With winter weather on the way, the Wareham Area Committee for the Homeless is working on ways to keep people warm. 

A program new this year will do just that, bringing people who are homeless into motel rooms when the weather gets coldest. 

For 13 years, a group of Wareham clergy hosted the Nights of Hospitality program, providing overnight shelter for the homeless for 13 weeks each winter, said Chuck McCullough. 

McCullough was one of the coordinators for the Nights of Hospitality, and serves now as the chair of the Committee. 

The Nights of Hospitality ended in 2020 due to Covid pandemic restrictions. Starting this year, the Committee is running its own assistance program for the coldest nights of the year. 

The Committee plans to work with area motels to bring the homeless into motel rooms when conditions get bad, such as during blizzards or when temperatures are forecasted to be below 20 degrees. 

The plan came out of an emergency response taken earlier this year. 

"In February, we had a deadly cold spell that hit for four or five days, and that's what prompted the Wareham Area Committee for the Homeless to react," said McCullough. 

February's informal effort brought 19 people in from the cold for two days. Since then, the Committee has established it as a more formalized program. 

Services aren't restricted to those in the most dire need. 

Turning Point, the Committee's day resource center, helps people get through periods of less severe cold with its day-to-day operations, handing out sleeping bags and warm clothes. 

Turning Point also helps to keep people warm in their houses or apartments.  

"Turning Point's mission is to work with folks that are facing homelessness through eviction," said McCullough. 

"In other words, [if] the electricity is to be cut off for unpaid bills, or the heat is to be shut off because of unpaid bills or unpaid rent, we work to provide financial assistance to those folks to keep them housed," McCullough said. 

The Massachusetts state government has programs available for helping low-income families with their heating bills. 

The "Low Income Energy Assistance Heating Program" can help with the heating costs of households earning up to 60% of the state's median income — $59,354 for a family of two and $87,294 for a family of four, for example. The state can also help repair and replace broken heating systems for eligible families. 

Turning Point helps connect people to statewide programs, said McCullough. It also uses its own funds to supplement state benefits when they don't stretch far enough. 

"The need is increasing," he said. "We've needed to increase the level of our support to some folks. The cost of utilities [and] food … continues to skyrocket, and it's just not a South Coast Massachusetts problem, it's a nationwide problem."