NEW YORK — Peter Carling stood outside a Lower East Side chapel Monday morning, smoking a cigarette and watching the first snow of a massive winter storm begin to fall. The 45-year-old said he expects to sleep tonight in the chapel, as a blizzard sweeping across the northeastern United States is expected to dump several feet of snow on the city and points north.
From November to January, as temperatures dip to dangerous lows, the Bowery Mission opens its doors to homeless men, offering up a sleeping mat, a warm place among the pews to lay their heads, a shower and some food.
“The Bowery don’t go hungry,” Carling said.
He expects the winter storm — which Mayor Bill de Blasio said has the potential to be the worst in the city’s history — to drive droves of men inside the emergency shelter, filling the Mission to its capacity of 150 temporary residents.
–
Lawrence added that he expects the soup kitchen and pantry to stay open during the storm. “Right now we’re keeping business as usual,” he said. “Staying open is what we need to do.”
As Vela was shuffled inside the food pantry, she said that she planned to keep her 5-year-old and 11-year-old inside the residence during the storm on Tuesday, since school has already been canceled.
There, she said, they’d simply “wait for the worst to go by.”
