Buffalo pastor brings new homeless shelter to downtown Buffalo

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Homeless shelters in Buffalo are constantly full and these days, many people are living on the streets.

A solution is on the way to downtown Buffalo, coming from someone who helps feed the homeless every week.

“I’m really trying to get other people to come here to see that it could be you and me. A lot of people are one paycheck away from becoming homeless,” Pastor Taylor Mckelphin said.

New York State just signed on to its shelter, which it calls the Freedom Found Center.

“Not just a shelter just to say, oh you can come sleep, but something where they can improve and grow, somewhere where they can get the help that they need,” Mckelphin said.

Taylor McKelphin

She runs Taylor’s Harvest out of the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, distributing food, clothing and spiritual care.

“It’s a big blessing,” said Jai Drayton, a homeless woman.

Drayton chooses to live with friends. She says she doesn’t feel safe at shelters, but she would at Pastor Taylor’s.

“It will be so wonderful for a lot of people here because there are so many conditions for the shelters that they have here,” Drayton said. “So for another one to actually open up without having the stipulations that will actually help you, that’s a good thing.”

She’s now looking at locations in downtown Buffalo, with the goal of opening before winter.

In the meantime, she needs donations and volunteers to help her at the library on Sundays at 11:45 a.m.