DID YOU FIND YOURSELF WITH MORE CLEANING SUPPLIES THAN YOU THOUGHT NECESSARY?

The Rescue Missions and other homeless shelters might be able to use some of them.

We'll start in Cumberland, Maryland, where Salena Zito filed a report.

The sign outside the ancient red-brick building, once a notorious brothel for railroad travelers, reads: “Doorway to Hope at the Gateway to the West.”

Inside the shelter, which in warm weather can accommodate 62 men, women, and children, is at capacity, and lunch is being served by the staff, as well as the executive director, Pastor David Ziler.

In the cold weather, they can sleep 84, and Ziler says they are at capacity, a number they rarely hit.

“I think people are just kind of freaked out a little bit right now. So, the guys who would normally sleep out in tents, they're all of a sudden seeking refuge. And so, we're not used to seeing these numbers,” says Ziler. “We’ve also seen a spike in need for baby formula and diapers, and more people are coming in for our meals,” he said of the areas with people who are not in need of shelter, just in need.

Local people are still helping with cash and in-kind contributions, but what happens when somebody screens for the Wuhan virus?

“The issue we're going to have, which we haven't hit yet, is isolation because honestly, we are a homeless shelter. We don't have the space to isolate. So even if we find somebody that's homeless, if they're not meeting the criteria to be hospitalized, how do you isolate a homeless person? Right? You can't just say, go home,” [Pastor Ziler] said.

He and his staff of eight started coming up with solutions for what to do when that ultimately happens Tuesday.

“We just started brainstorming: Are there churches available that we could use their gymnasiums for isolation? We have started asking around the faith-based community to fill this need as to how you isolate a homeless person?” he explained.

Ziler said he has never looked to the government to solve problems. He is, like he does every day, relying on his faith to soldier through when he feels the strain. “I've never believed that government's responsible for individuals. The government's responsible for the ever-arching protection of our country. It's the church and the community that's responsible for individual needs. And that's why we're here, because we believe that to the core value,” he said.

That said, there might be student housing available just up the Western Maryland at Frostburg where the state university, in the same fashion as universities everywhere, is closed for the duration.

Closer to home, the stockpiling for spring cleaning and beyond is having an effect on Rockford's Rescue Mission.

"We are in desperate need of cleaning supplies," says the Mission's Crystal Savage. "With 165 people we are really tying to keep everyone safe, and we really do need donations of cleaning supplies as well as toilet paper because those are things that we can not find anywhere."

Not only do workers need cleaning supplies, but a new normal means the Mission must change the way it services food, too.

"We're no longer doing lines, we're not doing the buffet-style," explains Savage. "Everything needs to be pre-packaged and then individually put out before our guests and residents come to sit down."

To go bagging options, like brown paper bags, are needed. Other items like pre packaged food helps as well. Leaders tell 23 News it could cost them $90 a day to purchase these items on their own.

Under ordinary circumstances, the items would be available for purchase, assuming the cash is on hand, but currently, those items are mostly missing from store shelves.

[Ms Savage] says they have faith that God and the community will help with the rest. "You know the Israelites were in the desert, and God provided the manna for them every day," she says. "And so we just have faith that our community will help us get that manna that we need every day, and that manna right now is cleaning supplies, toilet paper and food."

To donate these emergency items you can drop them off at the West State Street location Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The Rescue Missions, wherever they might be, are also gearing up for their Easter dinners.