Red Cross is handing off Lower Bucks County homeless shelter

A five month-long search to find a new operator for a homeless shelter in Lower Bucks County, has ended.  The American Red Cross Southeastern Pennsylvania Chapter will hand over the shelter by end of the year.Red Cross of Southeastern Pennsylvania CEO Renée Cardwell Hughes said there’s no question the shelter is needed.”The shelter has a capacity of 75 and it is filled constantly night in and night out,” said Hughes.  “So there is a documented need in Lower Bucks for the services the shelter provides.”  Hughes said her group didn’t want the shelter to close.  But she said the American Red Cross wants to focus on its core mission: to help communities prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters.  

“In doing that, it was necessary to find new ownership for the homeless shelter that the American Red Cross has operated in Lower Bucks for the past 25 years,” she said.

Stephanie Sides is a spokesperson for the Family Service Association of Bucks County, the non-profit human service agency that’s taking over the Levittown shelter.”I know that the shelter has been full for many years and there is a waiting list,” said Sides.  “People don’t think that there’s homelessness in Bucks County.  People think that it’s an affluent county but…there’s more of a need recently with people who are losing homes.  And it’s families that are there and it’s traumatic for children and for families to get there.” The Family Service Association already provides on-site mental health services at the shelter will take over by the end of the year.