Myrtle Beach ministries do what they can to feed, shelter the homeless despite obstacles

Volunteers with Citizens Concerned for the Homeless of Myrtle Beach were doing as they were asked Monday night, encouraging displaced residents to seek shelter ahead of what appeared to be a long, frigid night.

Bill Davis offered rides to the shelters, telling the few who stopped to talk that he heard the places were nice and that a warm meal would be served there.

One man said he would go. A couple – not wanting to be separated – said they would brave the cold.

Temperatures were predicted to dip to the upper 20s Tuesday morning, prompting New Directions of Horry County, Inc., which runs the four homeless shelters in the city, to declare a code blue emergency. Under that code, all displaced residents can be accepted into shelters to escape the bitter cold.

Men were set to be welcomed at the former Street Reach, now dubbed New Directions for Men. Women were pegged to go to the former Lifeline, now New Directions for Women.

For those who refused to go for a variety of reasons, Davis and volunteers handed out blankets, thermal underwear, coats, hand warmers, hygiene supplies and sleeping bags.

Citizens Concerned for the Homeless wanted to continue to offer temporary overnight housing to those who refuse to go to the shelters in local churches. Group members were able to do so a few times last winter before they were warned they were violating a fire code.

The group asked Myrtle Beach City Council in November to amend the code and allow churches to operate as emergency shelters. But Myrtle Beach city attorney Tom Ellenburg said it was a building code the city couldn’t change.

Although another building code and an ordinance later drafted by Ellenburg would have allowed it, City Manager John Pedersen advised the council the safest, preferred route would be to house the homeless at shelters with approved accommodations led by trained staff.

The city told local missionaries wanting to help the homeless that they could help by getting people to the shelter on freezing nights. So the missionaries planned to do just that once the weather turned frigid, leading to their presence at Chapin Memorial Park on Monday night.

Local missionaries have said they viewed being turned down by the city to open alternative emergency shelters as another hurdle in their journey to help.

Another roadblock came last week.

One week after a story appeared in The Sun News about local missionaries struggling to feed and shelter the homeless and how they were looking outside the city limits to accomplish their missions, a place they used to feed the homeless became off-limits.

Carol Stallings of Swash Park Ministry distributes food to the homeless at various locations throughout the city multiple times a week. On Sunday, Dec. 19, the ministry was using the parking lot of the Myrtle Beach distribution hub of the Lowcountry Food Bank, a location used several times before.

When The Sun News reported Stallings’ work outside the Food Bank, the site was closed to future Swash Park distributions. Stallings says the distributions will continue at other locations.

The Lowcountry Food Bank center in Myrtle Beach declined to answer why the parking lot was now closed to the group.

Shayla Livingston, regional food center manager, referred all questions to its corporate office in Charleston.

Miriam Langley, a spokeswoman for the Lowcountry Food Bank’s headquarters in Charleston, said the Food Bank is still partnering with the ministry to distribute food.

Langley declined to go on record about why the group was no longer allowed or what led to the Food Bank’s decision, but offered the following statement:

“The Lowcountry Food Bank is the largest hunger relief organization in Horry County and partners with more than 40 surrounding feeding agencies. Swash Park is one of our many dedicated partner agencies that focuses on feeding thousands of children, families and seniors in our community. The Lowcountry Food Bank’s facility is located in the city of Myrtle Beach; therefore, Swash Park will continue its weekly distributions through a variety of approved locations in the community.”

The Food Bank parking lot, however, is no longer on the list of “approved locations.”

Citizens Concerned for the Homeless said missionaries were able to distribute bagged lunches on the property without city interference because the land was in a doughnut hole of the city.

Missionaries learned last week the property was actually in the city’s jurisdiction. The doughnut hole – a spot of county land unclaimed by annexation within the city’s boundaries – is across the street from the Food Bank, according to deed records online.

City spokesman Mark Kruea said the city did issue a permit to Stallings “specifically to hold an event on city property at Withers Swash Park (on Sunday). As far as I know that even(t) occurred as planned,” he said.

Stallings was approved to distribute food at the park that afternoon, according to the city permit.

Stallings said that the owners of the property where the Food Bank operates in a leased building sent an email saying the city informed them they are no longer in the doughnut hole. The property was annexed years ago.

This story was originally published January 4, 2016 at 9:25 PM with the headline "Myrtle Beach ministries do what they can to feed, shelter the homeless despite obstacles."