The Samaritan Shelter

The Samaritan Shelter began in 1986 when two concerned people recognized the sharp increase in our local homeless population. Upon confirming this with the Pocomoke City Police Department and the Department of Social Services, discussions began about this growing crisis.

Before long the seven Lower Shore Presbyterian Churches had formed a board to formally combat homelessness in this area. Through the generosity of many area churches of differing faith as well as the Presbytery for Lower Delaware and Eastern Shore of Maryland, the board was able to purchase and renovate a house in Pocomoke –our current location.

In 2009 the shelter expanded and opened a 4-bedroom women’s and children’s wing targeting a specific need in our community. This need was recognized and answered by funds raised by the Pocomoke Chapter of the Soroptimist Club.
Thousands of individuals and families have benefited from the compassion, care and generosity that filters through our shelter every day.

Samaritan Shelter provides help to those in crisis situations by providing temporary housing and supportive services for men, women and families to enable them to re-achieve self-sufficiency. A Soup kitchen and food pantry is provided to those low income or limited food resources.

For those who are homeless, Samaritan Shelter provides a roof over their heads and much more. Our dedicated staff provides compassion and support in addressing the issues that contributed to homelessness in the first place. Once permanent housing is secured by a resident, we will continue to provide wrap around services if requested.

Samaritan also operates a food pantry which provides food assistance to needy families every month and a soup kitchen twice a week providing 2 meals to each person for the day. We also provide meals to several daily who have a limited income or place to cook.

So that we are not reinventing the wheel and to keep staffing cost down case management is provided through local agencies( Health Dept. and Social Services) who have been providing these services for many years and Samaritan staff are there for each resident for support and assisting each resident is getting the services needed. We collaborate with many different agencies to help resident become self-sufficient.

If we are unable to provide a service that someone is in need of, we will do our utmost to find one to help an individual.

Due to the support from individuals, local civic organizations, foundations, churches, Community Foundation and the United Way of the Lower Eastern Shore we can keep our doors open and continue to provide services to those less fortunate. Samaritan also applies for grants through the state, federal and local governments.