MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. — A nonprofit in Montgomery County says nearly 200 donors raised more than $20,000 after a women's shelter caught fire on Fourth of July.
Interfaith Works says an electrical fire caused damage to multiple rooms of the shelter including the kitchen and showers. They say 35 women experiencing homelessness are currently living at a temporary location and won't be able to return to the shelter for at least two months.
“There were no injuries, which is amazing," said Courtney Hall, CEO of Interfaith Works. "Especially since, when the fire happened, it was kind of around lunch time when people would have been in that area.”
The Interfaith Works website says they are still accepting financial donations as well as prepared meals and in-kind supplies.
"We don’t have the facilities at the new site that we have here," Hall said. "We don’t have a warming oven. We have microwaves, that’s about it. We don’t have dishwashers and things like that so we’re looking for paper goods and hot meals, fully prepared meals, if people want to bring sandwiches and things like that."
Interfaith Works operates four shelters for people experiencing homelessness. The shelter damaged exclusively houses women.
“Something like this happening is definitely a setback," Hall said. "There are women that have already been traumatized just from the experience of homelessness and to be displaced, even if it’s for two months or so, to then be displaced to somewhere else, having to sort of reconfigure your mind so that you can get back on track and get back to accomplishing your goals. It’s challenging, it’s challenging.”
