SUSSEX COUNTY, Del. - Code Purple Sussex County is dealing with a lack of volunteers in the Cape Region, and is hoping the community can help out. The former Troop 7 location on Coastal Highway was supposed to open on December 1st, along with the other five locations, but the organization does not have a single overnight volunteer for the Lewes location, and they do not have a contract yet. Instead they will open December 13th.
"We help people keep warm at night, so we can't do that if we don't have someone to sleep there with them," said Nikki Gonzalez, Code Purple executive director.
In Lewes, there are no volunteers to do that.
"We are lacking in overnight volunteers. People are great they love to give stuff and we really appreciate that, but without an overnight volunteer it can't open at the shelter," said Gonzalez.
But other shelters in the county, like Milford, are doing well.
"We've been really blessed this year, last year we had 5, and this year looks like we have 7 volunteers, which does cover every night ... it's a love group and that's what we do, we try to help people," said Thomas Chilton a Code Purple coordinator at the Milford location.
Gonzalez said they prefer to have two volunteers a night, but one is the bare minimum. Intake workers are also needed.
"If there is no volunteers there is no shelter. People will continue to sleep outside in the cold, some may even pass away because of that," she said.
In just one winter season Code Purple Sussex County takes in 250 to 275 people across its six shelters.
"We love helping our guests this is our 8th winter open, we've had lots of people come through, we've had lots of success, we've seen that people really thrive when they are able to come and get a good night warm sleep," said Gonzalez.
There is a training session for volunteers Thursday, December 2nd at 7 p.m. If you would like to volunteer please visit codepurplesussexcounty.com.