Fresno faces a freeze warning this week. Why won’t it open warming shelters for homeless?
Dozens of homeless advocates want Fresno leaders to expand the city’s warming center operations through the winter.
On Monday, 60 homeless advocates, unhoused people and a local Fresno doctor gathered at the Ted C. Wills Community Center to urge city officials to raise the threshold for when the warming centers open. They’d also like to see a fourth warming center location in north Fresno.
National Weather Service has issued a freeze warning for the Central Valley this week. NWS Hanford is forecasting a low Monday evening around 34 degrees in the city of Fresno.
The warming centers are not projected to open this week, said city spokesperson Sontaya Rose.
According to city policy, the warming centers open from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. when temperatures drop below 35 degrees, based on NWS projections. The city is required to provide a 72-hour notice of when the shelters are open, though actual temperatures could change during this window.
Fresno area doctor Farah Karipineni said whether warming centers are open is a matter of public health as local hospital emergency departments are already overburdened.
“During the winter, cold and wet conditions make our already vulnerable people (living) outside even more at risk for hypothermia, frostbite and other conditions that are worsened by the cold. We ask the city to make warming centers more accessible, raise the temperature threshold,” Karipineni said.
Hypothermia can occur even at cool temperatures above 40°F if a person becomes chilled from rain, sweat, or being in cold water, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“We must do everything we can to help prevent worsening illness in our most vulnerable patients out in the cold with weakened immune systems,” Karipineni said.
A report by nonprofit newsroom Fresnoland found that in practice, the city’s policy is “confusing” and centers may not always open when actual temperatures drop below 35 degrees because it relies on forecasts to accommodate the 72-hour notification period.
The city operates warming centers at three locations: Maxie L. Parks Community Center 1802 E. California Ave.; Mosqueda Community Center 4670 E. Butler Ave. and Ted C. Wills Community Center 770 N. San Pablo Ave.
Cots, blankets, and pet cages are available, as well as free bus rides to and from the centers.
Fresno warming centers ‘severely underutilized,’ councilmember says
District 3 Councilmember Miguel Arias, who attended Monday’s press conference, said he acknowledges the city could better communicate the existing hours of operation for the warming centers. But he doesn’t think the council would consider expanding its operations at this time.
“Right now, they’re severely underutilized when they are open,” he said in a phone interview.
Arias said he visited the centers in his district when they were open last week and only saw four to five individuals using them. Demand was higher when the warming centers initially opened, Arias said, because the city didn’t have as many shelter beds as it does now.
Arias said homeless advocates should help the city fill the warming centers.
“Help us fill them so that we can demonstrate that the need and the utilization is there to justify expansion of services,” he said.
