As temperatures drop to frigid and dangerous levels throughout the Denver metro area, those most vulnerable to the cold are thankful they will have a place to warm up this weekend.
“I have a tent, and I'm very efficient,” Michelle Bell said. “So, when it's warm enough, I go out and sleep.”
After six months of living on the streets, Michelle Bell is used to braving the frigid temperatures.
“It was so cold,” Bell said. “It made me want to cry, but I was still alive.”
CBS
Still, she's smiling Friday as she packs up all her belongings outside St. Francis Center and prepares to stay at one of Denver's emergency shelters.
“It's better to have than not to have,” she said. “I just hope we all get help.”
“We're all sticking together and trying to work as a team and stay out of the cold weather,” said Keith Stevens, who is also looking for one of the city's cold weather activation shelters. “Because it's hard to see people losing limbs here.”
While people experiencing homelessness gathered at the St. Francis Center to wait for buses that would take them to the city's two hotel shelters, the Denver Navigation Center and New Directions, people like Paul Schmidt were spending their day handing out free coffee and bagels to people experiencing homelessness. Warm up the guests.
CBS
“All they want to do is be treated like humans. Give them a chance,” Schmidt said.
It was the eighth day of the city's cold weather activation plan, according to Jim Boberschmidt, director of day center programs at St. Francis Center.
“We will stay open until 9 p.m., people can come in any time during the day starting at 6:30 p.m., and the city sends out shuttles and they start transporting until 9 p.m.,” Boberschmidt said.
Activating the city's cold-weather shelters often drains their resources, as they become a source of shelter during the day while guests wait to be bused to overnight shelters, Boberschmidt says.
He added: “On cold nights like these, this is tantamount to saving human limbs and human lives, quite frankly.”
CBS
These cold nights seem strange to some of the newcomers who have taken to the streets like Carlos Alberto Colobón Cortez.
“Here you can feel the cold. It's cold in Ecuador, but not like this,” Cortez said in Spanish. “Thank God we have a place where we can rest.”
Sheltering is open 24 hours a day this weekend at Denver Navigation Campus and New Directions from 7pm Friday until 10am Tuesday, January 16.
Other shelters can be found at denvergov.org/findshelter with expanded capacity at front door shelters including:
- For single men – Lawrence Street Community Center, 2222 Lawrence Street.
- For single women – Samaritan House, 2301 Lawrence Street.
- For young people from 15 to 20 years old – Urban Peak, 2100 Stout Street.
