Extreme cold shelter opens in Burlington as temperatures drop

Read the full article at mynbc5.com. Below is an excerpt.

Emergency shelters are activated when there is a risk of below-freezing temperatures. One shelter in Burlington planned for a full house Thursday night.

Sarah Russell and her staff at the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity have set up an extreme cold weather shelter at the Miller Center in Burlington. She said it has been a hard winter so far, especially for people who do not have somewhere warm to lay their heads.

"We operate this as a disaster response. It's a life-saving measure that we take to avoid exposure, death or injury," Russell said. "Last winter, we operated for a total of nine nights over five different activation periods. This year, after this weekend, we will have operated for eight nights so far. We're looking to beat that nine-night max that we had last year."

In a perfect world, Russell said emergency shelters would not be necessary, but there is just not enough space in the city's permanent shelters for everyone. She said those shelters would need more beds; a lot more.

"If we were to look at that data, the approximate need for shelter capacity to increase in Chittenden County is about 200 beds," Russell said.

Mary Danko is the director at Burlington's Fletcher Free Library. Their space offers a temporary sanctuary for those looking to get out of the cold during the daytime. The library is one of the stops for the Miller Center shuttle that brings people right to the emergency shelter.

"We've just seen so many folks that are chronically unhoused like we've never seen before. These cold temperatures are just unbearable for people," Danko said.

Like CVOEO, executive director of End Homelessness Vermont, Brenda Siegel, said the need for these pop-up emergency shelters is part of a bigger problem.

"I think it's really important to note that it creates a lot more work for providers and advocates across the state to get people into shelter, rather than if they were in shelter in the first place. The work that providers are doing is incredible across the state, and it's still not enough," Siegel said.

The Miller Center, when activated, is open from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. Additional resources and shelter hours can be found online.