City of Detroit extends overnight shelters, adds more beds amid bitter cold temperatures
The bitter, brutal cold weather has forced some Michigan cities, like Detroit, to extend overnight shelters for those who need it most through Feb. 1.
Last week, the City of Detroit took action to provide relief from the dangerous arctic air by activating three overnight standby shelters.
"Our standby shelter beds only come online when we have severe weather. Outside of the severe weather events, they do not exist," said Terra Linzner, director of Detroit's Housing Stability & Innovations Division.
Typically, the city adds an additional 50 beds to start. In this case, it had to add 200 more beds to meet the demand.
"We do have some sites that are full, and we have a process in place that if somebody were to approach to a standby shelter, and they didn't have space. They stay inside, they stay safe, they stay warm, and we provide transportation to a secondary site that they can stay at," Linzner said.
Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries worked with the city to open one of those stand-by shelters. CEO Chad Audi says the shelter typically has up to 700 beds throughout the year, but the extreme weather has forced them to increase that number.
"We had to extend and expand the services. So we are right now about 1050 every single day just for the shelter," Audi said.
The organization is also now using drop-in centers as shelters.
"It's just a temporary situation, but it's becoming more longer situation," Audi said.
Outside of Detroit, each municipality in Wayne County is responsible for establishing warming centers. Most utilize public libraries and recreation centers which have limited hours.
"For us, if it falls with below 36 or 37, we're just allowed to stay 24/7; they don't have to leave," Audi said.
Not all municipalities have overnight shelters. Staffing a challenge even for nonprofit-run shelters in Detroit.
"The cost is higher on us, and the challenge of the staff is always higher, because also we don't want, we don't want our own staff to be burned out," Audi said.
Some places, like Dearborn, use the police department as a warming center.
The lobby is open 24/7, but a spokesperson for the city says so far this year, no one has used it to escape the cold during the overnight hours.
That's not the case in Detroit.
"It has been, definitely, a different season than any other that we have seen in the last few years," Audi said.
Audi says the shelter could use more supplies like disinfectants, hygiene products, and monetary donations.