KALAMAZOO, MI — A lottery for emergency homeless shelter beds led to people sleeping on the streets in Kalamazoo, but the shelter has worked its way through a 299-person waiting list and is taking walk-ins again.

Kalamazoo Gospel Ministries limited access to its emergency shelter beds starting Oct. 6, capping the number of beds at 140 and placing a limit on how long people could stay.

People slept on the streets after being told to leave the emergency shelter, including Nick Hawkins, a double amputee who slept in the rain on the sidewalk near Arcadia Festival Place.

On the day of the change, there were 99 single women and 200 single men on KGM waiting lists, Chief Operating Officer John Simpson said.

The mission has capacity for hundreds more people in its religious-based programming

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