Homeless service centers around the downtown and Isthmus area, including The Madison Salvation Army, are preparing for an influx of homeless residents due to plummeting temperatures.
Local homeless shelters are making exceptions to their rules to accommodate the growing number of homeless Madison residents who need shelter from the frigid temperatures.
“Every winter, whenever it’s 20 degrees or below, we accept everybody,” Salvation Army shelter and housing coordinator Karen Potnek said. “So, we are well prepared for [the cold weather].”
Porchlight, another Madison homeless shelter, will provide temporary emergency shelter to single men at its drop-in shelter and two overflow shelters at Grace Episcopal Church.
Porchlight usually enforces a 60 night limit for drop-in use per person in a year, according to its website. Like the Salvation Army, Porchlight also has a cold weather exemption for nights when temperatures fall to 20 degrees or less with wind chill.
Additionally, Potnek said the number of people visiting the shelter has risen all through the winter but has not necessarily spiked in the last few days of extreme cold.
“When it’s bitter cold like it is today, we don’t tend to typically get more people,” Potnek said. “The same people who are using the shelter have used it before.”
Shelters are always concerned about how extreme weather conditions will affect the homeless community, according to Potnek.
“We have a fear throughout the year of the cold weather, or in summer with the hot temperatures, or just being vulnerable out on the streets,” Potnek said.
Potnek said the Salvation Army is currently looking for donations of blankets and money for food since the number of donations decreases after Christmas.
