Diakonia running out of shelter space

OCEAN CITY, MD. – Officials said Diakonia is running out of space to shelter homeless individuals.

Executive Director, Ken Argot, said the facility houses roughly 52 people per day, and with the colder weather, Argot said it’s becoming harder to accommodate everyone.

He added there’s a major factor to blame for the lack of space in the facility: the local housing crisis.

“Vacancy rates of units are going down, so there’s no place open,” Argot said. “Meanwhile, the rates that people are being able to charge continues to go up, which means the people we’re trying to re-house have no place to go.”

Argot added while some rental agencies are doing their best to work with the shelter to remedy the housing crisis, and provide affordable living, the counties still have a long way to go before the issue is totally resolved.