As temperatures drop around the country, cities and counties have an even more urgent imperative to shelter thousands of people who otherwise face winter on the streets. Responses from local governments, and from service providers, vary widely. But the idea that even one person could freeze to death for lack of shelter is an indictment of national failure.
A common point of contention for local governments concerns the thresholds, such as time of year and temperature, for when emergency winter shelters will open. Donald Whitehead Jr., executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, told Filter that he hopes cities will be more accommodating, when even less extreme temperatures can still be dangerous for people to sleep outside.
In Denver, Colorado, for instance, lawmakers have expanded the winter shelter program relative to before. Shelters will now be open both night and day, when the overnight temperature is below 25 degrees—which, of course, is still 7 degrees below freezing.
“Twenty-five degrees is draconian. We know that people have died from exposure in San Francisco at 50 degrees.”
“There’s always a discussion [of where the threshold should be]—25 degrees is draconian in my opinion,” Whitehead said. “Most cities stop at 32 degrees, which is freezing … We know that people have died from exposure in San Francisco at 50 degrees. It seems very short sighted for a community to have a target that low. Hopefully it won’t result in a tragedy.”
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has also changed its approach for the coming winter, by putting together a committee of experts and homelessness advocates. As a result, Milwaukee County has expanded the availability of winter warming rooms. They are open every night from November 25 through March 31, regardless of the outside temperature.
Eva Welch works directly with unhoused people in Milwaukee as co-director of Street Angels, a nonprofit service provider. She praised the city’s approach in planning ahead, but noted that there still isn’t enough capacity. There will be room for about 250 people, when she estimates that 400 beds are needed.
“It’s promising, this was probably our best year ever,” Welch told Filter. “There has been a warming room committee that’s meeting every single day. There’s a lot of planning going into it that in previous years [was lacking].”
“There’s a lot of thought going into the meals that are provided, and the supplies that are needed,” she continued. “In years prior, it was simply [left to] the people hosting the warming rooms. There’s a lot more city and county involvement, compared to 10 years ago when we first started.” Street Angels provides clothing, food and other necessary supplies to homeless individuals, and is supplying meals directly to two of Milwaukee’s warming centers.
“You can come in intoxicated, as you are. The only policy is you can’t drink or use while you’re there.”
Shelly Sarasin, as co-director of Street Angels, serves on the city’s warming room committee. One common barrier to accessing shelters is policies that turn people away—placing them in danger—for use of alcohol, cigarettes or vapes, and other drugs.
In Milwaukee, “All the warming rooms except Tippecanoe Presbyterian Church [which is private], are the lowest barrier,” Sarasin told Filter. “You can come in intoxicated, as you are. The only policy is you can’t drink or use while you’re there. They are not turning anyone away.”
Providers in Kentucky, meanwhile, are dealing with both falling temperatures and politicians’ demands for a harder crackdown on homeless people. In April, the state legislature passed House Bill 5, which made numerous changes to the state’s criminal code and created a “criminal street camping” offense.
The so-called “Safer Kentucky Act” was blasted by the local ACLU chapter as “an extremely bloated collection of regressive policies and regurgitated ideas that have proven ineffective in the past.” The Republican-controlled legislature overrode the veto of Governor Andy Beshear (D) to make it law.
The law won’t take effect until August 2025, however, buying homelessness providers some time to prepare. In Lexington, the Catholic Action Center (CAC) is working with the city to help place people in hotel rooms, in addition to running its own shelter.
Ginny Ramsey, the CAC’s director, expressed both affection for her hometown and frustration at authorities’ failure to stem a housing crisis.
“I love our community and it’s the most compassionate community in the world, and that’s why we exist,” she told Filter. The CAC doesn’t normally receive public funds and is funded instead by private supporters. “We’ve been able to provide 2.1 million nights of shelter in 25 years, and 10 million meals, all by donations. People care in Lexington—but the problem we have is the [lack of government] recognition that more needs to be done.”
“This is a more critical winter than we’ve ever experienced. In our 25 years of outreach, we’ve never seen numbers like we’re seeing now, of people unsheltered.”
Lexington is trying a different approach to meet people’s needs for the coming winter, Ramsey explained. The city previously operated a 24-hour, low-barrier winter shelter, but has now been forced to close it because it couldn’t secure a location. Instead the city government is implementing an emergency winter shelter plan using vacant hotel rooms. It’s working with eight local providers—including the CAC—to help people get placed.
Unsurprisingly, people in need outnumber the available hotel rooms. Ramsey explained that everyone has to fill out an application, then the city determines who has the highest need. Currently 350 people are on a waitlist.
There are some other options, and Ramsey said that everyone is welcome at the Catholic Action Center’s shelter, including people who are inebriated or have been using drugs. Staff are equipped with naloxone, and recently used it to reverse an overdose. The shelter has an outdoor smoking and vaping area, too, though it does not permit on-site drug use.
The CAC shelter, however, has already filled its 117 beds.
“This is a more critical winter than we’ve ever experienced,” Ramsey said. “In our 25 years of outreach, we’ve never seen numbers like we’re seeing now, of people unsheltered.” The CAC conducts its own local survey, and in 2024 counted over 3,000 unhoused people in the city of Lexington. That’s a higher figure than official counts done by the federal government, Ramsey explained, because it includes people in institutional settings—like residential treatment or jail—who will become homeless when released, as well as “couch hoppers”.
“What’s happened in the last two years is the rents have been raised and [there is a] lack of affordable housing,” Ramsey said. “We have many people who have never experienced homelessness that are now … The other thing we see is elderly and disabled. What I’ve watched is the baby boomer generation that lived on the margins have now fallen into not having stable housing.”
“Our community partners are accustomed to stepping in and bridging the gap for the government. The alternative is, people die.”
Whitehead emphasized that it is completely unacceptable for anyone not to be provided with shelter in freezing temperatures. Though he praised the proactive efforts of cities like Milwaukee, he said it’s still not enough. In some cases, when there is proof of people suffering cold-related injuries or illness, cities will take emergency action to increase beds at public locations like recreation centers. Private entities like churches and other organizations, he said, also have a big responsibility.
“In Cincinnati, Ohio, the churches in that community get together to do a faith-based initiative to house people,” he said. “That is the hope—our community partners are accustomed to stepping in and bridging the gap for the government. The alternative is, people die.”
Such necessary but unregulated moves sometimes result in clashes, however. In 2023, a pastor in the town of Bryan, Ohio, was criminally charged over his efforts to shelter people in his church. Authorities found multiple building code violations, and argued he was putting people at more risk by housing them. He faced penalties including fines and six months in prison.
The pastor filed a federal lawsuit against the city, and in February 2024 the city dropped all charges.
“There are zoning and residency laws, [but] those have to be ignored,” Whitehead said, without wishing to comment specifically on the Bryan case.
“We’re talking about peoples’ lives here,” he concluded. “We have seen resistance to laws that endanger peoples’ lives on many occasions. In Cincinnati, we’re I’m from, we took over a building in a blizzard that was an unoccupied former Teamsters building, and we kept it for 26 years [despite] all kinds of protests from the city.”
Photograph via Culver City, California
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