AKRON, Ohio — Four thousand, two hundred twenty-nine.
That’s how many guests spent the night at Akron’s Peter Maurin Center, an emergency overnight shelter that reported this data.
"For the emergency shelter, we saw a record number of people,” said Peter Maurin Center Executive Director David Churbock.
Summit County Continuum of Care Executive Director, Christopher Richardson, said another 4,791guests just visited the center to stay warm.
"There were a lot of people that were sleeping in their tents. They didn’t have a place to go. You had families sleeping in their cars. The numbers just continued to increase,” said Richardson.
When comparing these numbers to the 2024/2025 winter season, Churbock said the center only served roughly 2,955 and 2,779 guests and was open 44 nights versus a total of 61 nights this year.
“These numbers just speak to not only the need for shelter but also the growing issue around homelessness,” said Richardson.
During our visit to the center in January, News 5 heard from Oscar Scott, who told us he wanted to see more support for those experiencing homelessness.
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"I think they should have more centers like it. I really do,” said Scott.
Now, the city is responding by setting aside $250,000 in this year’s operating budget for homelessness response on top of federal dollars from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
"We worked this winter to help other partners, whether it’s church or others, open up on kind of an emergency basis, and then we’ve allocated more money for next winter to kind of start building right now a stronger emergency support,” said Akron Mayor Shammas Malik.
At this time, Malik said the city does not have a breakdown of those costs.
But he said they’ll focus on emergency shelter support, so people have a safe place to go.
Malik said this will hopefully include expanding the Peter Maurin Center’s capacity, along with other emergency overnight providers.
"It’s not all determined, so as we go forward, there could be other uses as well,” said Malik.
As the city figures out its next steps to help emergency overnight providers, Richardson and Churbock said these efforts are a step in the right direction.
"The emergency overnight warming center was just one part of the funding, but this is for homelessness resources, so the whole team can benefit on trying to help those that are underserved right now,” said Churbock.
Malik recognizes the city needs more long-term and traditional shelter options.
Anyone who is experiencing homelessness is encouraged to call 211.
You can also reach out to Summit County Continuum of Care.
