Winter Relief
Helping the Homeless in Anne Arundel County

Thank you to all who served in December 2024!

Thank you, Father Mike, parishioners and all who supported the 2024 Winter Relief. To see our guests and volunteers helping one another while sharing meals, conversations and activities was inspiring. Between 19 and 22 guests stayed with us each night. They enjoyed a safe environment, great food, showers, and activities including bingo and karaoke. Parishioners served persons in need and socialized with other parishioners. Many of our 175 or so volunteers served many days in many ways, contributing more than 1000 hours of effort. If you have not participated in the past, please consider helping in 2025.

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And the king answering shall say to them: Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me. -Matthew 25:40 ​

What Is Winter Relief?

Winter Relief solicits churches in Anne Arundel County to house the homeless in their facilities for seven consecutive nights during the cold months of the year. 

Winter Relief is a project sponsored by Arundel House of Hope (AHOH), a non-profit organization dedicated to helping the homeless. It was formed in Glen Burnie in 1992. Winter Relief solicits churches in Anne Arundel County to house the homeless in their facilities for seven consecutive nights during the cold months of the year. This year 72 churches will be hosting during the cold months. There will be three churches in operation most weeks. One will house only men, the other churches, as Holy Family, will house both men and women.

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Interesting in Volunteering?
The First Step is To Register with VIRTUS

Attention All Winter Relief Volunteers:  All church volunteers in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, 18 years of age and older, must complete training found at www.virtusonline.org. This includes all Winter Relief volunteers whether you work in the kitchen, Unity Hall or serve as a driver – everyone. 

VIRTUS Information & Registration

Adults Volunters: 18 Years +

18 and older:  Go to www.virtusonline.org and register as a parishioner of Holy Family in Davidsonville in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Winter Relief volunteers only have to complete the “Non-Substantial Contact” with children section, unless the adult volunteer is working with the teens who are making the lunches, or who are participating in the evening activities, in which case those volunteers must be registered as “Substantial Contact with Youth."
 
As a volunteer with Substantial Contact the volunteer will have to register on-line (if they have not done so already), submit to a background check, provide 3 references and complete the STAND training on-line whether they took the training prior to October 2014 or not.  These steps only have to be repeated once every 5 years. 

Parents who are serving as hosts or any other volunteer capacity who wish to bring with them children who are younger than 14 may do so, but it is not recommended.  Those children are not considered “volunteers” and must remain with their parents at all times.

Volunteers Age 14-17 And Younger

Volunteers 14-17 years old:  e.g., teens making lunches or teens coming in to help with evening activities, have unique requirements:

• You must complete a paper application, provide 3 references and view the video “Worthy of the Call." 
• You must contact Louisa Woolery in the Church office 410-269-0586 (ext. 27) or email her at [email protected] to make an appointment. Ms. Woolery is very flexible, but don’t put this off for the last minute. The video takes about 40 minutes. 

Volunteers under 14 years old just have to complete the application and do not need 3 references. During the Winter Relief week these volunteers must be accompanied by their parents at all times.​

Guest Demographics

No guests under the age of 18 are accepted. Some guests work during the day, but are underemployed and don’t receive an income suitable to pay rent and subsistence. The guest mix may vary from day to day as new people become homeless and others obtain housing.

​Some Considerations About Homelessness

• Most people in our society don’t see homelessness.
• The federal definition of homelessness is no roof over your head.
• Maryland’s definition is the person may or may not have a roof over his head, but if he does, it is because of the charity of a relative or friend, it is not his own by purchase or rent.

• There are 40,000 incidents a year in Maryland where a homeless person is turned away from a shelter. There are an estimated 2,000 homeless people in Anne Arundel County.

Why are people homeless? Several reasons, with no one cause:

• We de-institutionalized mental health care
• Some homeless persons have mental health issues
• Some have drug abuse issues; some have both
• Some have personality disorders that make them difficult to get along with and more difficult
 to assist.
• Some have a diminished intellectual capacity and get exploited and bullied.
• Insomnia seen in the homeless may be the mania of a bi-polar illness.

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Depression Is Common

• Many people just don’t make enough money. (Underemployed)
• $15 is minimum wage, but to afford just an efficiency apartment in Baltimore a person likely needs to earn about twice that amount.
• In order to stay out of poverty no more than 30% of income should be used for rent, but many
 people spend 50-75% of their income on rent.​
• Many people in our society are only one paycheck away from homelessness.

What is it like to be homeless?  

• Scary and dangerous. Some people prey on the homeless – violence, theft, assault. Being homeless is dangerous, especially for women.
• Mugged, robbed, stabbed. All of their earthly possessions are in their bags or shopping carts.
• All are protective of their possessions. Some are overly protective, some paranoid.
• Many have a physical illness or a mental illness or both.​

Pictures from Past Winter Relief Weeks