Hard times even harder in winter weather

AUGUSTA - Hard times for the homeless are really hard when the soup kitchen is closed. <br> <br> The winter weather that hit Georgia this week underscored that and other problems faced by the state&#39;s less fortunate residents. <br> <br> Rick Langford, 52, was shocked Thursday when he arrived at the Master&#39;s Table Soup Kitchen in Augusta to find the gate still locked. <br> <br> A cardboard sign that read ``Closed Due to Snow&#39;&#39; was on the glass door at the Salvation Army, and there were no lights on inside the lobby. <br> <br> The shelter, however, was open at night for dinner, said Jeff Horvath, who is in charge of lodging. <br> <br> The Atlanta Union Mission had problems of a different sort. The Mission received its expected food delivery Thursday, but the truck that was to bring paper plates and plastic utensils didn&#39;t arrive, probably because of the weather. <br> <br> Instead of beef stew, the 350 men who sought refuge from the cold were served hot dogs and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, finger food that can be placed on a napkin. <br> <br> The mission, a few blocks from Centennial Olympic Park, was short on staff and space Thursday. And like Wednesday and every other night that the temperature has fallen below 40 degrees, about 325 men packed the shelter, sleeping on bunk beds and on floors cleared of tables and chairs. <br> <br> Unlike most days, the men were allowed to stay inside the shelter during the day. They read, talked or huddled against the building, out of the wind, for a quick smoke. <br> <br> Across downtown Atlanta, 700 other men slept on the floor of a building that the Task Force for the Homeless is renovating. <br> <br> ``We opened the doors because we have heat,&#39;&#39; said Anita Beatty, executive director of the homeless task force. ``We don&#39;t put anybody out when the weather is below 40 degrees.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Those who refused to go inside, Beatty said, were given blankets ``when they are available. We need more blankets all the time.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Ed Holmes, wearing summer pants and an unlined jacket, said he expected to spend his second freezing night in an urban campground beneath a Downtown Connector bridge in Atlanta. <br> <br> ``My best choice for the night is to find a place like that, where the wind ain&#39;t blowing too hard,&#39;&#39; Holmes said. <br> <br> Out in the Augusta slush, Langford inquired about a weather report, which is important to a man who sleeps in a tent. If it gets down to the 20s, he said, he&#39;d seek shelter. But he had weathered Wednesday night, and it wasn&#39;t so bad, he said. <br> <br> ``It rained,&#39;&#39; Langford said, ``but it wasn&#39;t cold.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> At the Loaves & Fishes Ministry in Macon, workers cooked up chili as a bonus to the bologna and cheese sandwiches they planned to hand out. <br> <br> ``The chili was an idea after we found out how cold it would be,&#39;&#39; said Bob Timm, development director for Loaves & Fishes. ``When it&#39;s like this all the rules change and we just try to help out.&#39;&#39;