As weather turns frigid and the needy take refuge in shelters, people outnumber beds by hundreds

KENT SIEVERS/THE WORLD-HERALD

Kim, a resident at the Open Door Mission’s Lydia House, says she was “very lucky” to find shelter there. Even when there’s seemingly no space left, she says, “they find room for us.”


http://www.omaha.com/weather/as-weather-turns-frigid-and-the-needy-take-refuge-in/article_dde34b7e-8e94-5c07-abb8-b9a2628900d6.html


POSTED: WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2015 12:00 AM | UPDATED: 11:16 AM, WED DEC 30, 2015.
By Kevin Cole / World-Herald staff writer

Looking down 17th Street, Tim Sully spotted several people leaning into a bitter north wind as they struggled to reach the homeless shelter to spend the night.

“Even in the best of weather, we’re pretty full,” said Sully, director of development for the Siena-Francis House.

Monday night, he said, “with the freezing cold outside, we had 520 people for our 389 beds.”

The winter storm the people were escaping dropped wind chills into the single digits in Omaha and dumped 4½ inches of snow here. Forecasters expect temperatures, not just wind chills, to dip into the single digits at night through New Year’s Eve.

FULL story and photos at link.