True Vine Ministries on Morganton Road to offer shelter for homeless on 'white flag' nights

1-6-2015 North Carolina:

A Morganton Road church is stepping up to offer shelter to homeless residents on freezing nights.

True Vine Ministries, on Morganton Road west of Skibo Road, has offered to partner with the Salvation Army for its white flag program, which provides extra shelter on nights when temperatures dip below 32 degrees.

The partnership came about after the church looked into taking over management of the Hope Center, a homeless shelter downtown, said Toni Stewart, a church elder who has been spearheading the project with True Vine's pastor, the Rev. Ernest Jones.

Church members learned through that process that a large segment of the city's homeless population stay nearby, particularly near Cross Creek Mall, Stewart said.

"We're just too close not to open it up," she said.

The church's gymnasium, known as the J Center, has a capacity of 300 beds, according to the Fire Department, Stewart said.

Pedophile Panic at the Salvation Army: No Teen Boys Allowed, Too Dangerous

12-2-2014 Tennessee:

When it comes to helping families in need, the Salvation Army turns a cold shoulder to one class of people: Teenage boys. A family in Johnson City, TN, found this out recently when, on a freezing cold night, they asked the organization for shelter. But because their family of five contained a 15-year-old boy, they were turned down.

As the dad, Tim Lejeune, explained to WMC Action News 5:

"They said he's too old to stay on the women's side, because of the women running around in their pajamas and they said he's too young to stay on the men's side in case some pervert wants to do whatever," Lejeune said.

Lejeune says his wife, their 15 year-old son, 16 year-old daughter and five year-old son, all down on their luck, have been living in their car for the last several weeks.

So instead the family headed to their car. The temperature: 18 degrees.