RICHMOND, Va. -- After remnants of Hurricane Ian hit Richmond, members of a nonprofit working to help people experiencing homelessness reached out to the CBS 6 Problem Solvers concerned about the timeline for a 24/7 inclement weather shelter for the city.
Hearing directly from those the shelter would impact the most, one Richmond couple said more needs to be done.
"My husband is in a wheelchair with MS. We had a rooming house out in New Kent and a situation came about where we had to be displaced unexpectedly and we just had no resources," she said.
As his full-time caretaker, she said she works jobs in which she won't be away for too long.
"It’s even hard for him to get inside his chair so with me having a full-time job, we would have to pay outside care which we cant afford," she said.
Now in desperate need of shelter and staying in a hotel, the woman who did not want to be identified said she called every homeless hotline number she's been given.
"It's sad there's just no-where to turn, everybody just referring me to someone else, to someone else, and we’re not getting any result at all," she said.
None of them were able to provide immediate shelter for her or her disabled fiancé.
"It puts you in a place where you feel helpless, useless, It's harder having a fiancé in his condition moving around, or just it puts you in a bad place," she said.
It's a situation she and Richmond City Councilwoman Stephanie Lynch said they have seen so many other people dealing with.
"We really do have a perfect storm of conditions and no safety net for folks," Lynch said.
In a special city council meeting Thursday, officials with the Department of Housing and Community Development said they "are just focusing on Phase 1" of the initiative.
The shelter would allocate almost $1.4 million of grant money to renovate and operate four different inclement weather shelters. Phase 1 of the plan would provide 60 of the total 150 beds at a cost of $615,000.
However, Lynch said more needs to be done quickly.
"I think that the sense of urgency would be different if they were forced to interact and look people in the face and say, 'Where are you going to go tonight?'" Lynch said.
City officials said the earliest Phase 1 could begin is Tuesday, Nov. 15. Phase 2 would require more information about funding.
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