Harrisonburg Shelter Overcrowded, HARTS Shelter Opens
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Updated: 8:25 PM Nov 16, 2009
Harrisonburg Shelter Overcrowded, HARTS Shelter Opens
Harrisonburg, Va.
While the Valley may be seeing warmer temperatures late in the year, they'll soon fall.
Posted: 12:36 PM Nov 16, 2009
Reporter: Ed Drantch
Email Address: edrantch@whsv.com
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While the Valley may be seeing warmer temperatures late in the year, they'll soon fall and people without a home will be in need.

Local shelters are already overcrowded and seeing a need.

Harrisonburg's Mercy House has 12 families staying in efficiency apartments, but another 21 families on the waiting list.

Mercy House officials say these people are jumping from friend to friend each night, trying to find a place to stay.

The Mercy House will work closely with the HARTS program, a shelter opening Monday, to help people in need.

"The greatest impact is we're able to inform someone about where they could go. It's very difficult for someone to call and say you know they're homeless, they have no where to go, and we have to say we're full. That's pretty much a heart breaker," says Twila Lee, executive director of the Mercy House.

Mercy House officials have reached out to people at the HARTS shelter in the hope the shelter can help people when Mercy House has to turn them away.

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