GASTONIA, N.C. — Driving through downtown Gastonia, you may not think the county deals with a lot of residents facing housing insecurities.

But Chaplain Dwayne Burks says the issue is a lot more prevalent than it may seem.

“We're seeing more and more of those people drop from barely making it to unhoused,” Burks said. “And they usually end up moving in with a family member.”

What You Need To Know

  •  Chaplain Dwayne Burks says many in the community are suffering from housing insecurities

  •  With the cold weather on the way groups like Gateway Gaston are looking for ways to help fill the need for warm spaces

  •  First Methodist Church of Gastonia has opened a temporary warming shelter during the cold week

Burks is the director of The Gateway Gaston, an organization in Gaston County that helps community members access emergency resources in a time of need.

“Our job is to connect our community for the common good,” Burks said. “The first place we do that is by helping people navigate to the right provider. If they have a bill that's due and they don't know which provider to call. But that leads to much more. Many more kinds of things.”

When the Salvation Army announced over the summer it would be closing its emergency shelter, Burks says his team got a lot more busy.

“We started working as a Gateway team the day the Salvation Army announced their closure,” Burks said. “OK. How do we respond? What do we do? We knew we couldn't get another shelter because you gotta have big money for that.”

Unlike some larger cities, Burks says it’s harder to see the true housing needs in the Gaston County community.

“No single entity has the resources to meet the need. But we can connect people with dignity,” Burks said. “It's an indignity to have to call eight different places and say, 'hey, I need help with rent.' And you find out only one of those eight serves your zip code. And that's how we're set up in this county.”

According to the Gaston-Lincoln-Cleveland Continuum of Care, in December 690 people across the three counties were experiencing homelessness.

But Burks says that doesn’t mean all of those people are physically living on the streets.

“It is hard to get a full count because some people just don’t want to be seen,” Burks said. “They’d rather stay behind the scenes.

Burks says some unhoused individuals may be staying with family members or even living in their cars. Still, he says the need for more resources is still evident.

“I’m worried about people freezing. I'm worried about frostbite,” Burks said. “I'm worried about illness, that, you know, would come from that. And in the cars, you're always worried about carbon monoxide and those possible things.”

And while he hopes more will be done, he says he’s proud of his partner organizations, like First Methodist Church of Gastonia, which recently opened its own temporary warming shelter to help plug the holes of the need in the community.

“We don't have a shelter now. We have a warming center. We had 34 people the last time I looked the night before last that showed up,” Burks said. “And as the confidence in that builds, I think that will continue to grow.”

Burks says he hopes with continued awareness more organizations will step up to help take care of the housing insecure community here in Gaston County.

We reached out to the Salvation Army to see what resources it has available for the community, but it has yet to give us an official statement.