Flagler County Family Assistance Center, a non-profit established in 2011 to provide cold-weather sheltering during cold nights in Flagler County.
There are no permanent shelters for the homeless in the county. When the Volusia-Flagler Commission on Homelessness and Housing conducted its survey last year–a literal person-by-person count of the homeless by volunteers who fan out across the two counties in places known to be frequented by the homeless–it found a total of 65 people, a suspiciously low number.
Flagler County, Palm Coast and Bunnell jointly contribute up to $25,000 a year–or $1,000 per night–to defray the costs of the shelter, which include food, rent, and incidental supplies provided to those in need. The county also provides free transportation to those who need it.
The county will provide bus transportation along two routes, along this schedule:
- Dollar General at Publix Town Center, 3:30 p.m.
- Near the McDonald’s at Old Kings Road South and State Road 100, 4 p.m.
- Dollar Tree by Carrabba’s and Walmart, 4:30 p.m.
- Palm Coast Main Branch Library, 4:45 p.m.
- Dollar General at County Road 305 and Canal Avenue in Daytona North, 4 p.m.
- Bunnell Free Clinic, 4:30 p.m.
- First United Methodist Church in Bunnell, 4:30 p.m.
Call 386-437-3258, extension 105 for information about transportation to the shelter, or for information about the shelter itself.
Note: this article is a reposted, updated version of an article we repost whenever the shelter is scheduled to open, so you will see comments below dating back to previous openings.
pete says
Please 65 come on
MeToo says
There’s more than that in one city in Volusia. Don’t let the same people count votes!
Endless dark money says
So they don’t arrest them yet or is that coming after they stay at shelter for one night? Only gop criminalize homeless so if you are homeless don’t trust an rcon they do not want to help you. Your more profitable to them in jail.
rich L Santomassino says
What?
TR says
Endless dark money: I’m with rich L Santomassino, What the hell are you saying????
Endless dark money says
Across the US republican controlled states are making homelessness a crime. Sleeping on public property is now a crime. So they are imprisioned since they have no money. GoP also propsed a bill to withhold funds intended to go to help homeless people. So just normal republican crimes against humanity nothing too new here.
Denali says
You are leaving out the most important part: The confinement facilities the homeless folks end up in are privately run facilities owned by, guess who? You would be correct if you said big time GOP supporters.
TR says
This commenter is a copy of the me the original TR who posts on here. Been here for years and would appreciate it if you would change your username. Surprised FL allows more than one person to use the same user name.
Marianne says
Gov DeSantis passed the bill Oct 1st making homelessness a crime in any public space. They will be given trespass notification first and then arrested.
minority other The says
You are correct. Joe Mullins gave his friend the fake Pastor 6k month to run Church on the Rock before he left office.
Nobody knows what money is spent on the visitors. Another scam operator.
Greed over people says
Institutional slaves are the new labor force right?
Everything is for money. If you didn’t want “illegals” you would require i9s and punish companies that don’t utilize. Instead you want to track people down and send them to camps? Im betting that will go well…..
Political gambling enters the chat….
Hey what’s the over under migrant deaths during deportation?
I got 100$ betting price of fruits and vegetables is about to skyrocket with “conservative “ policies..
takers?
Halford says
Homeless people are not penny less
Most receive government assistance including SSI of approximately 950 per month, food stamps, and medicaid
Yes I understand that is not enough to live on, so don’t jump all over me. There was a homeless man that used to sleep at the library on Palm Coast Parkway when my husband would go to work in the morning they had a conversation the homeless man made more money per month than my husband did working for the county.
Please stop making this about politics as this is a humanitarian issue no matter who’s in charge.
Sally says
What ever happen to care for the needy? That went down the tubes when you vote for a Cult Republican.
Tired of it says
Oh, the fallacy of your statement. In order to have any type of aid you have to have an actual address. There is no way you can simply go somewhere and get a check, in any event in order to cash a check you have to have an account somewhere. Secondly, where do you get the $950 figure? What is your factual source for that number? If you stopped to actually think about your statement you would realize how baseless it is. Where in Palm Coast would you go to get SSI, food stamps or any other type of aid? If you have no transportation how would you get to a place to even apply for aid?
Tired of it says
How exactly is he a fake pastor? Do you know his qualifications as a pastor? The cold weather shelter pays to use the facility. How do you know that Mullins gave him that money? Did you see a documentt to that effect or are you just spreading misinformation? How do you know what the church spends miney on? Have you seen their books?
Take a good look says
Why are most of these comments regarding this article on here originally posted from a year ago or longer???? I remember reading these same ones way back when this article was originally posted. Same info and news and stats as last year. Just curious.
FlaglerLive says
We have added an explanatory note at the foot of the article. Thank you for pointing it out.
Atwp says
I am anti Republican. If a panhandler or homeless person get more money than a worker working full time, then yes I agree with the Republicans something should be done. Have heard of people making thousands of dollars panhandling and pay on taxes. Millions of people of all ethnic groups work and pay taxes, what about the panhandlers and homeless people getting money from drivers at many intersections? The above statement should be panhandlers pay no taxes instead of pay on taxes.
Nancy N. says
$950 is actually a pretty good estimation of the current maximum number a person can receive in SSI benefits (the exact current number is slightly more than that and is available on the social security website). And it absolutely IS possible to receive SSI and other benefits like SNAP while homeless. There’s several ways that it can be done, and most places that offer services to the homeless include assisting them with those processes as part of what they do. The application process is mostly online and via phone these days (and many homeless people have phones). Benefits are also delivered digitally these days – so no checks to cash. For instance, they can be auto-deposited into bank accounts or onto special debit cards.
Nancy N says
A mentally healthy person with the money of someone working a full time job doesn’t end up living on the street. You’re talking about people with serious disabilities in that case and focusing on whether someone sleeping on the street is paying taxes or not is really petty.
Skibum says
People like you love to complain about all of the homeless sleeping on park benches, squatting on sidewalks outside of businesses, in parks, in the woods near shopping areas, etc. But when churches and other volunteer organizations set up cold shelters and volunteers try their best to get the ones in need off of the streets, out of the woods and parks and into shelters for a warm place to sleep and some hot food, you complain about that too. Making assertions about the church run shelter being some kind of scam operation is spurious at best, and sounds as though you have specific, unreported evidence of criminal activity that you have not made privy to law enforcement… is that correct, or are you just foaming at the mouth in disgust of those who try their best to help people in need? I don’t like seeing homeless people in public areas anymore than the next person, but I recognize the plain fact that many of the homeless population have lots and lots of issues, whether they be drug and alcohol dependance or mental health concerns, and often refuse to do what is best for themselves, making this ongoing problem difficult for local governments to solve. But I sure don’t go around complaining about organizations and good people who go out of their way to help those in need, following Jesus’ example. We need more of this type of compassion and dedication in society, and it is something that should not be mocked or condemned.