ST. LOUIS — Community groups, volunteers, and city workers accelerated efforts this week to shelter the homeless, with temperatures expected to drop to 3 degrees on Saturday morning.
The need is year-round, advocates and officials say. But when weather is extreme, the urgency grows. By Friday afternoon, dozens had arrived at Safe Haven, a temporary cold weather shelter at ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ University.
“This is a blessing,†said Robert Cadwalender, a 52-year-old former truck driver who came for the day to warm up. Like several others there Friday, he’d spent the night at a different facility that closes each morning.
“During the day, I come here and wait this out,†he said, gesturing to a snow-covered Olive Street.
Many of the places people could normally seek daytime refuge — such as libraries and fast food restaurants — have been closed during the storm. Because of that, city-run shelters operate 24 hours a day, said Yusef Scoggin, the director of ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½â€™ Department of Human Services. Some people are also being housed in hotels and motels.
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Every night that temperatures fall below freezing, the city operates a warming bus at 13th Street and Chestnut Street between 5:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. The bus takes residents to shelters with available beds. The warming bus was not there Thursday evening because of snow removal efforts, so instead city employees waited there and called Lyft or taxi rides for people who showed up.
The city of ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ funds just over 600 shelter beds. Capacity is supplemented by other temporary facilities, like Safe Haven.
Safe Haven is run by a , said Tim Huffman, an associate professor at ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ University. It has opened periodically throughout the winter during times of especially cold weather, in a SLU event space at 3050 Olive Street in Midtown.
On Friday afternoon, a group of local doctors came by to offer basic care for things like frostbite, and to try to connect people to primary care services.
Dr. Barbara Lutey, a Washington University physician in the division of general medicine, helped a resident apply to receive medical services through Affinia Healthcare, a local federally qualified health center.
“Whatever I can do to get them connected,†Lutey said. “A lot of people get lost from the system.â€
Near the front door, plastic crates were filled with donated socks, toothbrushes, and miscellaneous clothing items — but they’d be gone soon, predicted Delanie Muenchen, a volunteer from Tent Mission STL.
“We’ve really been flying through donations,†Muenchen said.
Throughout the afternoon, Muenchen served alternately as a maintenance person, a friend, and a social worker. She picked up discarded items off the floor. She complimented someone’s jacket. She called around for medical services for a resident who had burns on his hands.
The resident, Chad Gill, 40, sat and waited, chatting with his friend, Rico Norful. The pair had met about a week earlier, and had been helping each other during the cold snap. One of the biggest challenges for them during the storm has been transportation, said Norful, who uses a wheelchair.
“I think people have misconceptions about homeless people,†Norful said. “They profile you. Not knowing the situation, they really don’t give you a chance.â€
“They think it’s automatically your fault,†Gill said.
Norful said he wants to see more funding for programs to support the homeless, and more permanent housing options. Many have just fallen on hard times, he said, and need some stability to help them move forward.
“Just good people in a bad situation,†Norful said.
“You got that right,†Gill said.
For assistance, please call the United Way at 2-1-1. If it is an emergency, call 9-1-1.
