Downtown Daily Bread opened its overnight shelter for the homeless men in Harrisburg two weeks ago.
It was just in time.
With temperatures forecast to dip into the teens Thursday night into Friday, the shelter director, Anne Guenin, is expecting the steady flow of people who are using the 30-bed facility to keep growing.
Organizers of the shelter at 310 North Third St., which is run by Pine Street Presbyterian Church, had projected it would be busy from the start, and would soon reach capacity as temperatures fell and the larger emergency shelter at Bethesda Mission filled.
"We've been close to that," Guenin said. Oddly, occupancy dipped a little during the latest cold spell, but that is expected to change once the freezing temperatures take a more continual grip, she said.
Some of those staying overnight are patrons who have been using Downtown Daily Bread's services during the day, Guenin said.
Shelter officials aren't doing special outreach to alert the homeless community of their presence, she said, but instead are relying on that community's dependable information grapevine.
"We're even getting some people from out of town," Guenin said. "The word is getting out."