PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The City of Philadelphia has declared a code blue due to the area’s extreme cold, as wind chills Friday night and early Saturday are expected to dip to single digits or below zero.
That means the city and other outreach nonprofits are taking extra measures to keep people experiencing homelessness warm and safe.
“All of us deserve a warm and safe place to lay our head every night,” said Prevention Point Philadelphia Lead Operations Officer Kate Perch.
With wind chills below 20 degrees, Perch said they’re working around the clock to get the city’s most vulnerable residents out of the cold – or at least as safe as possible from the elements.
“We're making sure that we're getting hot coffee out to people daily. We're handing out hand warmers, socks. We're increasing our supply of warm clothing,” said Perch.
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“We have our homeless outreach team and some of our other outreach teams going out into the neighborhoods that we serve, letting people know it's a code blue, making sure that they know about the city shelter, resources, and other opportunities.”
The organization is also operating a warming center during special hours at their Kensington location, and there are additional warming centers around the city.
Perch said anybody who sees somebody who's out on the street, who's in need of resources during a code blue, should call the city's central homeless outreach intake line at 215-232-1984.
“They will send out dedicated homeless outreach teams anywhere in the city to engage folks and link them to available resources, including potentially our warming center as well as other additional winter beds that the city brings on during times like these.”