The Wave Project’s Macomb County Winter Shelter program is using the closed elementary school at Trinity Lutheran Church to shelter the homeless during the winter months. Men and women will have separate accommodations.
By: Gena Johnson | Warren Weekly | Published December 13, 2024
WARREN — Wave Project is opening a new shelter for unhoused adults Dec. 29 through March 22 at Trinity Lutheran Church Warren to reduce homelessness during the cold weather.
Trinity Lutheran Church Warren is located at 8150 Chapp Avenue. Intake for the guests will begin at 7 p.m. each day and will run through 9 p.m., after which the guests will receive a hot meal and a warm cot to sleep on. They must leave by 7 a.m. the following morning after a “grab and go breakfast.”
“The church used to have an elementary school here, and so the guest rooms are all the old classrooms,” Wave Project Program Director Tim Joy said. “We’re able to divide the men and women up into different classrooms or guest rooms.”
Wave Project is the company heading up the initiative. The name of the program is Macomb County Winter Shelter. Participants in this program must be 18 or over.
“We are going to provide a very welcoming safe place for them to spend the night,” Wave Project Program Manager Marcie Burt said.
Wave Project has been preparing the building for their 100 daily guests. According to Burt, their team has renovated the building with a new entrance, new floors, and cleaning and painting the walls.
“Every inch of the building has been touched with some love,” Burt said.
"Homelessness is on the rise in Macomb County and the surrounding Detroit areas,” Joy said. “We are determined to help our neighbors in need find warmth, food, friendship and hope for a better future. It takes the entire community to keep our neighbors from serious illness this winter.”
The group is in need of volunteers, donations and the items on their Amazon wish list. That list includes plastic forks and other plastic flatware, paper plates, coffee, sugar, sweeteners, and sterile gloves. To view the complete list or for more information, go to waveproject.org/macomb-county-winter-shelter.html.
To donate, go to waveproject.org and click the donate button, or mail a check payable to WAVE Project c/o Macomb County Winter Shelter to P.O. Box 153, Sterling Heights, MI 48311.
For those with children who are unhoused, the Macomb County Emergency Rotating Team offers assistance. Go to mcrest.org or call (586) 415-5105.