By Hannah Ellington, Editor-in-Chief

Driving down the beach road, it’s impossible to miss the endless array of fancy hotels, motels, cottages and inns. However, even though more are being built each year, there are still countless people without a warm place to sleep at night in Dare County.

Room in the Inn is a non-profit organization which provides a place to stay for people who are homeless during the cold months. Since its startup in 2009, Room in the Inn has served 365 people from November to April because no other organization in Dare County helps supply shelter and care for the homeless.

Wayne Barry, First Flight’s school psychologist, is part of the nine-person board responsible for Room in the Inn. Barry has been on the board for three years.

“About 10 years ago, a woman named Gale Leonard and another person or two felt there were people living not in warm, dry conditions and so they began to organize some churches to help meet these people’s needs for housing during the wet, cold season,” Barry said.

For the last nine years, 17 to 20 churches have signed up for a certain week, from Sunday evening to the following Sunday morning, to host those in need. The host churches provide mattress pads, linens, food and social services. Once the week is over, those staying at the Room in the Inn are transported to the next church.

However, this year is the “pilot year” for something a bit different.

“This year it came to our attention that there was a house very near St. Andrews Church on the bypass…(and) that there was a property manager who had space for 14 people to spend the night and they could stay there the whole winter – they wouldn’t have to do any moving to churches,” Barry said. “The church leaders saw the wisdom of not having people move every week.”

For the last few years, Duck United Methodist Church’s youth group would provide the meal for the first day the homeless were at their church. With the guests now staying at the Nags Head Center during the church’s designated week, the youth group decided to bring their meal to them.

“We cooked them chili and cornbread and a bunch of desserts and salad and stuff and ate with them and talked with them about their life,” freshman Cooper Daniels said. “I like hearing the people’s stories about their lives and what they’ve gone through and why they’re homeless. They always have something really good to tell you.”

Freshman Reagan Minnich also recalls times that she would help with Room in the Inn when she was younger.

“I’ve been going to Duck United Methodist for a long time,” Minnich said. “I remember being 6 years old and helping make cards and little care packages and going and leaving them on the mattresses.”

Even though the homeless will, for the most part, be staying at the Nags Head Center, Mount Olivet Methodist Church and Manteo First Assembly will continue to house people in their churches. The guests are firstly picked up from an intake spot in Manteo and then screened to make sure none of the volunteers would be a danger to themselves or others.

“Part of this is making sure that people don’t have medical needs that we can’t be responsible for or aren’t intoxicated,” Barry said.

Once they make it to the place they are staying the night at, dinner is provided as well as a clean bed, necessary clothing, a place to bathe and case managers and counseling.

“The case manager tries to help people follow through with medical appointments, appointments with social services to get food stamps or whatever they might need to see them through the winter,” Barry said. “There’s a social work part of this that we try to get people job interviews, have people come in and do presentations on going for a job interview, how you should dress, that type of thing. It’s more than just housing people – the intent is to help people regain confidence.”

By 9 a.m., the guests are expected to depart from the center and go be engaged in the community.

“It might be that they are going to work, or various appointments or to the library to do some research or stay warm or to the Dare Center to help with volunteer work,” said Nancy Griffin, chair of the board for Room in the Inn.

Last year, Room in the Inn supported 30 guests throughout the winter for a combined 1,081 bed nights and three meals a day. Best of all, by the end of the season, every guest had either left the area or found jobs and housing through the help and care of those involved with the nonprofit.

While the churches provide a lot of the meals and care for the homeless, Barry stressed that Room in the Inn has no religious affiliation and that anyone can help, whether it be by making a pot of chili for those in need, giving donations or simply spreading the word.

“It has evolved wonderfully as people have worked collaboratively to meet the needs of people who for whatever reasons (have become displaced),” Barry said.

The reasons are many, with Barry stressing that “we’re not housing vagabonds. We are looking at people whose life circumstances have caused them, in this point in time, to be in extreme need.”

Added Griffin: “They may have family breakups and have lost their connections to family that may otherwise support them during tough times. Sometimes it’s just due to storms, for example, or loss of jobs that have dried up, so there’s lots of different reasons that people may find themselves in a homeless situation.”

The important thing, Griffin explained, is not to make judgments about why the person is homeless, but to think about what can be done to help each individual. And that can be challenging whether in an urban environment like Chicago or a place like the Outer Banks that lacks affordable housing and features a seasonal economy with paychecks that come and go.

“We have a mental health system that is not meeting the needs of living in our society,” Griffin said. “And so without adequate treatment, without adequate support and affordable care, then people end up not being able to get care or pay their basic bills – you know, meet what people would think of as typical kinds of adult responsibilities – so it’s a vicious cycle that is really a social problem.”

Senior Hannah Ellington can be reached at ellingtonha1214@daretolearn.org.