The Bethesda Center for the Homeless is planning to return to normal daytime hours of operation during the week after having been closed during the day for more than two weeks. Next week Bethesda will be open during the day from 8 a.m.
to 2 p.m. on weekdays, but will still be closed from 8 a.
m. to 5 p.m.
on the weekends because of funding challenges, according to Bethesda’s executive director Chris Leab. The earlier decision to close during the week has led to the loss of shelter for Bethesda’s residents throughout the day, leaving many people experiencing homelessness to line up along the sidewalk along Patterson Avenue. Residents shouldn’t be out on the streets, Leab said, because some have cancer or other medical conditions that require care.
Bethesda is Winston-Salem’s only low-barrier shelter, meaning that the shelter takes in both individual men and women who are experiencing homelessness, and provides them with space even if they have a criminal record, mental illness or a drug addiction. There is also no other shelter in the city that offers as many hours of operation as the Bethesda Center. People are also reading.
.. Chad Armstrong, the chair of Bethesda’s board of directors since May 2023, said that closing during the day was a financial decision to maintain care for the people Bethesda serves.
The organization is in such a precarious financial situation that it had to cut daytime hours for the administration of the shelter instead of a potential decision .