The William “Hicks” Anderson Community Center sheltered about 150 people experiencing homelessness through last weekend’s snowstorm and its aftermath.
Mayor John Carney held a meeting with city staff ahead of the storm to discuss housing people experiencing homelessness.
Carney opened Christina Park to unhoused individuals last year, and city staff helped those residents and others get to shelter over the weekend. The Hicks Community Center sheltered about 150 people from Saturday to Tuesday.
Wilmington Parks and Recreation Director Melody Phillips said she was beyond pleased with the results of opening Hicks to the community for the first time.
“Oh my goodness, when I tell you that all the individuals who came for shelter were so happy and warm and welcoming and signing their intake forms,” Phillips said. “And we didn't have any challenges or anything.”
Friendship House helps the city manage Christina Park, and their staff helped make the residents comfortable. They provided snacks and soup to the residents before seeing them out Tuesday.
Phillips said the guests are now spread out between local shelters, hotels and churches. The city and Police Department are doing sweeps at Christina Park to make sure individuals get out of the cold and into local shelters.
Phillips added it’s possible the community center could open back up as a shelter if another storm comes through.
“Our team is continuing to go through shelter management training with the City of Wilmington Emergency Operations Center and the Red Cross,” Phillips said. “So [...] ironically enough, the training was already in progress when the winter storm kind of came out of nowhere, so we almost had a real life training going on at the same time all of this was happening.”
Phillips said the team that came together at Hicks did a great job. If Hicks opens up as a shelter again, staff will be working with city partners and the Emergency Operations Center Chief. That call would be made by the mayor’s office.
“Trust and believe how quickly we came together for this past weekend – we would get it done,” Phillips said.
As of Friday afternoon, Carney’s office had not set up a meeting to discuss next week’s winter weather.
