For the homeless, temporary housing can be hard to find.
Currently, shelter services are provided by the faith-based Water Street Rescue Mission, the YWCA, the Transitional Living Center and the Glass House.
But as county homelessness grows, and resources shrink, volunteer-run church winter shelters help close gaps.
The 5-year-old Homeless Winter Overflow Project in the city, coordinated by the Lancaster County Council of Churches, spurred the formation of additional shelter programs in Columbia and Ephrata.
Shelters open in November and continue nightly through the end of February or March.
The city program, which helps accommodate overflow from Water Street Rescue Mission, has a rotating group of about a dozen houses of worship. Rabbi Jack Paskoff of Shaarai Shomayim helped start the program, which is modeled after one in New Jersey.
According to the council, last year about 725 volunteers giving some 8,000 hours contributed to running the four-month rotating city shelter.
So far this year, the city shelters, which are serving only women, have actually not been filled to capacity, said Gretchen Lichty, council assistant director, perhaps because women, especially those with children, tend to be particularly resourceful in finding options.
Columbia's Winter Shelter started four years ago through the local ministerium in partnership with the Community Life Network, and averages between four and 10 guests per night, predominately men.
In Ephrata, the Winter Emergency Shelter, spearheaded by the Ephrata Akron ministerium in conjunction with Ephrata Area Social Services, is in its first year.
Kickoff support has been inspiring, said the Rev. Joe Hyatt of New Beginnings Church, with between 13 and 15 local congregations participating.
Up to 10 individuals per night can be hosted at the Gateway House of Prayer.
"We very much see ourselves as part of the broader countywide endeavor to end homelessness in the next 10 years," Hyatt said. "Part of that plan is the establishment of emergency shelters in communities throughout the county."
And if you build them, they will come.
"These shelters serve an important role," said Lichty. "Without them, some people would have nowhere else to go."
Shelter from the storms.