Leaders at Cleveland's City Mission report the problem with a growing number of homeless women and children, being turned away at local shelters, has reached epidemic levels.
City Mission CEO Rich Trickle said his agency has had to tell 80 to 100 homeless women and children that they have no room for them every night.
Trickle said cuts in federal and state funding have caused Northeast Ohio to lose 500 beds for the homeless in just the past 10 years.
"We are overflowing with women and children who have nowhere to go," Trickle said.
"Cuyahoga County opened an overflow facility down the road just six months ago. They have 35 beds, and just yesterday, 120 women and children showed up there," he said.
Trickle said the City Mission is now in the process of trying to raise donations and private funds to build a new, larger City Mission facility to help cope with the growing number of homeless women and children.
Trickle said the growing problem is made worse because there is simply not enough affordable housing, and even if a homeless mother finds employment, many times she can't make enough money to get her family off the streets.
"They are earning $10-$12 an hour when they find employment, not anywhere nearly enough to rent an apartment," Trickle said.
"We can't count on government to solve this growing issue, that's why we are trying to raise the money and get it done on our own."
