Some recent news items and opinion pieces about the Winter Overflow Shelter have been remarkably inaccurate.

St. Elizabeth Shelter is the organization that operated the overflow shelter last season. It was St. Elizabeth that contracted with the city for a $60,000 grant, rented a facility for six months, hired, trained, and supervised staff for a total cost of $150,000 and 6,158 staff hours.

My connection with St. Elizabeth Shelter began when it was on Don Gaspar, and I volunteered my medical services. After it moved to its current location on Alarid Street, I served on its board of directors from 1991-1997. I know the current executive director, Deborah Tang, and have great confidence in her administrative skills, her judgment, and her calm, unassuming leadership ability.

I have watched St. Elizabeth Shelter grow, expand its programs and facilities, including winter overflow shelter services, and recruit broad support from the community of Santa Fe, including businesses, churches, foundations and individual donors. This success is a testimony to the tireless and highly committed efforts of the shelter's director, staff and board.

Two years ago, St. Elizabeth called on the religious community to help with the increasing needs for winter shelter. The interfaith group responded by transporting women and children from St. E's to their churches for the night, and the men to the Salvation Army.

Last year, St. Elizabeth located a space on St. Michael's Drive, paid the rent and maintenance expenses for the winter, and was legally and financially responsible for running the winter overflow shelter. St. E's again asked the interfaith group of volunteers to help by providing supper and checking people in, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. each night.

The volunteers then left, and St. Elizabeth's paid and experienced employees staffed the shelter for the rest of the night, until closing it for the day at 7 a.m.

It has been disturbing to me to see the newly formed Interfaith Community Shelter Group claiming credit for operating a winter overflow shelter for the past two years, "providing more than 10,000 bed nights to more than 650 men, women and children," as stated in the July 19 My View, "Emergency shelter strengthened by past winters' experiences." It was St. Elizabeth that provided the beds and was responsible for the operation of the winter shelter. While the interfaith group deserves thanks for its contribution to the care and feeding of our homeless, its distortion of the facts is certainly misleading.

Steven S. Spencer, M.D. is a concerned Santa Fe citizen.