Being homeless is never easy.
But when the weather turns bitterly cold as it did last week, daily life for men and women without a place to live can become is even more grim - even deadly.
That's why the city opened up an overflow severe-weather homeless shelter last week in the Rainier Room at the Seattle Center, said Al Poole, the city's Homeless Intervention director.
The Seattle Center temporary shelter was added to the two regular shelters: City Hall at Fourth and James, along with the Frye Hotel for homeless women and the overflow shelter at the Compass Center at Alaskan Way and Washington.
The Downtown Emergency Center also opened its doors to the homeless early last week, but it was closed down almost immediately, and homeless people were directed to the Seattle Center, Poole said. The Seattle Center shelter, with space for 80 people, worked well, he added. "We didn't have to turn anyone away."
Indeed, the shelter was over capacity at 103 people last Wednesday night, Nov. 29, according to John McDonough, a Salvation Army employee who was managing the facility.
Emergency shelters are opened up if the temperature hits 32 degrees or below, if it snows or if it rains two days in a row, he said. The various shelters keep track of what's going on with other facilities, McDonough added. "We stay in contact with each other."
The shelters - which provided thick mats and blankets - opened up at 9 p.m., and on Thursday, Nov. 30, there was already was a huge crowd of men and a single woman on the other side of the room who had started to settle in for the night at the Seattle Center.
Wayne, a homeless man at the Seattle Center shelter, said he had stayed in the past at a Salvation Army shelter. "This one is a little nicer."
But sometimes finding shelter space is impossible, and the man said he deals with cold weather as best as he can when he ends up on the streets.
"Well, I grew up with the Boy Scouts," the man said of a basic grounding in survival skills. There is another technique he uses: "I try to keep moving around." That cuts down on getting enough shuteye, the man conceded. "I'm hoping to get a couple hours here."
"I'm used to cold weather, said Mel, another homeless man at the Seattle Center shelter Thursday night. But Mel also has coping skills after being on the street for several years. "I hung out at the airport a couple nights ago," he said, for example.
Mel said he gets a Social Security check every month but can't find an affordable place to live. He points to the growing trend of developers tearing down affordable housing and replacing it with condominiums as the reason.
And Mel charged that both Mayor Greg Nickels and King County Executive Ron Sims favor the developers and the well-heeled at the expense of the homeless. "They couldn't care less about anybody else," he said. "It's time to replace 'em. They've got to go."
Luther, another homeless man at the shelter, said he had spent years on the streets. "It's hard," Luther said of dealing with frigid weather. "I'm from Chicago, by the way."
He tries to stay in shelters when the weather turns dicey, but that's not always possible, Luther added. "I buy winter clothes (instead)." Like Mel, Luther also criticized the city for not doing enough for people who don't have anyplace to live. "To me, it should be more better than it is for the homeless."
The city is doing the best it can, according to Poole. That included a police teams that went out looking for homeless people to tell them about the cold-weather shelters, he said of a proactive step that met with only limited success.
Some of them may have been approached more than once, but police told 130 homeless people about the shelters, Poole said. "But the point is, only 20 took them up on it."
Among those least likely to use a shelter, he said, are homeless people who live in greenbelt encampments.
"Generally speaking, encampment people are more independent, hardier and have significant problems beyond being homeless," Poole said. Still, there are limits. "I think if we had a blizzard, we'd have people from Kinnear Park here," he added.
Sometimes seeking shelter space is a life-or-death decision, Poole noted. Homeless people dying from exposure is not unheard of, although no one has died this year that he knows of, Poole said. But he said that last year there were.
Poole said shelter staffers "from top to bottom" really make an effort to serve the homeless during cold weather. The effort has attracted attention, too. "I get calls from all over the country about how the cold-weather shelters work," he said.
Pacific Publishing reporter Russ Zabel can be reached at editor@ capitolhilltimes.com.
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