“It’s life or death, for sure,” Centro San Antonio’s General Manager.
SAN ANTONIO — There’s a significant effort underway in the heart of the city to show a little love to the unsheltered population.
City leaders are working with nonprofit and mutual aid groups to make sure nobody gets left out in the cold during the upcoming frigid weather, which is expected to last several days.
Mike Pacheco, the CEO of downtown’s Centro San Antonio, said for the next few days conditions could be killer.
“It’s critical. It’s life or death for sure,” Pacheco said.
Pacheco said members of the organizations Crisis Response Team started trying to get people into shelters Tuesday, before temperatures fell below freezing.
“It was a common response that they had. They said ‘It’s beautiful. It’s not going to freeze. It’s not going to get cold.’ So that was an obstacle in itself,” Pacheco said.
Using free shuttles, the team started using the promise of snacks to lure people out of danger.
“We’ve been doing what we can, giving them hot chocolate or breakfast snacks to help them get started and hopefully get them to Corazon Ministries,” Pacheco said.
Corazon is operating a shelter at their facility on the campus of Grace Lutheran Church at 504 Avenue East.
What’s usually a day center, has morphed into a resource hub that is open 23 hours a day during the cold emergency. They close for just one hour each day, at 6pm, to sanitize the building and convert a gathering space to a sleeping area.
Pacheco said people who were initially reluctant to come inside for help, changed their minds after a freezing night on the street. It’s a rescue effort that will continue while it is dangerously cold.
“The next four or five days we will be busy transporting and hopefully they can get a hot meal in their bodies before something else happens like hypothermia or just freezing,” Pacheco said.
The shuttle effort is one of many underway.
VIA is also offering fare free rides to shelters and there are a number of sites that are seeing lots of needy people.
A summary of statistics provided Wednesday shows:
- The city’s hotline, at 210-207-1799, received 62 calls for help during the overnight hours early Wednesday.
- The hotline will be operating 24 hours a day during the cold event, while hours for the city’s 3-1-1 service will be extended until 11 p.m. to connect residents to resources.
- 42 requests for rides came in, and they noted some calls came from bystanders asking for help for people found on the street.
- At the Bode Center on Rigsby, 36 people showed up to take advantage of a warm space to overnight, while other partner shelters welcomed 182 people.
Meanwhile at the corner of Zarzamora and Chihuahua, caring people from a number of community organizations gathered for the weekly Westside Wednesday event.
The free program offers faith, food, warm clothing and a number of health services.
Susana Segura of Bread and Blankets Mutual Aid said everyone can do simple things to help unsheltered people in their own neighborhoods.
“There’s unsheltered people staying near you all over the city of San Antonio. I encourage everybody if you have an extra blanket, an extra hoodie, an extra beanie, extra gloves…give them to that person that’s closest to you so that we’re not spending all this energy getting donations to a place,” Segura said, adding it’s much more efficient to give local.
Segura said since many unsheltered neighbors lack access to information, many were caught unaware of the sudden and drastic change in the weather.
“It’s a an emergency right now because people didn’t expect this to be so cold,” Segura said, adding “We are encouraging people to get to shelter.”
Listing the partners who help with the effort, Segura said Corazon Ministries has a leadership role and they are joined by UT Health professionals who do wound care.
“We also have the Ways of Christ Church and the discipleship program. They provide hot showers and food for people every Wednesday we’re here from 12 to 2 o’clock,” Segura said.
Segura’s group provides clothing, hygiene items, socks, gloves and underwear.
“Our greatest need year round is always under underclothing,” Segura said.
The need for donations of items for men is ever present.
“We always have an excess of women’s clothing, I think because women shop more and they donate more, but we have a shortage of men’s items. We need men’s pants, men’s sweatpants and hoodies,” Segura said.
Saying hypothermia sets in fast, Segura said now is the time for everyone to look out for their neighbors.
“We just have to take care of each other and if we help take care of each other, I think we can make a greater world,” Segura said.
Underscoring the need to check on neighbors, police in Balcones Heights said a team from Bexar County doing outreach work discovered the body of a man in a tent when they were handing out cold weather gear Tuesday evening.
The 22-year-old man, whose name has not been released yet, was found near an encampment under an elevated section of Interstate 10 in the area near Crossroads Blvd.
The medical examiner has not ruled on the man’s cause or manner of death yet, but police said they don’t believe it is weather related.
They said even though the man was found Tuesday evening before the deep cold set in, they believe he had been dead for two to three days.
The man’s next of kin have not been located yet.
Corazon Ministries, on Avenue East, has issued an appeal for more volunteers, especially anyone with medical skills.
More information about Bread and Blankets Mutual Aid can be found here.