PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — With a deep freeze forecast for the rest of the week, the city has declared a Code Blue, opened shelters and assembled outreach teams to give people who are homeless a warm, safe place to go.
The city has opened 20 recreation centers, senior centers and libraries to serve as “warming centers.” Two new centers in Juniata and Kensington were activated on Sunday.
“This cold is not just uncomfortable,” said city Managing Director Adam Thiel. “It is deadly. It is dangerous.”
Speaking at the Juniata Older Adult Center, Thiel said these subfreezing temperatures are a matter of life and death for people who need shelter.
Find a warming center online, or call the city's Homeless Street Outreach Team at 215-232-1984.
“In addition to creating these warming centers — the new warming centers in addition to the ones we already had — we’ve expanded the number of shelter beds that are available.”
Normally 3,300 city shelter beds are available in the winter, but Cheryl Hill, the executive director of the Office of Homeless Services, says 125 more were added this week.
“We were able to provide snacks and food and blankets and shelter for those individuals,” Hill said. “And it’s not just a warming center, but it also gives us access to be able to provide services.”
Including finding them a stable place to live.
Health Commissioner Palak Ravel-Nelson says staffers went into the field to distribute “warming kits” — lip balm, gloves, hats — “so that folks can be warm while they’re being transported,” she said.
“Or if they choose not to come in, they at least have some means of keeping themselves warm.”
Thiel says 43 people took advantage of the warming centers on Sunday, but in Monday’s snow, the number grew to 1,000.